There aren’t enough stars for this book. It is so unsettlingly strange and fantastical yet also believable and authentic, with great characters, brilliant descriptions and a story that just keeps giving. The writer is going to be huge I think. Brilliant

A wonderful, atmospheric Gothic tale.

It's the closing years of the 19th century and the Victorian world is bursting with new inventions. But in this alternate universe story, all is not what it seems. In eastern Europe there exists The Wastelands, a wilderness between Beijing and Moscow, broken only by a train line, used by the Great Trans-Siberian Express, built to carry cargo but which now transports anyone who dares to cross the Wastelands.

This is a story of dubious characters, old secrets and hidden conspiracies. And as the train makes its way across the country, the passengers find themselves fighting for survival. I'm not sure if I was expecting Murder on the Orient Express or an episode of Snowpiercer, but this book surprised me. In a good way. On the surface it's a Steampunk adventure, but below it's a commentary on Victorian hubris, Capitalism and avarice. It's a complex tale, somewhat dense in places but never less than mesmerising. There's an amount of commentary on first-world vs third-world, but not overtly preachy.

This is the author's debut novel - I'm already wondering where she goes from here. Definitely recommended for fans of Erin Morgenstern and Anna Mazzola.

Very strange and surreal but also a wonderful build-up, with every page I wanted to know more about the characters and the ‘Wastelands’

An interesting debut, with an intriguing premise and a cast of compelling characters. The plot sadly trails off a bit toward the end, but a promising new author.

Ok this was one strange book and I’m not sure how I feel. It has such a unique concept - an alternate history with a large swathe of Siberia being like a magical land and a train that risks travelling through it. We follow multiple POVs throughout the story and their travels through this mysterious land. This book was well written but I think the story was a bit too weird for me.

Stunning Immersion into another world. Steam Punk meets speculative fiction, and so very much more

I absolutely loved this, its wonderful cast of characters, its invention of a recognisable world from Victorian times, but one which also showed all the venal horrors of the vested interests of global capitalism, of greed run riot, of how we plunder the planet, and how, also some kind of hope might exist if we could only feel our connectivity to that planet, and to each other.

Beautifully written, it has just the right amount of satisfying weirdness, and a cast of characters all well delineated both recognisable and unique

I must say, closing the final page, I felt utterly bereft, and immediately would have liked to have been able to erase my memory of the book so that I could read it all again in the state of innocence and adventure a new book gives

We have a mythical Trans Siberian railway, linking Beijing and Moscow. The problem is though, that the landscape across which the train travels, back and forth, is by all accounts, dangerous, filled with odd lifeforms which might ‘infect us’ there are huge high walls/barriers/holding pens at start and end of journey ensure that nothing from ‘outside’ will contaminate those who live within the great connected cities. I thought of the horrible rhetoric of populism, of the Walls which get built to keep ‘them’ out of our place, whether these are actual physical structures or bureaucracy laced with horrible rhetoric and ideology behind it.

There is nothing heavy handed or over obvious in the way Brooks does this, she doesn’t smack you round the head with all of that. In fact, it is absolutely easy to read this as part of a sealed off adventure mystery – like a country house murder, or Murder on the Orient Express (those tropes are woven in) But I would say the ‘so much MORE than just that or this’ is in there for any reader who wants to find that.

I envy all future readers of this. I don’t think I’ve surrendered to a this kind of weird invented vibrant, real and coherent ‘new’ world since The Night Circus.

This is nothing like that, except in its glorious coherence in its own weird creation

Of course, the challenge is that inevitably the next book I read is likely to feel a little flat, as I’m still ‘infected’ by the seduction of this. Was there something from out the Wastelands somehow hidden in the pages?

Thank you, hugely, Sarah Brooks, for such glorious inventiveness. And the publisher. And Netgalley

Really interesting and sort of like Annihilation but on a train. The story was satisfyingly twisty and I really enjoyed the weirdness of the Wasteland.

This was a fantastic read, with the author building a fantastically whimsical world, with the ending becoming more chaotic and yet more beautiful. The prose was amazing, and the characters were all very developed, with their own motivations and feelings.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it! The train setting had an incredible atmosphere, it was grand, enchanting and mysterious. I loved getting to know the characters and their motivations for travelling on the train, and grew to care about a lot of them. My favourite thing about it was that the book is set long after the Trans-Siberian Express had been established, so it had an interesting history that was drip-fed throughout the book, which really added to the world-building.
I would recommend this book to readers who like atmospheric novels with casts of interesting characters, whether or not they are fantasy readers. The book was intelligent but accessible and I felt compelled to read on.
My one slight criticism is that there are two characters, The Professor and Henry Grey, who I thought were one person for a long time until a point in the narrative made me realise they were not. I don't think this is something that was deliberate (although I could be wrong) but it did confuse me a few times until I made the realisation. A colleague also had this issue so I think it would be helpful to have it made clear earlier as there are lots of characters to keep track of, the reader may need a little more help.
I'm grateful I got to read an advanced copy of this book and will be recommending it, I also want to say that I absolutely love the cover as well.

This is one of those titles it's really hard to review and rate, because it's not quite what I expected. I was expecting some kind of rollicking steam punk adventure/ homage to golden age detectives (and if anyone knows anything like this send it my way) but instead I read a slow book infused with magical realism with hints of steam punk, This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it - I did - but I had to readjust my expectations throughout,

So, the premise. A wasteland full of mystery and horror across what used to be Siberia, walled in and forbidden, with only one way across, a gigantic train linking China and Russia, run by a rich and influential corporation. The train is the stuff of legends, each journey not without risk, not least because if it is ever breached then the train and all in it will be left sealed in the wasteland to avoid contaminating the rest of the world. And something did happen on the last journey, something that is only talked about in whispers and rumours, something that meant many people thought the train would never run again. But money always wins and there is too much at stake for the owners to simply shut their lucrative route down.

Beautifully written, uniquely plotted and incredibly descriptive - recommended.

loved the title of this novel and the first chapter instantly got my attention. It’s easy to imagine the luxury train carriages to look like the orient express. add this to fantasy and horrific occurrences on the journey, and the story seems set to be interesting.
I did find, however, that there is an awful lot of buiild up and explanation about what was potentially going to happen in the wasteland, but once we got up there the finale didn’t quite match the expectations that I had developed
There were some elements of the story in common with the Snowpiercer Netflix series where humanity is stuck on a constantly moving train overcoming the difficulties in the surrounding countryside in the case of the Netflix series. The issue was freezing cold, whereas in this novel there was a more supernatural difficulty with strange monstrous creatures and the ability to alter peoples brain activity in someway.
I have to admit this, I don’t usually read fantasy books and there were some elements to this story which were along these lines. For this reason, I enjoyed the more naturalistic parts of the story more than the monsters in the wastelands.
I think this book would make a great TV series which might be able to be extended with additional details about what is going on in the surrounding countryside in the wasteland. The book describes the train and its passengers so well that I can imagine the visual effect of seeing this bought to life.
I read an early copy of the book on NetGalley UK, the book is published in the UK on the 20th of June 2023 by Orion publishing group.

This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, Goodreads and my book blog bionicsarahsbooks.wordpress.con after publication it, will also appear on Amazon, UK

I absolutely loved The Cautious Traveler's Guide to The Wastelands!
It was so good and unique, It made me really struggle to put the book down as I wanted to keep going!
The writing style was beautiful so I'll definitely be checking out what the author writes next.

I loved the characters and thought they were all done really well.
I also loved how the book was a mix of genres with mystery, some steam punk elements and more!

I definitely highly recommend reading this book as it was amazing!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

Thanks for the early ARC for which I will post an honest review. I was really looking forward to reading this one, it sounded interesting, complex and something completely different. Sadly it just wasn't for me. It was slow and for me never really got going, it was too bogged down in description with no real point or plot that made me want to care. I enjoyed the setting and the world created, the characters were also well thought out and developed. Others may enjoy this and I encourage you to make up your own mind, but sadly it just didn't do it for me.

The Wastelands are an area in between Beijing and Moscow, and only one train crosses through them, bearing the best protection that they possess. The wastelands are full of potentially harmful air, toxins and creatures and travellers who make the journey must try and guard themselves against the wastelands sickness. A gentleman wrote a Guide to the Wastelands and now many tourists make the journey to get a glimpse of the place for themselves.
The journey is told mostly through the eyes of the train child and a passenger allowing for differing perspectives and understandings and suppositions.
This journey is mystical and surprising and Brooks creates a world of suspense by detailing the unknown and the human fascination with the unknown. Truly engaging and captivating.

3.5 stars

It took me a while to read this.
I'd put it aside, come back to it, put it aside again.
It had parts that were mysterious, and magical and exciting.
Then parts that were just OK.
Mostly though, it felt like a big adventure that our characters were on.
It's worth jumping aboard for the ride. 😁
Stunning cover too

I loved this book, possibly one of the best I've read recently. Such a delicious mix of mystery, magical realism, steam-punk, and perfectly detailed characters. It's impossible to tell you how wondrous it is; you just have to go and read it for yourself. Totally recommended.

A breathtaking historical fantasy set on a train crossing the mysterious Wastelands of Siberia. Unique, unsettling, compulsive - a highly accomplished debut; Sarah Brooks is one to watch.