Railsea discussion conclusion : Ch 73 - end.

[Traveller]

Here's a thread for your final thoughts; the last bunch of chapters, and the book as a whole.

[Traveller]

Right, here are the references I managed to catch: Kidnapped and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Robinson Crusoe (a very funny reference! -mentioned in an earlier thread) by Daniel Defoe, not sure what else,but here is the list of the most important influences as supplied by CM himself:

Joan Aiken, John Antrobus, the Awdrys Sr. & Jr., Catherine Besterman, Lucy Lane Clifford, F. Tennyson Jesse, Erich Kästner, Ursula le Guin, John Lester, Penelope Lively, Herman Melville (doh!), Spike Milligan, Charles Platt, & the Strugatsky Brothers.

Did you guys manage to spot any of those? ETA(besides of course, the oh so obvious Moby Dick by Herman Melville - thanks for waking me up, Derek)

[Derek, Miéville fan-boi]

Yeah, I got a few Melville references :-)

Still trying to get around to starting Roadside Picnic. Perhaps I'll manage to find something before I forget Railsea!

[Traveller]

Derek wrote: "Yeah, I got a few Melville references :-)

"
Does facepalm on self... I need more sleep. My back's been out since I broke my leg and it keeps me awake at night. I'm not kidding!
I've really been so forgetful and dozy lately.. :P

[Derek, Miéville fan-boi]

My major thought on finishing was about how much I misremembered, only a year after I first read it. I distinctly remember those &s being used inside words. Now that I own an epub, I am able to say with certainly that he only ever used ampersands as conjunctions (maybe they edited all the others out in the e-book — yeah, that's probably it…). Maybe some day he'll write about an ex-con trying to stay on the straight & narrow, & replace all the 'or's with '|'s.

I'd forgotten that Naphi really didn't lose an arm to her philosophy (I do wonder how she pulled off the deception: while it's clear that all crew are hired on on a per-cruise basis, many of them have been with her practically forever. Somebody should have wondered when she got the wound!) It came as such a surprise to me, when I came across it in the second reading, that it was almost painful not to go back to an earlier thread to shout out the spoiler!

[Allen]

On Naphi's arm, it did seem a little too surprising, but I really enjoyed the turn of events since it freed up the crew's philosophy - they could finally go exploring. I think throughout the book, we get glimpses into characters who are almost but not quite ready to go off on their own ...

[Traveller]

Allen wrote: "On Naphi's arm, it did seem a little too surprising, but I really enjoyed the turn of events since it freed up the crew's philosophy - they could finally go exploring. I think throughout the book, ..."

I enjoyed the arm twist. No doubt I'm missing an allusion there, but I suspect CM was twisting someone's arm there. Geddit? *cough* :P

Oh, and I forgot to mention the allusion to The Swiss Family Robinson.

..and the CM "quotes" thread as discussed in an earlier thread, which is here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...