The concept of The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands had me intrigued. It's a gothic historical fantasy set on a train through the Wastelands from China to Russia. In this story we follow multiple passengers who board the train on the first journey since a horrific accident that occurred on the train with each character holding their own secrets.

However, I was left a bit disappointed by the overall execution. The atmosphere was spot on with being spooky and unsettling. However, the characters and the plot where what fell flat for me. I struggled to engage with the characters as they all felt at a distance from the reader. The plot is very slow moving as well. Typically I enjoy a slower moving plot, but without the character connection it fell flat for me.

I think if you enjoy books that are more vibes only, this may be for you. But if you are looking for a fast paced plot, it could be disappointing for you.

2.5 stars rounded up

Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for providing me a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Cautious Guide... is a pleasant story, full of mystery. It has a cozy vibe for me and I enjoyed it overall. The whole experience was destroyed by the narration, because it was very much uneven. The narrator used commas in random places, and periods didn't exist for her. It was easy to get lost and become irritated on the way how the story was presented.

I didn't know much about this one before I started listening, but I was quickly sucked into this steam punk sci-fi story. Rich development of a world but still manages to highlight the ever present battle between environmentalists and corporations. Well suited for the audiobook format, as well.

Audiobook ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands was an excellent listen. It was a fun romp with a great case of characters. I loved the adventure.

For fans of:
- Thornhedge

This book follows a mismatched group of strangers as they ride through Siberia from Beijing to St. Petersberg on a curious train. On this journey, readers watch these characters and the relationships they build with each other, the train, and the Wasteland, which calls to the travelers like a siren song. This book has themes of conservationism and greed, and brings the Wastelands to life in a tangible way. As they dive into each of the characters with their unique stories and motivations, readers will embark on their own journey of a lifetime.

This book includes:
- ensemble cast with several POVs
- found family
- a quest through a foreign land
- a little bit of class politics
- themes reflecting on human modernity's impact on nature
- commentaries on capitalist/corporate greed

I have never read a book like "The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands." This book has such a mesmerizing, dreamy feel that draws a reader in, much like how the Wastelands draw in the travelers. I found the book to be excellently written, with powerful prose and compelling character motivations. I particularly loved Maya and the cartographer character, IYKYK. The deeper themes were poignant, topical, and beautifully intertwined with the narrative without being overstated. I am deeply enamored by this story and the more I think about it, the more I love it. I am excited to share this book with my friends and followers.

I received this audiobook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sarah Brooks for the opportunity to review this book. This review is also available on my GoodReads - check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863

I wanted to love this book, but it was trying to do too many things at once. It is hard to be mystery, fantasy, horror, and literary fiction on their own, let alone together- it never found its footing for me. The pacing was also quite slow until about the 70% mark when it just flew.

Both Katie Leung and Kobna Holbrook-Smith are brilliant narrators, and I wouldn't have stuck it through without them.

Pace was too slow for me to be fully invested in the characters and adventure. Which was a let down. The book had amazing bones! And an incredible description! I hope it does well!

Sarah Brooks' "The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands" weaves together historical fantasy, sci-fi, and horror in a gripping tale of a treacherous train journey through the mysterious Wastelands. With vivid, immersive descriptions and a plot that delves into madness and memory loss, the story is both eerie and captivating.

Katie Leung and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s narration brings the characters and the eerie setting to life, though the dense writing and slow plot progression might feel overwhelming at times. Despite this, the unique setting and genre blend make it a compelling listen for fans of richly detailed worlds.

This feels like it was written by an AI that was provided with descriptions of recent popular fantasy books and asked to replicate them programmatically. The pieces are mostly there - a vaguely magical train, characters with mysterious past, an evil corporation…. But there is no attempt to flesh out any of the multiple characters into someone whose goals are worth rooting for (or even fully understood). And the particular evils perpetrated by the villainous company are so poorly defined and generic that I was genuinely surprised that there was not a scene of tying a damsel to the train tracks. Give this one a miss - there are too many great, good, and even OK books along the same lines that are a better use of your time.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

2.5 stars

I expected this book to be a hit for me. I adore historical fantasy, and the premise sounded unique and fresh.

The Trans-Siberian Express traverses the Wastelands, where mythical creatures live. A lifelong passenger, Zhang Weiwei can’t remember what happened on the last trip but knows it was harrowing. As the train prepares for a new voyage, several new passengers have secret agendas to carry aboard. Weiwei soon learns the Wastelands aren’t as dangerous as the passengers on the train.

I’m not much of a DNFer, especially with audio, but several times I toyed with the idea of calling it quits. I loved the bits of atmosphere and whimsical nature, but I was bored. The story is mostly contained to the passengers, leaving little time to build what the Wastelands are truly like.

Because of how many characters there are, they all felt surface-level. Even WeiWei, my favorite of the bunch, was still flat. If the character’s motivations or end goals had been more aligned with each other, it would have worked better in my opinion.

Despite my disappointment, I will check out the author’s future works. She has so much potential; this is only her debut.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance copy! All opinions and thoughts expressed are my own.

This is an absolutely terrific concept for a fantasy novel, and in some ways I think the book really achieved what it set out to do. In other ways, it doesn’t quite get there.

The premise is excellent and the atmosphere and sense of place is really well-rendered, which is probably the most important thing in a story like this. The characters were a mixed bag, though I really loved the idea of a train “lifer” and her role as both protagonist and, in a way, being a sort of human equivalent to being part of the train.

It feels inevitable in a book like this that eventually the outside will get in, so to speak, and also that said outside won’t be quite what it was believed to be. To that end the plot falls a bit short, as it goes pretty much as you would expect it to, and it lacks a big moment at the climax of the story that feels fresh and unique. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more to this than what there appeared to be, but it’s a lovely piece of immersive fiction that really captures the concept of a magical and slightly menacing train journey very well.

Fantasy is not my usual genre and I felt out of my depth with this title. I suspect it has its audience but it is not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley aan the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Sarah Brooks (author), Katie Leung (narrator), Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (narrator), Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for this free advanced reader(/listener) copy of "The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands: A Novel" for an honest review.

I was instantly sold on this book with its comparisons to Piranesi and The Midnight Library (as well as the latter relations to Snowpeircer), but it stands firm and fine on its own feet. There's such a slow unspooling of this book as it takes its time revealing to you what is happening to whom in our cast of characters, revealing the history of the last train ride and that of all those on the train itself. I found myself filled with so many feelings about the wild, the transformation of time, the insidiousness of capitalism, and the dauntless human spirit which yearns for the wild, as the wild years for it.

I did feel as though the book didn't land its ending well, but it sort of just wobbled off the page.

The narrators were amazing! I loved their accents and inflections, and I was lulled into their characters entirely.

The Orient Express meets Annihilation in this great novel about a train traveling though an area that gone through some strange and uncanny changes and may even be changing the train and passengers who travel through it. The workers and passengers all have different motivations for being there, but one things remains the same for them all: by the time they reach their destination, they'll never be the same. This was such a fun, mysterious book about characters searching for truth and belonging in a place where both can be difficult to find.

This sounded interesting so I thought I would give it a try. I’m not usually a fantasy reader as I don’t really have the imagination for it. I thought being set on a train would make it easier for me but I just could not get a handle on what was going on in this book. It was slow and didn’t really hold my attention and I eventually had to give up. This just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, and author Sarah Brooks for allowing me to read an ALC of this book.

I was drawn to this book by one of the narrators, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, who is one of my all-time favorite narrators. I was a bit disappointed to find that his parts were extremely limited, but Katie Leung did a credible job with the bulk of the narration.

Like many debut novels, I felt like this one suffered from too many ideas crammed into one book. We have a transcontinental train journey, complete with multiple mysteries, a horrifying and fantastical landscape outside, and more characters than I can recall. Everything was interesting but it all became muddled together. Still, Brooks has a lot of promise and I will definitely try her next book.

I was not sure what to expect with this book, but it was compared to Midnight Library which I thoroughly enjoyed. I listened to the audiobook and the narrators did a nice job, However, I found the book hard to get into until the very end and even then it was okay but not a favorite. The concept of the story is quite incredible--set in the late 1800s, a train runs through the Wastelands, the space between China and Russia. However, something dangerous happened on the train's last crossing, causing operations to shut down for quite some time. Along with the train's passengers, we embark on the first journey since the hiatus, though the Trans-Siberia Company has kept all the details completely silent. Even those who were on the last crossing can't remember what happened.

I thought the book was written very well, with stunning descriptions of the train journey and atmosphere. However, I found the pacing too slow, and I couldn't visualize the fantastical/unnatural elements well, so at times it was just a lot. I couldn't connect with the main characters. While I don't regret reading this, it unfortunately wasn't for me. However, I am sure I will find some readers who it may be up their alley to recommend this book to.

Thank you to NetGalley for p audio ARC to review.

"The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands" by Sarah Brooks is speculative fiction about a train journey on the Trans-Siberan Express. Outside the windows, unusual flora and fauna exist. Some of it is beautiful, and some is ugly or scary or dangerous.

The child of the train is Weiwei. She was an orphaned baby who grew up on the train. Marya is a young woman who is undercover as someone else. There is a stowaway girl discovered by Weiwei, and something is different about her, which takes a while to find out. Henry Grey is a researcher, and he desperately wants to get samples of the life in the Wastelands. The train is its own character.

This story is pretty creepy and sometimes slow. I found it hard to listen to, but you know once you're on the train, you can't get off till it's done.

Narration by Katie Leung and Kobna Holdbrook- Smith is well done.

Characters - 4/5
Writing - 3/5
Plot - 3/5
Pacing - 3/5
Unputdownability - 3/5
Enjoyment - 2/5
Narration - 4/5
Cover - 3/5 (why not the train?)
Overall - 25/8 = 3 1/8 = 3 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Sarah Brooks for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a fun and exciting take on the genre. I love the world building and ingenuity the author brought to this book. They crafted a world that I can only assume was a fun environment to create in.

This was just not my jam. I was expecting this great big adventuring train-travel fantasy - well, I got a train and a lot of tedium [seriously, nothing happens for much of the book, so that when something does happen, its so anticlimactic and meh, you just don't care] instead, along with very one dimensional characters that just stay out of reach of one ever caring much about [and I won't even go into that ending ::eyeroll:: ]. Its just been such a huge disappointment for me.

I was excited about Katie Leung [of Harry Potter fame] being the narrator [I remember her having a lovely lilting voice in the movies] for this, but unfortinately, that also didn't work for me. She speaks very quickly [with little regard for pausing, periods, or even a breath here or there it felt like at times], pauses little, and at times seemed more monotone than anything else. Even during dramatic times there seemed to be little emotion and the whole experience [for me] was very underwhelming, and my disappointment was pretty high in this regard as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Brooks, and Macmillan Audio for providing the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.