To celebrate the release of Philip Reeve's new novel, Railhead, OUP asked a few illustrators to come up with their own interpretations of scenes and characters from the book. It's hard to sum up the book in a few lines (it's filled to the brim with incredible concepts and ideas).Here's a quote from the back of the book -
"Come with me, Zen Starling, she had said. The girl in the red coat. But how did she know his name?
The Great Network is a place of drones and androids, maintenance spiders and Station Angels. The place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains criss-cross the galaxy in a heartbeat.
Zen Starling is a petty thief, a street urchin from Thunder City.
So when mysterious stranger Raven sends Zen and his new friend Nova on a mission to infiltrate the Emperor's train, he jumps at the chance to traverse the Great Network, to cross the galaxy in a heartbeat, to meet interesting people - and to steal their stuff.
But the Great Network is a dangerous place, and Zen has no idea where his journey will take him"
I chose to draw an escape across the rooftops and Uncle Bugs, a Hive Monk ("a creature made up of thousands and thousands of insects, which come together to form a being with consciousness. Hive Monks choose to form themselves into a human shape, including making themselves a kind of paper mask for a face."). So much to choose from in the book. I'm sure it's going to be another massive success for Philip.
Also be sure to check out Ian McQue and Robert Ball's interpretations of the Railhead world. Amazing. I'm not worthy!
