Black Light Express

Gr 71–0—In this sequel to Railhead, trains are sentient beings with different personalities who communicate with one another through "trainsong" and with their passengers via artificial intelligence. They run on rails and travel through K-gates, portals to different worlds throughout the Network Empire. Zen Starling and Motorik (female android) Nova have escaped the Network Empire aboard the Damask Rose, hurtling through a new K-gate to the previously unknown Web of Worlds. They were pawns in a plot to steal a valuable artifact from the powerful Noon family, unintentionally destroying the Noons' train and killing their empress. Threnody Noon, the new empress, sets out to find and punish Zen. The hunt is complicated by an attempt to overthrow Threnody, which sends her on the run as well. As the narrative unfurls, the tangle of truth about the origin and control of the rails and K-gates is just as exciting as the hunt itself. The worlds and their inhabitants—track-building worms, delightfully aggressive retired war trains, unapologetic evildoers, and insects and multiple other nonhuman creatures—are distinct and crystal clear. No specific ethnicities are mentioned, but the human characters are described as brown-skinned, black, or white.