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The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel: Adventure! Trains! Canada!

The ever-lovely Emily of As the Crowe Flies and Reads sent me the book The Boundless, because I coveted it due to its kickass cover art.


The Boundless is about a train of the same name, SEVEN MILES LONG, as it whisks across the Canadian wilderness with a young man named Will in tow. Will is great. We love Will. He is also in danger because there's a gold and diamond railroad spike (the final spike from the building of the railroad, that they obviously IMMEDIATELY removed after driving it in) in the heavily secured funeral car, and he is in the way of the dastardly people trying to steal it.

The way they set up the funeral car means you immediately think 'oh. he's gonna end up having to break inside that car.' But rather than it being an annoying predictable sort of twist, you're psyched for when it's gonna happen.


"Good luck to anyone who gets inside, is all I can say." 
"But didn't you say the funeral car had no door?" 
"What what we've told the papers. The car's made from the full of an old battleship, steel plates half an inch thick. But even so there's a door." 
"Where?" Will asked. 
His father's expression is poised between amusement and annoyance. "There are limits to what I'll tell you," he says. "But the key isn't just for the door. Before you can even open the door--if you can find it--there's another lock that needs attention."

HOP ON BOARD IT'S GONNA GET MYSTERIOUS

I love stories that take place in closed environments like locked-down buildings or trains or buses (I haven't forgotten you, Speed, though all the rest of the world might), so I am all about this book. Also there is the noble Sasquatch character!

Like this, but different

You also learn some Canadian history, DESPITE YOUR VERY WILL. And he adds in all these mythological/folklorish/crytozoology creatures, which should be everyone's jam. 

Oppel's also written two books about a young Victor Frankenstein, the first of which is The Dark Endeavour, which I'm not saying I'm going to read, but I'm totally going to read it.

MORE CANADIAN TRAIN SASQUATCH MYSTERY NOVELS.

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