Philip Reeve

After receiving a mysterious coded message, Zen Starling abandons his life of luxury and, with the help of sentient trains, goes in search of android Nova, who plans to reawaken the Railmaker.

Zen Starling, a small-time thief, and Nova, an android girl come from the Network Empire, whose stations are scattered across the galaxy and linked by the K-gates and the sentient trains travel at light speed between them--but the gate through which they just passed was a new one, and they have no way of knowing into what danger it might have led them.

When Oliver's explorer parents go missing, he sets sail to find them with some new friends. There's a grumpy albatross, a nearsighted mermaid . . . even a living island! But the high seas are more exciting and strange than Oliver could have imagined. Can he and his crew spar with sarcastic seaweed, outrun an army of sea monkeys, win a fabulous maritime fashion contest, and defeat a wicked sea captain in time to save Mom and Dad?

In a world of drones and androids Zen Starling is a human thief, but mostly he just likes to ride the Interstellar Express, the sentient trains that travel through the K gates from planet to planet, something only the Guardians understand--but now the mysterious Raven wants him to steal the Pyxis, an object that could either open up a new gate, challenging the Guardians, or put the entire gate system, and the universe itself in danger.