Ares Express: Ian Mcdonald

Set on a terraformed Mars where fusion-powered locomotives run along the network of rails that is the planet's circulatory system and artificial intelligences reconfigure reality billions of times each second. One young woman, Sweetness Octave Glorious-Honeybun Asiim 12th, becomes the person upon whom the future - or futures - of Mars depends. Described as 'a wild and woolly magic-realist SF novel, featuring lots of bizarre philosophies , mind stretching ideas and trains as big as city blocks'. Cover art by Paul Youll.