All Intensive Purposes

So many things to say about this slender book, so I will limit myself to three observations:

(1) Would it have killed Thomas Inc. to have invested in slightly better computer-generated illustrations?

(2) We know from Chekov that for a gun to go off in Act III, we need to see it first in Act I. So we really should hear about "the special coal from the Island of Sodor" before it gets Lady steaming again.

(3) In a work that explores the tension between the rationalization of the Industrial Revolution, as exemplified by Thomas and his various steam- and diesel-powered friends, and the mysteries of an earlier England, as exemplified by the seductive and apparently drugged Lady and the unseen portal to the Magic Railroad (itself anticipating the magic by-ways of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), it only undercuts the latter to conclude with Thomas' assertion that by rescuing Lady and the Magic Railroad (which encapsulates the bizarre combination of the industrial and magical at play in this book) he has shown that "Little engines can do big things." More magic, please.