“Amuse”
Distraction through play.
Old attractions seen anew.
Pleasantly themed day.
Steve D
Tag: Steve D
Book Review: THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY winds through a meticulous plot
I recently finished listening to The Great Train Robbery, by Michael Crichton, on audiobook. This is the second Crichton novel I’ve read, having started with Jurassic Park a couple years ago.
The Great Train Robbery is wholly different from Jurassic Park in both style and tone, but the level of detail and research poured into it is an obvious hallmark of Crichton’s I’ve already recognized.
This story recounts in meticulous detail the plot to pull off the greatest heist yet seen in Victorian England: the aptly named Great Train Robbery, masterminded by Edward Pierce in 1855.
The Great Train Robbery was a fascinating story combining court testimony of Edward Pierce’s trial, narrative dramatization of Pierce’s planning of the robbery, and historical context for Victorian England.
Because the story starts off with Edward Pierce giving his testimony in court, the suspense of this story comes from Pierce’s planning of the heist and the final outcome. While it’s obvious he had been caught and arrested, how the heist plays out, how Pierce was caught, and the result of the trial are all left as mysteries until the final chapters.
I found that I particularly enjoyed Crichton’s tangents into the culture and society of Victorian England surrounding the robbery and trial, even if these sometimes felt a little too far afield of the primary story. These sections reinforced my interest in Victorian England from a historical and sociocultural context that I’ve grown into recently. Crichton writes this story with the inquisitive eye and narrative flourish of an investigative journalist, which lends itself to a sweeping narrative that deftly weaves direct readings of the original court testimony with dramatized scenes of Pierce and his accomplices playing out their plot over the course of many months.
Narrator Michael Kitchens recounts the story like a documentary, seeming to speak directly to the listener and invite them into understanding every detail of Crichton’s meticulous research.
Although there were some moments of suspense, I was not necessarily riveted by the story. Still, I quite enjoyed its style and detail.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Habit
“Habit”
Pre-selected path,
habitually followed.
Pause to touch the leaves.
Steve D
Book Review: A MEMORY OF LIGHT ends an epic series… abruptly
I don’t recall exactly when I first started reading The Eye of the World, the first novel in Robert Jordan’s A Wheel of Time series. My active Goodreads usage only goes back to about 2016, when I had read The Fires of Heaven (book five).
It has likely been 10 years since I first started reading this series, and to finally have reached the end feels like an achievement on its own.
Overall, A Mermory of Light is a great ending to an exceptional series. The Last Battle plays out with stunning complexity over 100-some pages. All of the major characters and plot threads were tied off from a narrative, and there were still plenty of surprises. Where character stories were not tied off in as much detail as I would have hoped were in the surviving characters dealing with the trauma and the aftermath of such a momentous event as the Last Battle. There was very little time spent on the emotional resonance of everything that had happened in the final act of the book.
Having read this series over the course of years, I at times felt both overwhelmed and bored by the drawn-out narrative, the twisting plot lines, and the ever-expanding cast of characters with seemingly dubious purpose in the story.
This book, and the two preceding it to include Sanderson’s completion of Jordan’s story, managed to balance the incredible web of characters Jordan had created with the streamlining necessary to bring this series to a meaningful conclusion.
Even still, while the primary plots were drawn to a close, I think the ending was rather abrupt and left too many unanswered questions about the aftermath. I fully acknowledge that the lack of definitive aftermath leaves it open to interpretation for each reader. I also recognize that a 900+ page book might not want to dedicate a ton of space to what comes after the Last Battle.
I just wanted a little more closure for the characters who were left behind — their grief and mourning, and their recovery and ambitions for rebuilding their world.
I truly enjoyed this book. And I still have questions to which I will need to devise my own answers, it seems.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Revive
“Revive”
Twenty-four hours,
hiatus from daily life,
reaffirming rest.
Steve D
August Write Day: Routine Reset
July was a crazy month for us. We closed on our new house, moved all of our crap, spent another two weeks unpacking, and finally are starting to settle in. It’s been entirely disruptive in the best possible way, but I am ready to find my routines again.
Last Month’s Goals
- Write something every other day.
- Move to the next stage for my stories.
- Read three books.
- Exercise every day.
Write something every other day?
No, for obvious reasons. We must have spent what felt like a full month packing every night, and then unpacking every time, so that meant less writing time. I kept up with posting on this site, which is something. Otherwise, I only spent one day on any revisions for Uprooted.
The good news is that I only have a few more notes to work through for that draft, so August will also include whatever my next step is. And, critically, deciding what my next step is.
Move to the next stage for my stories?
Oh, hey, I had a specific item for this, which I definitely did not forget about. Well, that cements it, then. I’m going to carry this goal into August and make meaningful progress on these stories. I think I will focus on revising New Earth next.
Read three books?
Yes! I managed to finish three audiobooks in July. I have also been on a bit of a tear the last week with A Memory of Light. I’m into the final final act, and I can’t really put it down at this point. I’m going to finish this book in August, probably within the next week.
Exercise every day?
No, but I fared much better here than in my writing goals. I had twenty-two days of physical activity in July. In that count I’m including basically a full week of moving boxes, a full day of moving furniture, a day of significant playtime with my boys at a picnic, and another day of playtime at a local pool.
My home workout routine definitely took a hit, but I was physically exhausted for two straight weeks with moving.
I did not change-up my routine as quickly as I had hoped, but I likely will in August. In our new home, I’m a 5-10-minute walk from a big franchise type gym. I have no excuse not to become a member there and try to workout at least a couple times a week.
Goals for August
- Read three books. Getting this out of the way early.
- Exercise every day. How my routine evolves is an open question, but I’m not going to jump headlong back into serious weight-lifting after a four-year hiatus. I want to keep up with yoga and resistance training, so any weight-training will be mixed in.
- Write at least every other day. Continuing the trend of not counting my haiku as part of this, meaning I have to put more focus into my stories.
- Move to the next stage for my duology. I think this will be a read-through of New Earth, looking for narrative, thematic, and tonal consistency with Uprooted, and overall plot.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Fountain
“Fountain”
Giant blue mushroom,
playful running waterfall,
torrential downspout.
Steve D
Book Review: TYLL delivers a winding, mystic tale
I picked up Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin, mainly because the cover caught my eye.
I didn’t really know what to expect with this story, except that it played on historical figures of the seventeenth century and was loosely based on an old German folk hero dating back to at least the sixteenth century.
It seemed right up my alley, if a bit different from what I usually read.
Tyll is a very well-written story with unique characterizations and an interesting confluence of themes between separate but overlapping tales. The first is a drawn out introduction to a tiny village in the Holy Roman Empire where the young son of Klaus Ulenspiegel is raised. The boy shows a knack for acrobatics and an interest in the occult from a young age, causing trouble for his family until he eventually runs away to escape the clutches of prying clergymen who come to his home.
From there, the story meanders between vignettes of different characters. I found myself interested in the detailed writing style, but wondering where this was all headed. Eventually, it becomes clear that it’s following several overlapping characters across time. Certain sections seem to be arranged non-chronologically, but it’s not difficult to follow.
I feel like I will need to reread this to see all of the connections in full, but I quite enjoyed it.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Close
“Close”
Adjacent spaces,
thick walls cordon off living,
exist secluded.
Steve D
Haiku Wednesday – Dauntless
“Dauntless”
Fearless, and somehow
always associated
with seafaring ships.
Steve D
Another Word of the Day inspiration on this Wednesday evening. The only time I’ve actually heard this word used is in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Evening Satellite Publishing 