What do you think?
Rate this book
Rail City Chronicles #1.1
The Dying Sun
The Rail City was originally published on amazon as the first part of The Rail City Chronicles. It's currently been taken off the market in anticipation of a major new edition, completely rewritten, with all new art, and will be rereleased under the anticipated title The Rail City. Because there was never a print edition, this particular edition no longer exists, though it was technically published, read, and reviewed by a select few. The author is taking advantage of the electronic medium, to respond to the wishes and criticisms of his readers, for whom he writes.
148 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 3, 2013
5 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 12, 2016
There are books composed of short, declarative sentence – subject, object, verb – that tell a tale with a minimum of reader interaction; smooth, quick, and unperturbing prose. There are other books that seem to have identity crises: "Am I poetry or am I prose?" Still too, there are books that wander, seemingly at random, until on page xxx the whole point of the novel is revealed xxu pages later than it could have been [Gravity's Rainbow, anyone? (I love Thomas Pynchon's stories, by the way)].
The Rail City falls somewhere between the second and third examples above. The book reads like its prose wants to burst into free verse. It reads like manga... without the pictures.
Honestly, the first page feels like it is trying too hard to be hip. However, after the introduction, the story opens up a bit - the flamboyant sentence structure tones down and the narrative focuses, and focuses well, into an entertaining story of a landscape both like and disturbingly unlike our own. Characters are often introduced completely without preamble or explanation and leave similarly, but this flows well with the sometimes staccato-like nature of the story.
Pregnant girl Kesuk – She is into the story and then out of it.
Young Captain Sura – Leaping from sequential orphan to... well, read the book .
Sixty Seven – A demon child and arguably the finest drawn and most sympathetic of all the characters in TRC. She is certainly the most entertaining to read.
Et alia. Some stick around for much of the story, while others pop in and pop out, never to be heard from again.
After reading the first several pages, this strange, beautiful, cruel world drew me in, but it always felt like a little story, a personal story... like a Noh drama unfolding on a minuscule section of a huge, darkened stage. You know that there were things going on elsewhere – you can see hints of movement there in the dark... but hints only. What is the story of this skyscraper-sized train rolling through the land? What is happening to the sun and the weather? Where did demons come from? Answering these questions is a job for the sequels though, because The Rail City ends with no answers, only a tight, little cliff hanger.
The Rail City is an engaging and enjoyable story that bends the expectations of the reader, and I recommend it for fantasy lovers who crave something out of the ordinary.
The Rail City falls somewhere between the second and third examples above. The book reads like its prose wants to burst into free verse. It reads like manga... without the pictures.
Honestly, the first page feels like it is trying too hard to be hip. However, after the introduction, the story opens up a bit - the flamboyant sentence structure tones down and the narrative focuses, and focuses well, into an entertaining story of a landscape both like and disturbingly unlike our own. Characters are often introduced completely without preamble or explanation and leave similarly, but this flows well with the sometimes staccato-like nature of the story.
Pregnant girl Kesuk – She is into the story and then out of it.
Young Captain Sura – Leaping from sequential orphan to... well, read the book .
Sixty Seven – A demon child and arguably the finest drawn and most sympathetic of all the characters in TRC. She is certainly the most entertaining to read.
Et alia. Some stick around for much of the story, while others pop in and pop out, never to be heard from again.
After reading the first several pages, this strange, beautiful, cruel world drew me in, but it always felt like a little story, a personal story... like a Noh drama unfolding on a minuscule section of a huge, darkened stage. You know that there were things going on elsewhere – you can see hints of movement there in the dark... but hints only. What is the story of this skyscraper-sized train rolling through the land? What is happening to the sun and the weather? Where did demons come from? Answering these questions is a job for the sequels though, because The Rail City ends with no answers, only a tight, little cliff hanger.
The Rail City is an engaging and enjoyable story that bends the expectations of the reader, and I recommend it for fantasy lovers who crave something out of the ordinary.
October 27, 2014
Rail City: The Dying Sun sounded really intriguing when I read the synopsis. It grabs you and makes you believe that this book will be full of awesome. Unfortunately this is not the case.
John's writing was rather amazing. At times it was poetic in its descriptions and full of crystal clear imagery and at others completely mind-bogglingly vague. I have yet to see another author get it both so right and so wrong in the same book, in the same chapter and even in the same paragraph.
There was a lot of repetitive words (the windows were forever undressed) and at the beginning I thought I might die of overuse of similies and metaphors. Only two or three in each paragraph for the first chapter or so... just a few.
I loved the ideas in the story, the demonkind, the forced slavery, the 'breaking' it was very intriguing. I liked the magical elements to the demon nature and how they interacted with the people. It was both gut-wrenchingly horrible and yet thought-provoking too. I would love to see some art work based on these characters.
Hiromi was a complex character and one that I wanted to get to know more. I didn't really like Sura and I found the introduction to most of the other characters was too quick, a lot of prior knowledge seemed to be agiven. I did like the guy in the red kimono, except that he was forever being described as hawk-like which got repetitive and annoying.
Some of the scenes could do with a bit more structure, more grounding in location, as I felt sometimes that the story was being told and the scene could be interchangable. Also, some sort of timeframe would have helped to make the story seem a bit more real too, I wasn't sure how long days were, or nights, time seemed to be almost unimportant.
I may be a bit thick, but it took me until about 50% through the book to understand that they were on a giant train. I should have picked that up from the title and the cover, but on my kindle I don't see the cover. This only caused for my concept of where this was happening to be even further off. Perhaps a bit more of a clear introduction to 'Rail City' would have helped avoid this confusion.
An interesting story, but rather disjointed and confusing.
**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of the book in return for an honest review**
John's writing was rather amazing. At times it was poetic in its descriptions and full of crystal clear imagery and at others completely mind-bogglingly vague. I have yet to see another author get it both so right and so wrong in the same book, in the same chapter and even in the same paragraph.
There was a lot of repetitive words (the windows were forever undressed) and at the beginning I thought I might die of overuse of similies and metaphors. Only two or three in each paragraph for the first chapter or so... just a few.
I loved the ideas in the story, the demonkind, the forced slavery, the 'breaking' it was very intriguing. I liked the magical elements to the demon nature and how they interacted with the people. It was both gut-wrenchingly horrible and yet thought-provoking too. I would love to see some art work based on these characters.
Hiromi was a complex character and one that I wanted to get to know more. I didn't really like Sura and I found the introduction to most of the other characters was too quick, a lot of prior knowledge seemed to be agiven. I did like the guy in the red kimono, except that he was forever being described as hawk-like which got repetitive and annoying.
Some of the scenes could do with a bit more structure, more grounding in location, as I felt sometimes that the story was being told and the scene could be interchangable. Also, some sort of timeframe would have helped to make the story seem a bit more real too, I wasn't sure how long days were, or nights, time seemed to be almost unimportant.
I may be a bit thick, but it took me until about 50% through the book to understand that they were on a giant train. I should have picked that up from the title and the cover, but on my kindle I don't see the cover. This only caused for my concept of where this was happening to be even further off. Perhaps a bit more of a clear introduction to 'Rail City' would have helped avoid this confusion.
An interesting story, but rather disjointed and confusing.
**Note: I was provided an electronic copy of the book in return for an honest review**
April 7, 2013
[Please note: I have received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for a review.]
The Rail City was one of those books that I couldn't decide whether to give it 3 or 4 stars.
On the one hand, I absolutely loved the plot. The beginning sequence quickly pulled me in and kept me wanting to know more about the characters. Visuals were nicely done and quite surprised me by its level of creativity. However, one qualm that I had regarding the visuals was that it did get quite repetitive when describing some of the clothing.
Unfortunately, the writing threw me off on more than one occasion. At times the author had what I like to call a "lyrical" writing structure, but it kept getting destroyed by short and harsh sentences. I often found myself having to re-read a segment in order to understand exactly what was going on.
I highly recommend The Rail City for those who are looking for something a little different to spice up their library.
The Rail City was one of those books that I couldn't decide whether to give it 3 or 4 stars.
On the one hand, I absolutely loved the plot. The beginning sequence quickly pulled me in and kept me wanting to know more about the characters. Visuals were nicely done and quite surprised me by its level of creativity. However, one qualm that I had regarding the visuals was that it did get quite repetitive when describing some of the clothing.
Unfortunately, the writing threw me off on more than one occasion. At times the author had what I like to call a "lyrical" writing structure, but it kept getting destroyed by short and harsh sentences. I often found myself having to re-read a segment in order to understand exactly what was going on.
I highly recommend The Rail City for those who are looking for something a little different to spice up their library.
April 21, 2013
The Dying Sun is the first part of The Rail City Chronicles. It's currently been taken off the market in anticipation of a major new edition, completely rewritten, with all new art.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews