Tracks

by K.M. Tolan

EPIC E-Books Awards - 2015 Finalist

Vincent’s sister is swept away by a steam locomotive riding rails that vanish along with her. Ten years later he rediscovers those tracks, and heads down them to bring her back.

Ever look out a train car's window and think the world rushing by isn't yours? Welcome to Hobohemia, where hobo kings vie with rail barons over the value of the human spirit, and steam engines still ply the living rails. Vincent arrives searching for his long lost sister, but quickly finds himself immersed in a battle to stop the Erie Railroad from unleashing a horror that will see the end of hobo jungles and craftsmen alike.

Genres: Fantasy

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2014

Reviews

[Celia Breslin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tight, high-stakes plot, a sweet romance, gripping drama, intense action, solid world building, characters you’ll love to cheer on and others you’ll love to boo…Tracks by K. M. Tolan has it all.

The story starts with a good jolt of drama. At the tender age of twelve, Vincent watches, helpless, as his seven-year-old sister is swept away by a mysterious steam locomotive on rails that disappear. After that, the narrative jumps to ten years later--the mysterious tracks reappear and we join twenty-two-year old Vincent on his journey to find his sister.

Vincent travels to Hobohemia, a magical world of tracks, trains, and creatures, beautifully drawn by the author. The vivid fantasy setting along with an assortment of fascinating characters that both help and hinder Vincent’s quest (sorry, no spoilers here) kept me riveted to the page.

The author does a masterful job of exploring some big themes while entertaining us within the fantasy framework: family, home, redemption for past wrongs. One of my favorite lines from the book still haunts me: “A man does what he has to far more than what he wants to.” This right here is Vincent. Every step of his odyssey provides him with choices and ultimately it’s a question of making the right ones for the sake of his family, to make a home, to rectify old mistakes…in short, good stuff!

[N.E. White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tracks is action-packed, touches on a side of America few of us have seen, and promises a rich story steeped in magic and traditions. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a new kind of fantasy with a bit of romance.

Read full review here on SFFWorld.com.

[♥Xeni♥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate read this entire thing. I read it for the /r/Fantasy Bingo: Canadian author - small press square.

The writing wasn't bad. It wasn't great either. At times it was very unclear what was going on. For example, Vincent falls asleep in a hotel, wakes up to a room full of steam, and Freedom, his sister-turned-steam-child tells him to take her hand, to shut his eyes and feel with his heart: blockquote>"He tried, and felt the awkwardness of a voyeur peeking in on someone’s family dinner. A sense of belonging came to him, wrapped in bursts of exultation and frustration as artists poured themselves into their work. A wide array of faces bent to their task, and along with each person came a chain of memories reaching back into the lives that had brought them to this place." First he tries, and then magically something changes, and it's all just very vague about how or what happens. Freedom, his sister who was lost to him as a child, also talks like a wise old sage. And somehow wants to return to her body? But fine, the text is fairly serviceable and doesn't give us any terrible errors or far too much purple prose.

However this book is also very sexist:

"Same thing happening to every gandy dancer's daughter when she finds her first train. She rides it. Girls become steam children. Boys end up like their fathers. That's the way things work."

On top of that, the book ships Vincent and the girl who rescued him, Samantha, very very hard. There is no chemistry, there is no connection at all between them aside from she is the only eligible girl the book introduces.

Far worse in my eyes was suffering through the character that is Vincent. He jumps to conclusions based on half the information he was given, usually the worst conclusion of the options, and then he calls everyone else a liar and a terrible person. All these people are trying to help you, they feed you for free, they give you money and yeah, they're a little eccentric compared to your usual crowd but maybe just take it a bit more in stride? No reason to call the woman who *literally* saved your life, "Lady" all the time. She has a name. Use it. Be nicer. (Also he blames everyone around him for his bad mood and terrible attitude. I get being traumatized as a youth, but this is not how you write a good main character who you want people to hang out with, aka read. Also he blames other trauma victims for their trauma.) Vincent really suffers from the YA protagonist trope: invited to everything, friends with everyone (even if he is so rude they should shun him), gets helped everywhere, considered to be a high-level magic user without having been given any training, good at everything he tries to do... it's tiring. Not to mention how in one breath he'll commend Samantha for her 'pluck' and the next call her a 'treacherous little snake who needs her neck broken'. He's just so gross. Another choice quote: "This place must've been hell for her, and yet she risked returning on his account. Why? Maybe he was the one being an ass here. Or maybe she's playing me like a chump." So close to realizing how much of an ass he is... but nope.

Instead of this being a story about a boy who looks for his long-lost sister, it turns into something else:

“I know what you’re saying, Katy, but we’ve got no choice, remember? Either you become human or Dad’s stuck on that train.”

So... she has to give up her literal freedom, Vincent needs to ruin everyone's day by existing and also, oh yeah, your father needs more saving after running off on you. Sigh

This could have been a great book that also explores the evils of capitalism, slavery, and what it means to be part of the underclass, all with a cool magical train / hobo-land backdrop. Instead we're stuck reading about a hateful, spiteful, cynical, rude, revels-in-his-ignorance boy who needs to just shut it and listen to what other people say for once. I really wish this book had a different protagonist and didn't fall into so many cliche tropes. I would have loved to read about steam trains and living tracks and even airships! Unfortunately all of the good stuff was too tainted by the shit.

[Sacha Valero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tracks is the third installment in the steampunk collection Gears & Goggles. I don't have any idea why this book is in this collection as there is nothing resembling steampunk in the book. That said, I'm glad I came across it.

As a young boy Vincent and his younger sister Kati are out collecting tadpoles when they come across some railroad tracks that were never there before. The tracks sing to Kati, a steam train roars towards them, Vincent rushes to get Kati off the tracks, but she's vanished leaving behind a broken jar of tadpoles.

Fast forward ten years. Vincent's father walked out shortly after Kati went missing, his mother hates him and believes he killed her, and Vincent is basically not a likable guy. He's in Chicago (1950s?) and sees a couple of guys beating on a homeless man. Normally he'd leave, but for some reason he intervenes on the bums behalf. The bum gives him a coin (hobo nickel) and told him to never stop looking. I immediately put two-and-two together and the man was Vincent's father who dies in his arms. The police show up, and with his record they'd just assume he killed the man so he takes off on his battered old Triumph and heads for the only place he knows he might get some gas money and a meal, home.

While his mother prepares a meal for him, Vincent takes a walk out back and the tracks reappear so he follows. Thus we discover hobohemia, a world that sort of moves in and out of the real world. His father used to tell them stories about steam trains and hobohemia and riding the rails. Vincent just thought they were stories, but they weren't. The hobo nickel calls his sister who is a Steam Child who also called riders, and they power steam engines.

As he crosses into this world he comes across the two hoods who were beating on his dad (he doesn't yet know that it was his dad). In this world they're called Yegg, a sort of ghost with claws, and he's saved by Samantha. She takes him to the local Hobo King, Willy. Vincent learns who his father was and like father like son, he's what's known as a Gandy Dancer, someone who can call tracks.

I'll end here because I don't want to give away spoilers, but I'll say this; in this world there's a fight between hobohemia and what the author call's Taylorists. The Taylorists are cold businessmen who value efficiency, cohesiveness, automation, asseblylines, and profit (oh, there's that evil word). On the other hand are the hobo's who value craftsmanship, unions (totally unnecessary in 2018), and keeping things as they've been.

The author creates a feeling of the Robber Baron's of old (the baddie is a Baron), but call's Taylorism capitalism (it isn't), and the dividing line are the steam engines of old and the new diesels. This becomes rather juvenile in my book and the author needs to take a few economics classes. And while the world building is really good, some times it feels forced. Hard to explain, but an overall enjoyable read.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover had me at trains - more importantly, steam trains. The book was a dense read, where nearly every word mattered, if more books were written like this, we could fit more novels on the shelves. I loved the magic of trail creators (don't want to spoil their actual names) and the steam children who breathe life into new trains. The tale was a fun ride, with some interesting characters, mixing the good ole'days and the threat of new business methodologies taking over where humans become a commodity -like what the industrial revolution did.

[Heather Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read this about a year ago as part of a collection (Gears & Goggles: A Steampunk Collection), and gave it a brief review then--

"This is the story I've waited for my whole life. I could nitpick, particularly the very flat villan, but won't. More of this, please! A wonderful merger of hobos and railroading with fantasy, done with no major errors in the railroad parts." I

I should add here that there *are* some liberties taken with the railroad stuff. However, all of these make sense within the story's universe. This is exactly the sort of story I would craft if I could actually come up with a plot and conflict to write about.

Yes, I would definitely like more of the same. Hold on... There IS another, Storm Child? (rubs hands together) Oh, boy, come to Papa! 😁

--Matt

[Christinaraven · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting take on the railroad, hobos and family. I liked that it was relatively clean fantasy story that stretched my imagination. Fight of good vs evil. Vincent started out in the "real" world basically a man who never got over his sister going missing. Vincent was then sucked into Hobohemia and his true colors came through as he fought to find and rescue his sister. I loved the characters he meets and befriends and their colorful life. Well worth the read.

[Sundeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and nice ideas, but found it very difficult to understand the lingo. I did like some of the characters, but not enough to check out the sequels.

[Kay Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

K.M. Tolan’s Tracks is a far more complex and layered novel than I was expecting from its blurb, and it deserves more attention than it seems to have received. The story follows Vincent, a young man living on the edge of society in a rather grim world, haunted by the disappearance of his little sister (which he witnessed and may have caused) and his father, both tied to ghostly train tracks and vanishing steam engines.

Ten years after those disappearances, Vincent stumbles into a search for his sister and finds himself in Hobohemia, the mysterious and mythical land connecting diverging worlds—and world views. Anchored here and there by its hobo jungles and rail yards, Hobohemia is under attack by the forces of Taylorism, with its assembly lines and diesel trains. Vincent is caught up in the conflict as he learns he is, like his father, a gandy dancer, able to call up living rails and the steam trains that run on them—but at a cost. Along the way he meets steam children, hobo knights, monstrous yeggs, and the rebellious (and very dangerous) daughter of a railroad baron.

Hobohemia is full of the mythology of railroading and American folklore; Tracks is capped by a dark and dangerous trip to the Big Rock Candy Mountain. I’d be hard pressed to categorize the novel—adventure, fantasy, steampunk, romance, alternate history? All that and more, as Vincent explores Hobohemia and the lands passes through and revisits the elements of his family: his bitter, reality-bound mother, his long-lost sister, and his father, stuck on the Westbound Train.
Tolan’s world-building moves so fast and explains so little that I sometimes wondered just where I was—but so did Vincent. The borders of Hobohemia are ephemeral, and I was left wondering if those ghost trains run through the back roads of this world, too.

[Erica Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite sure why I even bothered finishing it. Full of holes and disorienting; I felt like the book was having an identity crisis.

[Jolie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if confusing in places as if I should already have known some of the background.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was part of a steampunk collection I purchased. If I read what it was about in a library I'm not so sure I would have picked it up to read. With that said I enjoyed this book. I've read a good number of steampunk but have never read anything on gandy dancers and steam children.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt slow and ponderous at some points. It's all full of action at other points. It was, overall, an excellent book. But it frustrated me. Four stars feels like a little generous, but I smiled a lot while I was reading it, so it got four stars.

[Topsues · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free from eBook Discovery. I voluntarily post this review.
I found this book had a very unusual and unique storyline. I enjoyed the story and got involved with the main characters, but I did find it hard going at the beginning, now that may have been because I know didn't unterstand the terminology with relation to trains and railroads, I'm not sure, I also felt a bit lost at times. However I am glad I stuck with the book, as the author did manage to draw me in and make me want to keep turning the pages.
This is my honest review

[Deena]

DNF so no rating - if it had a proper editor it would have been really good. The premise was good if slightly weird, and the political undertone was a good touch (although probably only if you liked the political message_ but it just dragged on and on and on and on and on and on.... So I finally gave up because I just didn't give a sh*t any more.