A History of Stone and Steel is hard. It comes from a place of hardness, as does its main character, Paul Keppel, which contrasts with his chosen path of getting a history doctorate.<\/p>\n
The book has a single flaw which bumped it down one star and almost bumped it down too. Sudden, allegedly divine, intervention into the affairs of men, at the end of the book.<\/p>\n
It made no sense for me to suddenly need to suspend my disbelief during the last 20 pages. Although something like this had previously been hinted it, it was just that: hints from a crazy religious man. To have the divine intervention, that was just stupid. It ruined the reading experience.<\/p>\n
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Except for that glaring flaw, Steel is a very good read, somewhat quick and well grounded. The sense of place is not, however, tied to a geographical place (I kept thinking of it being in the rural West) but rather, a manufacturing town and a university town.<\/p>\n
The scenes are mostly enjoyable, the novel does not drag and the characters seem believable.<\/p>\n
The novel appears to use functions just before our current situation, which make it a wee bit harder to believe in our immediate present, saturated with Obamacare.<\/p>\n
Steel is worth reading, despite its terrible deus ex machine.<\/p>\n
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