{"id":1803,"date":"2020-01-15T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T22:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2020-01-03T19:28:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T02:28:16","slug":"book-the-crystal-city-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/15\/book-the-crystal-city-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Crystal City (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i.gr-assets.com\/images\/S\/compressed.photo.goodreads.com\/books\/1312054746l\/1134349.jpg\" alt=\"The Crystal City\" width=\"318\" height=\"245\">The Crystal City<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nYear: 2003<br \/>\nAuthor: Orson Scott Card<br \/>\nLength: 690 minutes \/ 11.50 hours<\/p>\n<p>With the end of this series in sight, it seems that the focus of <em>The Crystal City<\/em> is back on track. That being said, there are a few curious omissions that made it somewhat frustrating to read. I understand that some stories aren\u2019t meant to be part of full books, but when these side short stories sound much more interesting by their mere inference, then I wonder why they weren\u2019t included in the main storyline to begin with. Still, there were enough exciting developments in <em>The Crystal City<\/em> to keep me wondering what the conclusion will bring in the next book.<\/p>\n<p>While I appreciated the historical name dropping earlier in the series, now they seem to be coming left and right, with little-to-no impact on the story other than to say, \u201cLook! Here\u2019s someone you should know, and here\u2019s how they\u2019re different now!\u201d Part of this is due to the short stories that introduced interesting characters like Jim Bowie and Steve Austin. It could be the fact that the altered timeline is so far away from known history that figures like Abraham Lincoln don\u2019t seem to have nearly the same impact as they did in our current understanding of history.<\/p>\n<p>It was nice to see some character development, especially in Arthur Miller, who up until now had felt more like a sidekick and shadow to Alvin and not necessarily a full character in his own right. I also appreciated some of the more grandiose events, like the eruption of a volcano, even if it felt a little like cutting off another sub-plot that could have had some incredibly interesting outcomes. In the end, it is nice to see some of the loose ends starting to be tied up, even if I don\u2019t enjoy these books nearly as much as when I started six books ago.<\/p>\n<p>A foreshadowing of the end of the series, I give <em>The Crystal City<\/em> 3.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;1\/2<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Crystal City Year: 2003 Author: Orson Scott Card Length: 690 minutes \/ 11.50 hours With the end of this series in sight, it seems that the focus of The Crystal City is back on track. That being said, there are a few curious omissions that made it somewhat frustrating to read. I understand that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,54],"tags":[2138,2037,2141,55,2091,2139,554,8,28,2140,2137],"class_list":["post-1803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-5-stars","category-book","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-alvin-maker","tag-arthur-miller","tag-book","tag-historical-fantasy","tag-jim-bowie","tag-orson-scott-card","tag-review","tag-series","tag-steve-austin","tag-the-crystal-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}