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A review by cornmaven
The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel
3.0
A rather interesting tale about a young man whose father helped build one of the transcontinental railroads, this time in Canada, on a mythical maiden voyage of a several miles long train, which includes a set of circus cars.
There's lots of adventure and misadventure throughout the story. Will is on a journey to independence as well, to forge his own path as an artist. Oppel has included in the train's layout a reference to Dante's Inferno, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as class distinction. His descriptions of each level of passenger is extremely descriptive. Readers will learn a little bit about how the railroad was built, and about the railroad tycoons and their quest for riches and profit, which is not very different from today's income disparity between CEOs and workers. There's a quest for gold, sasquatches, 19th century belief in spirits and the paranormal, avalanches, and more.
The target audience will be most attracted to the sasquatches, the chases on top of the train, and the avalanches. They might even enjoy the automatons as they figure into the action. And Mr. Dorian's card trick is amazing. But I don't think most will pick up on Dante, labor relations, and all of the other components.
One thing I found disturbing was the presentation of the worker abuse that was part and parcel of the building of the railroads, and yet the character of Brogan is the villain of the tale. Is his fate justified? Oppel does contrast Brogan with Will's father, but then just leaves it, doesn't present anything for a young reader to notice the conundrum. Will's father inherits riches galore by being the complacent and loyal worker, yet Brogan's complaints and resentment are valid, as history has shown. It would take an adult to tease this out in discussion. And a 10 year old kid is not going to be all that interested in that part of the story, but it's an important part in terms of character motivation, what drove Brogan to do what he did.
There's lots of adventure and misadventure throughout the story. Will is on a journey to independence as well, to forge his own path as an artist. Oppel has included in the train's layout a reference to Dante's Inferno, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as class distinction. His descriptions of each level of passenger is extremely descriptive. Readers will learn a little bit about how the railroad was built, and about the railroad tycoons and their quest for riches and profit, which is not very different from today's income disparity between CEOs and workers. There's a quest for gold, sasquatches, 19th century belief in spirits and the paranormal, avalanches, and more.
The target audience will be most attracted to the sasquatches, the chases on top of the train, and the avalanches. They might even enjoy the automatons as they figure into the action. And Mr. Dorian's card trick is amazing. But I don't think most will pick up on Dante, labor relations, and all of the other components.
One thing I found disturbing was the presentation of the worker abuse that was part and parcel of the building of the railroads, and yet the character of Brogan is the villain of the tale. Is his fate justified? Oppel does contrast Brogan with Will's father, but then just leaves it, doesn't present anything for a young reader to notice the conundrum. Will's father inherits riches galore by being the complacent and loyal worker, yet Brogan's complaints and resentment are valid, as history has shown. It would take an adult to tease this out in discussion. And a 10 year old kid is not going to be all that interested in that part of the story, but it's an important part in terms of character motivation, what drove Brogan to do what he did.