Autoren-Bilder

Robert Lautner

Autor von Road to Reckoning

5 Werke 108 Mitglieder 8 Rezensionen

Werke von Robert Lautner

Road to Reckoning (2014) 90 Exemplare
The Draughtsman (2017) 11 Exemplare
Untitled Robert Lautner (2017) 4 Exemplare
La Promesse de l'Ouest (2015) 2 Exemplare
Quint (2024) 1 Exemplar

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Wissenswertes

Andere Namen
Mark Keating
Geburtstag
1970
Geschlecht
male

Mitglieder

Rezensionen

I thought I would give this a try since it is an almost western written by an Englishman. It felt pretty authentic to me. The narrator was an older man telling the story of his youthful trek to the west to sell Henry Colt's first gun to the settlers. The west being in this instance Pennsylvania or Indiana. The writing was of that vague not quite concrete type, sort of a reproduction of the style of that time. The characters were vivid. The places and happenings were very vivid also. Worth the read and I would try this author again.… (mehr)
 
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Luziadovalongo | 6 weitere Rezensionen | Jul 14, 2022 |
Some historical events are so tumultuous they will form the basis of books, fictional and factional, for centuries to come: the Nazi genocide of the European Jury is one such event and, as recent exceptional novels prove, there is always another side of the Holocaust worth examining.

The Draughtsman is the second novel by the gifted but slightly eccentric Robert Lautner, a writer whose wide-ranging CV equips him to write on – well, almost everything.

The Draughtsman is a work of literary fiction which can be appreciated by almost everyone and on almost every level. Set in 1944, we learn not every able-bodied German was automatically drafted into the War Machine.

Recently qualified and newly married draughtsman Ernst Beck has been unemployed for many months when he is offered work by Topf & Sons, one of Germany’s most prestigious engineering firm. His job is to design ever-more efficient crematoria for the labour camps, whose workers are being decimated by dysentery.
Beck is a ‘good German’: non-political, he just wants to earn enough to support himself and his wife Etta. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing though, and when he learns the true nature of his work, Ernst reassesses his loyalties, and his life.
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adpaton | Aug 10, 2017 |
The Road to Reckoning - Robert Lautner *****

Strangely enough I picked up this book in a pound shop, you don’t normally see many books worth reading there, but I looked at the blurb and it sounded my type of novel so I gave it a try. There have been a lot of other reviews that go into detail regarding the books similarity to True Grit, but I suppose I am lucky that I have never read it, and can only just about remember seeing the John Wayne film years and years ago, and so I began reading and enjoying with an open mind.

The story is as much a tale of a young boy’s rite of passage as it is a hard hitting western, there has to be something here for nearly every reader. The story is narrated by Thomas Walker, now an old man and looking back on his childhood. His father is a spectacle salesman who has ambitions to make a fortune in the Wild West, he chances upon a new Colt pistol and agrees to travel the country selling to stores and offering repeat orders. With Thomas’ mother no longer alive he takes his son with him. Just when things are starting to look up he falls foul of a band of outlaws who rob and kill him, Thomas is spared but is now lost in unknown territory. He stumbles upon ex ranger Henry Stands, a rough and ready character that reluctantly gets roped into being a sort of chaperone. The two make their way across a landscape that has thieves and swindlers at nearly every turn. This definitely isn’t a romanticised look at the olden days, and a few of the miscreants they meet on the way wouldn’t look out of place in a Stephen King novel.

The way in which Lautner writes reminds me very much of Cormac Mcarthy, he manages to describe the surroundings brilliantly without using any words as extra padding and the pages just melt away. I loved this book, and it is quite difficult to believe that this is only the author’s first novel, and I believe he has just released a second which I will definitely be picking up. I think this could become one of my favourite books and I am pretty sure I will revisit it one day. Easily the best new hardback I have ever paid a £1 for, and very recommendable.
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Bridgey | 6 weitere Rezensionen | Mar 16, 2017 |
Young Thomas Walker is living with his aunt while his father goes about New York selling spectacles. His mother has died and his aunt is trying to educate him as she thinks is best. The country is experiencing some financial difficulties so the commissions are not coming as they once were and so his father takes a chance on selling something new. Very new - a gun with a revolving barrel from an inventor by the name of Samuel Colt. They set off to take orders for this gun will not be produced one at a time but rather factory produced which will make it much more affordable.

The world though is not quite ready for this invention, nor is it necessarily a safe place as Thomas soon finds out when he finds himself with only a wooden replica of the revolver and his horse. Now he just wants to get back to his Aunt's house and to get the money that Mr. Colt owes his father for the orders they took and the guns they sold. How will a 12 year old boy navigate his way back home? It sounds impossible but Thomas is lucky to find if not a friend, then a companion to make the way easier.

When I was reading this book I truly enjoyed it. It's very much out of my usual reading world and it did take me a bit to get used to the cadence of the writing. Once I did I found myself caught up in the story. Now as I sit here and type this review I do realize that much of the story is quite implausible and reality really needs be suspended to allow the tale to proceed. If you allow this to happen and don't think too hard on what's really going on you too will find the story engaging if a bit dark. I was rooting for Thomas - the story is told from his point of view as he looks backwards in time with some foreshadowing of what is to come. All in all a solid read.
… (mehr)
 
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BooksCooksLooks | 6 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 30, 2014 |

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Statistikseite

Werke
5
Mitglieder
108
Beliebtheit
#179,297
Bewertung
½ 3.7
Rezensionen
8
ISBNs
25
Sprachen
1

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