“The Great Train Robbery” brought Crichton the world fame as both a filmmaker and a novelist. He has been rewriting this book for a long time, changing style and genre of the novel.
Unfortunately nobody can stay good at anything for too long. It is proved that most of authors are creating their best works before thirty. Michael Crichton appeared to understand this fact for the most part. Before his thirtieth birthday he pursued promising scientific career and after writing nine novels he finally came up with “The Andromeda Strain.” “Westworld” became his first studio movie that was warmly taken by critics and after “Coma” he got full recognition.
The action takes place in 1855. When Victoria is queen of England, there is war raging in Crimea, and, in London, a masterpiece of crime–the most daring train robbery of the century–is about to take place. Written with a unique documentary approach, The Great Train Robbery gives listeners a narrative made even more compelling by the verisimilitude of its fascinating detail, and remains today a thrilling good time.
The Great Train Robbery is a thriller novel about the amazingly planned train robbery. A robbery is taking place on the board of a moving train. a moving train.
Set in 1855 England, Edward Pierce is a master thief with the ambitious goal of stealing a shipment of gold bars en route to the Crimea. Conspiring with his beautiful mistress, Miriam, and England’s greatest locksmith, Agar , Pierce sets out on a quest to copy each of four keys needed to open the train’s vault, keys that are kept and guarded by different parties. This is a real action story that that takes a reader on a historical and culminates in the suspenseful, dangerous climax of this true story.
Michael Crichton’s thoroughgoing research and attention to the minute details of the narrative make it both lively and interesting. At once, we are able to see the man – Edward Pierce, and the world he lives and operates in – both sides of Victorian London. Apart from the detail, the portrayal of the characters and the relationships they have with each other is brutally honest, yet captivating. And finally, that famous Crichton trick, leaving the reader guessing as to where the fact ends and fiction begins, is alive and well in this book.
The author definitely enjoys writing in an old fashioned style, mostly a Victorian style. And this seems to be a winning way of writing for him, since The Great Train Robbery both in print and on film had a great success. Crichton did not update the story into the modern era; instead he showed the original story in the original period of time when it happened.
I really liked the novel and think that it one of the best actions stories ever. It has everything an action story is supposed to have. It has danger, rapid development of events and romance. It is easy to read, and relaxing, does not make you think too much – just what the action story is supposed to do.
Based on fact, as lively as legend, and studded with all the suspense and style of a modern fiction master, here is a classic caper novel set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive.