Review: Stolid (The Wheel of Eight #3) by Aaron D. Key
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I admit, I usually have reservations about jumping in the middle of a book series without knowing any of the established background from previous installments. However, when I read that Aaron D. Key’s Stolid is intended to work as both part of a series and standalone story, I thought it would be interesting to give it a try.
Once I started, I found what I feel to be an interesting idea that I wish I connected with more. I feel like I just didn’t understand the main character’s motives and had difficulty connecting with him and the plot. This isn’t because of him alone, however. I’ll discuss this issue more in the writing section.
Before I go any further, let’s look at what the story is about.
Summary
We open to a man named Stolid hitching a ride with a mysterious cab driver on a rainy night. As Stolid settles in, however, something about the driver seems off. Stolid feels he has seen him before. When the two begin talking, Stolid realizes that the driver is even more mysterious than he thought, as the man claims to know everything about his passenger and his life.
Will Stolid be able to find out who this man is and what he wants?
Thoughts
I have a lot to mull over here. Honestly, the opening to the story is easy to be hooked by and I like the setting in the present timeline a lot. There is a melancholy tone in the present that I find very interesting, and it made me want to know what would come next in the story. The setting created a mood that kept me intrigued and looking for more information on what exactly Stolid’s conversation with the driver meant.
However, when the narrative jumped back into the past, that’s when the story started to lose me. Stolid meets so many characters whose motives were a total mystery to me. This made it difficult for me to know whom to trust and who was likable. It’s not that I actually dislike the characters, but rather that their actions made it difficult for me to decide whether they were good people or not.
That said, let’s discuss some of the characters in more detail.
Characters
Stolid
I find the introduction to Stolid rather interesting. His meeting with the mysterious driver sets up both an intriguing mystery while also helping the reader to learn how he’s grown after the events of his past. Seeing him move through the events of the narrative not knowing what he wants or whom to trust and then reflect on it all afterward with the driver provided a contrast between the two timelines that I liked quite a bit.
Watching him try to find what he wants for himself in the narrative involving his past is easy to sympathize with. The balancing act set up between what he feels is best for himself versus what others say is best for him gave me a lot to think about because the narrative is not up front about some of the reasons for the decisions he makes.
Anyway, I think that’s all I have on Stolid. Let’s look at one more character before we move on.
The driver
The amount of time I spent trying to decipher this man’s identity left my head spinning, but I honestly think he’s one of the most interesting characters in the entire narrative. How he would know so much about Stolid’s past without Stolid remembering for certain if they’d met before left me suspicious and invested in the mystery being built. I kept asking myself about the driver’s identity and I was trying to place him into the past narrative, only for the questions to keep coming as more was revealed in the story.
His actions and knowledge of Stolid’s life are the best part of the present timeline. His behavior and knowledge to the point where he was able to just sit by and listen as Stolid recounted his life made me want to know about him. The fact that he was so tight-lipped on his own motives gave him a threatening presence that turned mysterious as the story continued to unfold. He is probably my favorite character because of this aspect of his persona.
With all that said, I think it’s time to move on from the characters. Let’s discuss the story’s structure next.
Structure
The structure is used to meld the past and present timelines in this story, providing the narrative with the backdrop that I find so intriguing. Seeing how Stolid in the present day looks back on the past and tries to piece together how it connects with the present was the best part of the story for me, because I found myself with a lot of questions about the implications of the story being set up this way. It is also interesting to see the difference between Stolid’s actions in the past versus the present.
That said, with an interesting setup, it is important that the payoff hits home. The narrative didn’t grab me with the payoff because of both who the driver ended up being in the end and how the writing flowed. It did not come together in the way I had hoped. I kept thinking the story was going to take a different route with the ending than what ultimately happened.
That said, I think that’s all I have on the structure. Let’s move on to the writing.
Writing
So, I’ll admit that the prose in this book flew over my head in a lot of places. The word choice often made it difficult for me to figure out what exactly was being communicated because of how introspective it got. Introspection by itself is not a negative thing, but I think in a story like this (even if the story is more character-driven than plot-driven) the plot needs to give the characters more support and the reader needs to know and understand their motives and what they mean for the story.
The prose being so heavy left me feeling like I was missing something, like there was just something I didn’t get even when I was trying so hard to understand. The word choice is rather advanced and complex and, along with the heavy introspection in the story thanks to the main character, I felt like I was having to try too hard. I have no issues with more complex writing styles, but something is needed to show the implications of the text. Because the characters’ actions are as much a mystery to me as the prose, very little of the narrative connected for me and I am disappointed in having to admit that.
Well, I think I’ve covered everything. Let’s close this out.
Conclusion
I wish I’d liked this more. I just feel it isn’t for me, though. I see the setup for an intriguing story here, but I think the writing is just too deep. While I don’t think this is a bad story by any means, it was just one I ultimately couldn’t connect with.
For this reason, I will be giving the story two stars.
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