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    Trials
    Trials
    Trials
    Ebook230 pages3 hours

    Trials

    By Thane A Keller and Sarah M Keller

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Trials is a fast-paced science fiction thriller that explores the roots of human nature through the characters of Jonah and Evie Shepherd. Jonah and Evie watch their lives and marriage disintegrate as Jonah is wrongly arrested and found guilty of treason during a midnight military tribunal. Accompanying this devastating news is the real

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThane Keller
    Release dateJul 15, 2017
    ISBN9780996922456
    Trials
    Author

    Thane A Keller

    Thane is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute with a degree in psychology and a minor in English. Following college, Thane married his high school sweetheart Sarah, and started his career as a cavalryman in the United States Army. After over twelve years of service, he has deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan where he was personally engaged in ground combat. His service has thus far earned him two Bronze Stars and numerous other awards and decorations. Relying on his background in psychology, military experience, and Christian faith, Thane writes novels that seek to explore human nature under dire circumstances, the reality of pain and suffering, and the resilience of individuals to accomplish super human feats. Thane's hopes are that as readers experience his character's journey through the gift of reading, readers will be greater equipped to endure the inevitable ups and downs in life itself and dream to accomplish greater things. In addition to his wife Sarah, Thane is blessed to have four wonderful children that do all they can to keep him from pursuing his love of writing. Visit him at www.thanekeller.com

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    Reviews for Trials

    4/5

    4,082 ratings41 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A story of half-blind justice from all viewpoints.
    • 5/5
      ugh. but good anyway.
    • 2/5
      Look, it's a classic. It's not the most scintillating read, and I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it when I was a 20 year old English major. But it's fine, and it paved the way for a whole host of really great slightly surreal, absurd stories that deliver a bleak message in a readable package.
    • 4/5
      Great, definitely helped me appreciate "The Prisoner" better
    • 5/5
      This book hits me in places no other book touches. Reading it generally means locking myself up in my house alone for a few days. It is terrifying and effective and funny and paralyzing.
    • 5/5
      Although confusing and rather abstract, requiring deeper concentration than most books, The Trial is a rough draft masterpiece. One only has to wonder what might have come of it had Kafka actually finished the work to his satisfaction.
    • 3/5
      This was quite a unique book in the way the author describes the events surrounding the main character. Very surreal in a way and you get the impression that the author is trying to show his impression of things in more ways than the direct occurrence of what he's writing about. It's not an easy read but I found many of the passages very interesting and absorbing.
    • 4/5
      A whole host of interpretations of this book are out there, which is not surprising given it was unfinished by the author and the chapters are likely out of order. An interesting read, one of those stories where what you get out of it depends in part on your life experiences, your world view and beliefs.
    • 4/5
      This is more difficult to review than Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' as it is fragmented and incomplete, though, strangely, Kafka gave it an ending. In fact, everything is strange about the book, which is Kafka's intention - it's clear that he wants the reader to feel as disoriented as the 'hero' Josef K, a successful senior bank official who wakes up one morning to find his lodgings invaded by secretive policeman, come to inform him he is being arraigned for trial for some nameless crime.We never get to a trial as such, only a sort of preliminary hearing. The court and all its officials are housed in a tenement block in a poor part of town, where living quarters and offices of court are merged into one another or linked by mysterious corridors, some of which seem to open up unexpectedly, like a darker version of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. At K's office, too, bizarre scenes and exchanges take place at the opening of a door. It all contributes to a sense that nothing is quite what it seems, and everything is menace. We can't even be sure of K; all we know about him is by his own reckoning, and although he is, in the early stages of the book, very pleased with himself there are hints of character traits which are very unpleasant, not least his lecherous and vaguely misogynistic attitude to women.The power of the novel comes from K's growing obsession and sense of foreboding about the trial. We see him gradually disintegrate before us. The more he seeks to know the less he knows. The characters around him seem at once to know everything and nothing. The threat is claustrophobic and, like his supposed crime, nameless. The ending that Kafka gives us is ritualised and solemn - perhaps in the way that executions are universally, whether they be labelled 'legitimate' or 'illegitimate'. The symbolism is political, but the shiver is deeply and unforgettably personal.Reviewer David Wiliams writes a regular blog Writer in the North.
    • 4/5
      "Like a dog!" Never has a final line been so memorable, or so quotable. I was blown away when I first read "The Trial," arguable Kafka's greatest novel (though I personally have a soft spot for "The Castle"). Bureaucracy has never been quite so frightening!
    • 5/5
      Kafka's clever take on complex beauracracy is a fascinating if challenging read. Waiting to have the crime he is accused of revealed as we read is in itself a ploy that leads to the reader experiencing a small measure of the ever increasing frustration and bewilderment that the character is experiencing. My first read of a Kafka novel, and now a confirmed fan.
    • 5/5
      He didn't live to finish and edit this, but nonetheless you can see just from The Trial that Kafka's was the seminal imagination of the last century, not Beckett or Joyce. In fact Beckett is very indebted to him.
    • 4/5
      Kind of a frustrating read, as I suppose it was intended to be.
    • 1/5
      I hated this book. I know it's all meaningful and symbolic, but I hated the main character so much that I didn't care what happened to him! I kept dragging my feet on finishing this book and had to force myself to finish. Well, I'm done. Glad that's over.
    • 4/5
      Sparsely written, mostly just plot and dialogue, very little description, but still well-written. Tale in an unspecified city in an unspecified country, takes on a surreal tone; dare I say Kafkaesque?
    • 4/5
      A very memorable reading experience.
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure what to say about The Trial that hasn't already been said. It's elusive, infuriating, and beautifully dark. Parts of it reminded me of my wife. I'm not sure what that means.
    • 4/5
      Absurd, nightmarish, depressing and brilliant. The idea of someone being "arrested," "tried," and executed without ever being told what they did is unfortunately not as absurd as it used to be. Think this could only happen in Eastern European countries, Russia, Islamofacist strongholds? Think again.
    • 3/5
      My second Kafka, and I am now pretty sure he is indeed not my cup of tea. I think the ideas in his works are interesting, the surrealism/absurdity is something I enjoy at other times and it does work, but somehow I just find it quite tedious to read in Kafka. The story-lines intrigue me, but getting through them takes effort. I think he's worth reading, but at the same time I hesitate to recommend him.
    • 4/5
      Good book, very well-written. The style of composition sterile, the story twisting and elaborating, the air suffocating, which serves the point well. Kafka is still beyond my grasp though =.= he makes me fall asleep.
    • 3/5
      There was something about this book that kept me from connecting with it in an emotional way, perhaps if this is a life experience that you can relate to on a personal level this story would quickly entice you, if not there is no real structural criticism to novel that is overtly distracting. Yet I found myself wandering and wondering subconsciously if there were allusions or aphorisms that i was not privilege too. This is still an excellent read, don't over think it.
    • 4/5
      Arrested for no reason and put on trial, this famous unfinished novel is an exercise in frustration. I didn't love the book, but I appreciate what Kafka did. The absurdity of bureaucracy was perfectly highlighted.
    • 2/5
      There are some interesting themes and a few isolated gems of dark humour but this was so boring to read. So boring your brain may not allow you to do anything other than skim the text and look anxiously at page numbers. Perhaps this was the whole point. Half way through there is an interminable paragraph about advocates. Camus' The Outsider is a way better read if you want something existential. Much funnier too.
    • 5/5
      Deeply powerful and terrifying.
    • 4/5
      This book just left me deflated. It wasn't until the end that I really pitied K, and thought of how frightening this whole ordeal would be were I in his position.
    • 5/5
      This was my first Kafka piece. What an amazing writer. Plot, character, staggering profundity......it is all there. I think this is one of the few books which I could and may need to re-read. I'm sorry that I took so long to get around to this author!
    • 4/5
      As the Trial is somewhat of a classic, I really don't have much to add. Overall I really liked the book and its sense of paranoia and futility in the face of bureaucracy. If you are familiar at all with Kafka, you'll neither be surprised nor disappointed.
    • 4/5
      This a quite a strange book but very good. It is about a man who is arrested and on trial but is never told what his crime was. He tries to get people to defend him without success, and tries on his own but it is no help. He seems to go a bit mad in the process. The trial itself is very strange, not held in proper court rooms, no one knows who the officials are. A really interesting psychological story.
    • 4/5
      Indrukwekkende klassieker, blijft nog altijd zeer bevreemdend. Belangrijk thema is zeker de onmacht van het individu tegenover de anonieme maatschappelijke macht, maar nog belangrijker is dat van de menselijke relaties: wie ben ik en hoe wordt ik bekeken in de ogen van de anderen?
    • 3/5
      Densely dark, and difficult to read because of extraordinarily long paragraphs, but it gets you in, and makes you read to the end. Morbidly funereal plot, and should not be read by anyone who thinks "they are out to get me".

    Book preview

    Trials - Thane A Keller

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