The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
top ten things i like that are at least tangentially associated with Glass Books of the Dream Eaters:1. STEAMPUNKis there a more ill-suited name for a subgenre? what exactly is punk rock about corsets or guns or victorian morals or dirigibles? gack! that was the sound that just came out of my mouth when considering the word "steampunk". still, i love the genre despite its name.2. GLASS"Once I had a love and it was a gasSoon turned out had a heart of glassSeemed like the real thing, only to findMuch of mistrust, love's gone behind."how true, oh how true! poor Miss Temple.3. BOOKhere's a list-within-a-list: top ten adventures in reading that you can also weightlift (in no particular order): 1) Bellefleur & A Bloodsmoor Romance & Mysteries of Winturthurn 2) A Dance to the Music of Time 3) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 4) The Raj Quartet 5) The Flounder 6) Remembrance of Things Past 7) A Suitable Boy 8) Porius + A Glastonbury Romance = you'll never get to read again 9) Gormenghast etc. 10) The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters4. DREAMonce i worked with a lady by the name of cody. in many ways, not a person dreamy in temperament: a former cheerleader, a steely sorority girl, a lover of the branded men from the campus' black fraternity. one day i asked her What Is Your Favorite Part Of Life? i'm not sure why i asked her this lame question, but i did. her honest response, after much consideration: When I'm Asleep. when she saw my surprise, she continued by explaining that she loved to sleep because that was when she was able to dream. 20 years later, i was reminded of her when reading Glass Books. the idea of a dream-life - one that encompasses all of the adventures you know that you'll never have - is transformed into the novel's concept of other, more glamorous (and dangerous, and erotic) experiences that can be shared and devoured by others, as dreams springing from books. it is an enormously fertile concept. a too-short sequence that depicts the heroine's engulfment within a book of such dreams is one of the novel's highlights - a darkly vivid and mysterious rush of intriguing imagery and thrilling experience.5. EATi love details in books. that may be why i really appreciate longer novels rather than shorter ones. i love excessive description of decor, food, clothing, music, motivation, thought process... i like the journey to be long, not rushed, a journey that is so thoroughly detailed that i feel i've truly entered another world, especially if it is a world that i don't want to leave any time soon. i eat those details up! this novel: a feast.6. FEISTY HEROINESare they a cliché yet? i surely hope not, but they are probably a centuries-old cliché by now. still, Glass Books features a dream of a feisty heroine: Celestial Temple, Celeste to her confidantes and Miss Temple to domestic staff and strange men. it is always an enjoyable thing to find a heroine who kills her adversaries with barely a second thought and with no tedious soul-searching or hand-wringing, and no tormented feelings of guilt to be wrestled with either. some assholes are just worth killing and not worrying about it, well at least the ones in Glass Books. Miss Temple's various examples of bad-assery are combined with the delicate yearnings of a Jane Austen heroine and a meticulous attention to detail and correct behavior out of both Austen and Wharton: it is a fetching combination and one that is happily not transformed into complete cartoonishness. one of the more enjoyable amusements in the novel is her ongoing contemplation of whether or not her brief dream-submergence within a harlot's graphic sexual encounters somehow made her less of a virgin, and if the continued and often breathless contemplation of those acts make her a woman of experience or simply sort of a slut.7. CLASS WARFAREit is the war that happens around all of us constantly, yet is there a war that is more easily ignored or hidden? that is one of the virtues of many English novels, particularly those works that describe the colonial experience - class warfare is often at the forefront. class warfare is also at the root of the Cardinal Chang character, his eyes hideously scarred by some unnamed nobleman's whip, not an asian actually (his nickname is a cruel racist joke at his eyes' expense), and on a lifelong mission to define himself in opposition to those in power - constantly chafing and reacting to the slightest hint of snobbery or condescension from the upper classes. the chapters that detail his perspective include some of the more passionate and snappy renunciations that i've read lately regarding the moneyed power brokers, the political shot-callers, and the glamorously idle rich. it's always nice to read about a committed bolshevist who isn't a wingnut. even better, he's also an assassin for hire!8. ARROGANCE BROUGHT LOWthe third major character is Doctor Svenson, and he is a portrait of how to get the last word with folks who consider themselves your betters. less political than Chang, a double agent, prone to vertigo when confronted with heights, a man forlorn over the premature death of his lady love...and a doctor who seriously does not take any shit from any person at any time. this is not a tough guy in the vein of Chang: he is less wish fulfillment for the reader and more of a reader stand-in, full of insecurity and self-doubt. well, there's still plenty of wish fulfillment to be had: when pressed, he acts decisively and aggressively, and the chapters from his perspective are rife with condescending sneers to those who would condescend to him, assorted petty and mean-spirited put-downs tossed at his antagonists, haughty disdain towards those in authority, constant baiting of the various villains. best of all, he never lacks for a large wad of spit to be hawked and hurled at his antagonists, often at the moment of his eminent demise. and yet... such a gentleman, of the old school! he is my favorite character in the novel.9. LONG & LAVISH NOVELSno offense to any of my pals, but i sure do get tired at whining over novels that are too long. come on already, grow a pair! take the day off, call in sick! they'll believe you if you do it two days in a row! immerse yourself in a long novel, like you would in a glass book of dreams! abandon yourself to wordiness, literariness, lavish characterization, lush description! you deserve it! stop being such a pussy! pussycat that is - you know, they have such short attention spans.10. TERRIFYING WOMEN MADE ALL OF BLUE GLASS WHO PROJECT THEIR DREAMS AND CAN CONTROL YOUR THOUGHTSthis novel includes them. they're pretty great!
This book has three viewpoint characters,there is Celeste Temple the proper young lady,Cardinal Chang the assassin and Dr Svenson the man of doctoring and science.Cardinal Chang first encounter Celeste on a train when she is covered in blood after going to the villains mansion to search for her fiancee to know why he vanished and broke it off so suddenly.I cant remember how the doctor enters the plot as he was pretty unmemorable and with all the other things you had to keep track of in this book you have to expect casualties. So when I started reading this I had all my hopes up there would steampunk elements and good adventure throughout but I wasnt expecting all the eroticism that the backcover promises.But when I first read it back in 2007 there was no mention of all that. So I guess it has been added later.I dont have a trouble with sex in books I am not one of these people who only want "clean" reads but this one had me feeling a bit akward. In my head I thought of them as those awkward sexual scenes and made me wonder what purpose in bringing the plot forward they contributed to. There is a good reason the blurb of this book mentions "perverted religion" and "erotic literary adventure" because its a constant theme through the book. The glass books of the title can be used to store a persons memories but it seems what most of them contain is memories of a sexual nature.I would have thought the technology could have some more practical use but then I am not part of twisted powerhungry cult who WANTS TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. And their evilest mastermind is a bi-sexual Contessa. :/(view spoiler)[she even sexually harass the female main character...but its not that bad-for it releases the repressed WOMANPOWER in her. Yes remember when the blurb promised an erotic literary adventure? Thats it. Some people in other books get awesome powers but not Celeste,she only gets the power of realizing that being touched against her will totally made her break free of her role as a proper young innocent victorian lady. Now shes unstoppable!I was surprised she didnt burn her corsetThis author has a very odd notion about womens and their sexuality (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters (2006)?
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters were my first introduction to the genre of "Steampunk Fantasy", or maybe it's the first book of that genre as it is certainly unlike anything I've read before. Regardless of what other reviewers have written here, I myself could not put it down; talk about downright fun escapism! Written in the style of a gaslight era seriel novel it had everything: mystery and suspense, action, sex [with a healthy dose of fetishism], shockingly evil yet somehow strangely alluring villians with plans for world domination, the burgeoning of an unlikely romance, and plenty of cliff-hanger moments. I found I really cared about the three main protoganists who join together to save themselves and the world: Miss Temple, the quintessential no-nonsense, proper lady who discovers a darker, wilder, side of herself. Cardinal Chang, the mysterious, poetry loving, and quite deadly, assassin who finds himself drawn to Miss Temple. And of course the haunted and gallant Dr. Svenson. Admittedly, there were a few somewhat slow passages but not enough to put me off and most of the book was more like a gothic rollercoaster ride through a house of toungue-in-cheek horrors. I did not read the book until the two volume paperback editions were published and when I reached the end of Volume I, I immediately went to the bookstore for volume II. This novel and it's sequel, The Dark Volume, are singlehandedly responsible for my failure to do any spring-cleaning this year! Dahlquists unique style may not be for everyone but I am hoping for a third installment!
—Donna
So steampunk is a thing and people really like it. Last week someone I work for saw I was reading this and asked me about it. I used the word "steampunk" and she got terribly excited. "That's like a thing, right?" She asked. Yes, it's a thing. Turns out she had just seen some show on HGTV where they were trying to sell a home that had been designed in a steampunk fashion. How in the world does one sell a steampunk-fashioned house? Why, you host a steampunk party, of course!I don't have a lot of steampunk experience yet, but the concept excites me considerably. I've read some Neal Stephenson, and I guess some of his stuff qualifies, and strangely I haven't been that excited by them. Now that I've read this I'm beginning to wonder if this is just not my genre at all.This book certainly has all the makings of something that should completely rock - including two of my favorite words in the title: Books and Dream. A mysterious secret cabal? Why, that sounds exciting! Adventure? Yes, please!But then the story never really took off for me and it really never went anywhere. I understand this is the author's first novel, but previously he was a playwright. I think plays might be more his forte. I think it's hard to go from writing plays to writing almost 800 pages of a novel in a very specific established genre; I think Dahlquist got a bit stuck in writing details. There were moments of greatness (like detailing the spread at a tea tray for one character), but they were few and far between.Not the worst I've ever read, but not enough to keep me excited throughout. I might eventually check out the sequel, but I'm more interested to see how it translates to the big screen (even though it doesn't look like there's a real release date yet).It's a long book and not enough of the right oompf for me to feel it was worth the length.
—El
This is a hefty volume - over 750 pages in hardcover - whose elegant, fluid prose is of consistently high quality throughout: complex, bold and even witty. Frankly, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters would be a tremendous achievement even if it weren't also a ripping good yarn. This is Dahlquist's first published novel, and he writes with an assurance beyond his years and experience.Dahlquist establishes a trio of disparate, unlikely but likeable protagonists for his story: diminutive but strong-willed Celeste Temple, raised a child of privilege on a tropical island before being transplanted to London; Cardinal Chang, a scarred mercenary of the London streets; and Captain-Surgeon Abelard Svenson, personal physician to the Crown Prince of the Duchy of Macklenburg. Svenson is in London for the Prince's wedding to the beautiful Lydia Vandaariff. Each character - and I have only named a fraction of the host of individuals crowding these pages - is unique and interesting. Swapping viewpoints with aplomb, Dahlquist advances the story through each successive pair of eyes.Temple, Chang and Svenson find themselves united in opposition to a vast and shadowy conspiracy (the best kind, at least for fictional purposes). Britain's rich and powerful are doing extremely uncharacteristic things - an atmosphere of bold licentiousness quite at odds with Victorian propriety prevails on the train to Harschmort where we first meet Miss Temple, and things get stranger from there. There is a mysterious Process, alchemical or scientific in nature, which seems to involve sheets of strange blue glass - the Glass Books of the title.This book occupies much the same spot in my mental catalogue as Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - not that they're very similar in detail, but they do both treat of a Victorian England colored with strange happenings, and they do share a delight in the precise use of the English language in all its complex glory, something of a rarity in these dark days.The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is not by any means a perfect book, nor one for all audiences. The violence in Dahlquist's decadent Victorian world is frequent, graphic and often cartoonish - as is the sex. But I was, as local music critic Charles Mudede says in quite another context, "at once disturbed by the violence and drawn to the beauty" ("It's Tricky," the Portland Mercury (March 26, 2009), p. 17).While I was finishing my second reading of this novel during a vacation in Port Townsend, Washington, not far from Dahlquist's origins, I was delighted to discover, entirely serendipitously, that he has also written a sequel, The Dark Volume, in which at least some of the characters from his first book make another appearance... I'll be picking that one up too, I do believe.
—Alan
