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THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS
by Gordon Dahlquist
Bantam, August 2006
768 pages
$26.00
ISBN: 0385340354


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Just looking at this 768-page tome is enough to give a prospective reader pause in this modern hurried age. The tale is not only long, however, but also quite lively, stuffed with adventure and intrigue, as well as a few sexy bits.

It is set in what appears to be Victorian London, although the reader soon realizes that none of the place or personal names is familiar. In fact they tend to be downright bizarre -- Francis Xonck, Harald Crabbé, the Contessa Lacquer-Sforza, Stropping Station, Harschmort House. The author informs us that the story began as a vivid dream, and there is something dreamlike, not to say opioid, about the entire enterprise.

The story first introduces us to Miss Celeste Temple, a pampered young lady who has just received a curt letter from her previously devoted fiance, abruptly terminating their engagement. After a brief period of shock and despair, she shows her mettle by determining to follow him and discover what has so suddenly altered his affections.

After some preliminary adventures on a mysterious train, she finds herself at a lavish house party where some extremely peculiar, sinister and possibly lascivious events are taking place. With pluck and great good fortune, she only just manages to escape.

The next two chapters introduce us to two more characters, Dr Abelard Svenson, a diplomat in the service of a dissipated young Germanic prince, and 'Cardinal' Chang, a hired assassin with a tortured soul. Each stumbles upon a peculiar and sinister event and escapes danger by inches. A fourth chapter introduces our three to each other; they discover they may be on to something extremely peculiar and horribly sinister, and agree, somewhat warily, to join forces. However, necessity soon parts them. The book continues to focus on one, then another, until they eventually meet up again near the end.

This story has an interesting flavour of Jules Verne mixed with Conan Doyle and a dollop of THE STORY OF O. Our heroes get into fantastically dangerous situations and escape again and again; the villains are supremely wicked and employ bizarre machines with lots of rubber tubes and leather straps; there are airship rides, operating theatres, swordfights and secret corridors, whores and bishops and dragoons. It's perhaps a little less than coherent in places, and occasionally teeters on the edge of self-parody, but by and large it's quite an amusing romp.

Reviewed by Diana Sandberg, September 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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