Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Gordon Dahlquist's doorstopper of a debut novel, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, has charismatic protagonists, an original premise and plenty of action. The problem is that, at 760 pages, it's about 300 pages too long.
Dahlquist, who is also a playwright, has written a tale that combines swashbuckling adventure, a big dose of science fiction and burgeoning romance. But beware of carpal tunnel syndrome because of the demands of so much page turning.
Glass Books mostly takes place in an unnamed, imagined city and in an unspecified time period, but the setting has the feel of Victorian London.
It all starts when Miss Celestial Temple's fiance, Roger Bascombe, breaks off their engagement. Temple doesn't take it lightly and decides to ferret out the reason.
Her detective work leads her to Harschmort Manor, where masked men and women appear to be involved in some sort of erotic carryings-on and scientific experiments.
But Temple sees more than she should, and a mysterious group of men and women try to kill her.
Temple escapes their clutches and eventually teams up with Cardinal Chang, an assassin (the most interesting character in the book), and captain/surgeon Abelard Svenson, the primary caretaker for a ne'er-do-well German prince.
The three endure poisonings, gunfights, foot chases and clunks on the head as they search for the murderer of an adjutant colonel, the reason for the breakup of Temple's engagement and the location of the missing prince.
It all leads to a face-off with a cabal of government officials, military leaders, scientists and wealthy power seekers who are using a kind of alchemy to steal people's memories and ensconce them in mysterious books made out of blue glass.
Mind control is their goal as they seek to gain power and riches from their scheme.
There are lots of fascinating scenes in which people are turned into blue glass, are tinted blue or spew blue foam from their mouths -- and these are some of the really good scenes in the book.
If you're having trouble keeping up, it's not you -- it's this overstuffed book. Few authors, especially neophytes, can get away with writing a nearly 800-page novel.
The truth is, the only people who may have enough patience to read every word of this bloated novel are the people who have all the time in the world -- inmates serving life sentences.
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
By Gordon Dahlquist
Bantam, 760 pp., $26
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