The glass books of the dream eaters : Miss temple, cardinal chang, and dr. svenson series, book 1

With translation rights sold in twenty-five countries, Gordon Dahlquist’s spectacular and extraordinary debut novel was one of the most-talked-about acquisitions of 2005. Now this monumental Victorian thriller is destined to be the publishing sensation of 2006. It began with a simple note: a letter of rejection from Miss Temple’s fiancé, written on crisp Ministry paper and delivered on her maid’s silver tray. But for Miss Temple, Roger Bascombe’s cruel rejection will ignite a harrowing quest for answers, plunging her into a mystery as dizzying as a hall of mirrors—and a remote estate where danger abounds and all inhibitions are stripped bare....Thus begins Gordon Dahlquist’s debut novel of Victorian suspense—at once a dazzling feast for the senses and a beguiling, erotic literary adventure. Nothing could have prepared Miss Temple for where her pursuit of Roger Bascombe would take her—or for the shocking things she would find behind the closed doors of forbidding Harschmort Manor: men and women in provocative disguise, acts of licentiousness and violence, heroism and awakening. But she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a brutal assassin with the heart of a poet, and a royal doctor named Svenson, at once fumbling and heroic—both of whom, like her, lost someone at Harschmort Manor. As the unlikely trio search for answers—hurtling them from elegant brothels to gaslit alleyways to shocking moments of self-discovery-- they are confronted by puzzles within puzzles. And the closer they get to the truth, the more their lives are in danger. For the conspiracy they face—an astonishing alchemy of science, perverted religion, and lust for power—is so terrifying as to be beyond belief. In a novel that shatters conventions and seethes with danger and eroticism, Gordon Dahlquist has made a spectacular literary debut. And in Miss Temple he has created an unforgettable guide through a disturbing, seductive, and all-too-real world. By turns brutal and tender, shocking and deliciously romantic, The Glass Books of The Dream Eaters is a novel for the ages, a bold and brilliant work of the imagination From the Hardcover edition. Amazon.com Review Gordon Dahlquist's debut novel is a big, juicy, epic that will appeal to Diana Gabaldon fans (see her quote below) and lovers of literary fantasy, like Keith Donohue's The Stolen Child . The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters begins with a "Dear Jane" letter in which Celeste Temple learns of the end of her engagement. Curiosity leads her to follow her fiancé to London where she uncovers a secret. Find out more about the origins of this suspenseful literary romance, in Dahlquist's note to readers, below. A Note from the Author In the winter of 2004 I was selected for jury duty (at the very same time Martha Stewart went to trial in the next building over--we all had to walk past the fifteen media vans to get to our courthouse). Since the courts in Manhattan are near Chinatown, I like jury duty, as it means a few days of excellent lunches. Instead, New York was hit with a ferocious, sub-zero ice storm that went on for days, where it was impossible to wander in the way I had hoped, and so, with the grind of the trial itself, we jurors were marooned for close to 4 hours each day in the jury room. The second night of the trial, however, I had a strange dream where a friend of mine appeared in the exact garb of one of The Glass Books' three main characters, Doctor Svenson, and together we faced a mystery in a strange, dark, Victorian building involving prisoners in a creepy upstairs room without a door. While I very rarely remember my dreams, the next morning I found this one percolating in my head quite vividly. But then, for no reason I can recall, I took out a notebook, and began--instead of the Doctor, who I would get to almost off-handedly in another 100 pages or so--writing about a willful young woman from the West Indies whose fiancée has abandoned her without explanation, making it up as I went along. By the end of the trial I had the first chapter. I am by trade a playwright, and had not written prose fiction of any kind for nearly 20 years, but I found myself hooked on the story and the characters--perhaps out of my own desire to know what happened next--and so persisted, putting aside most everything else, writing for the most part in coffee shops and on the subway, until I finished the book almost exactly one year later. --Gordon Dahlquist From Publishers Weekly Debut novelist Dahlquist aims for a blockbuster with a mishmash of Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre and Eyes Wide Shut that never quite comes together. Three months after 25-year-old Celeste Temple travels from "her island" (a Bermuda-like place) plantation home to Victorian London, fiancé Roger Bascombe breaks their engagement. Driven more by curiosity than desire, she follows him from his job at the foreign ministry to Harschmort House, where, with little prodding, she quickly finds herself in silk undergarments at a ritual involving masked guests and two-way mirrors. Making her escape, Miss Temple (as she's called throughout) kills a henchman. Ceremony organizers pursue her as she pursues their secrets. Poetry-quoting assassin Cardinal Chang and diplomat Dr. Abelard Svenson come to her aid. Chang tries to save a half-Chinese prostitute; Abelard tries to save a governess named Elöise; Miss Temple discovers she is not the woman she thought she was, nor Roger the man she hoped for. Meanwhile, through science and alchemy, evildoers capture erotic memories and personal will in blue crystals. Dahlquist introduces so many characters, props and plot twists, near-death experiences and narrow escapes that the novel has the feel of a frantic R-rated classic comic book—if comics were arch. (Aug. 29) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Product Details File Size: 802 KB Print Length: 784 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385340354 Publisher: Bantam (August 29, 2006) Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Language: English ASIN: B000JMKQYO Text-to-Speech: Not enabled X-Ray: Not Enabled Lending: Not Enabled Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,424 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) Did we miss any relevant features for this product? Tell us what we missed. Would you like to give feedback on images or tell us about a lower price ? Customer Reviews 3.4 out of 5 stars (98) 3.4 out of 5 stars 5 star 39 4 star 10 3 star 17 2 star 16 1 star 16 See all 98 customer reviews “ No book should require more than 700 pages. ” maryzeus | 13 reviewers made a similar statement “ My late mother had a way of describing books like this: "There are too many words on the pages." ” Tom S. | 24 reviewers made a similar statement “ I really wanted to like this book, and I did read it to the very end hoping to like it better but sorry to say it didn't happen. ” Brooklyn Bookworm | 16 reviewers made a similar statement Most Helpful Customer Reviews 40 of 45 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! August 2, 2006 By Michelle Grey Format:Hardcover I'm not generally a fantasy book afficionado, though I loved the Phillip Pullman books and grew up on Lord of the Rings, but when a friend recommended this book, I thought what the hell, I liked the cover and the first chapter was riveting in an odd and totally original way. Needless to say - I gobbled it up. The characters were fantastically vivid, and the whole imagined world so impressively conceived, I was literally on the edge of my seat. (I read a lot of it riding on the NY subway and found myself missing stops, and in one particular scene which I won't spoil for you, getting very red in the face...) It honestly didn't even feel long, the action moves incredibly fast - the writing had irony, wit and humor - it felt like fantasy wrapped in social satire - the glass books seemed to me to be an allegory for the dangerous force of all power hungry media structures that work on your base instincts and deprive you of your individuality, your critical mind, your creativity. I recommend this book to anyone who wants something really original. Comment | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No 56 of 65 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Really glad I bought this one August 7, 2006 By J. R. SOUTH Format:Hardcover I have a penchant for long, challenging novels, and "Glass Books" is certainly both. But don't let the words "long" & "challenging" discourage you from reading it. It is bizarre and unique, firmly rooted in a universal subconscious, both the author's and our own (by now you no doubt know that the creative impetus of the book sprung from a dream). It is also very visceral, a gothic mystery that you can totally get absorbed into. After picking up and discouragingly putting down novel after novel looking for a great summer read (I also enjoyed last summer's Dracula epic, "The Historian"), I finally found a winner! Comment | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No 31 of 35 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars The 'return' of the Victorian Sci Fi Thriller August 4, 2006 By HH Cardigan Format:Hardcover At last! Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle and the Marquis de Sade have risen from the grave and told us a story! Glass BOoks is basically a Victorian Sci Fi Thriller with a plot like a Nautilus shell. It twists and turns and keeps drawing you in deeper. You follow these three odd characters--a resourceful jilted fiancee, an assassin with a scarred face and a heart of gold, a whack job physician--as they pursue the central mystery: What is up with these blue glass books? There's some sort of process, involving women strapped to tables and some sort of political cabal and this weird blue glass that has the property of turning people into hopped up zombies, of a kind--much like our own television sets do, perhaps.... It all takes place in a sort of re-imagined late-19th century Europe. As if it comes to us through the filter of period literature. Velveteen boudoirs, dashing dragoons, hidden passages... It's deftly written and a wild read. In one nice trope, two brass-masked men see an act of violence witn "the dumb inconmprehension of inhabitants from the moon first witnessing the savagery of human kind," a trope that invokes Melies as much as Verne. Most of all it's a world you can live in, and don't want to leave anytime soon. Think MYST. If you've ever played, you'll see what I mean. The world's created, then you move about it in it and its got tricks and surprises and self-consistent rules. I can't explain Glass Book's attraction by reference to any single other book, which is I think praise in itself. You'll have to read it. Comment | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No › See all 98 customer reviews (newest first) Write a customer review Most Recent Customer Reviews 2.0 out of 5 stars Probably good if it had been edited I love long novels with many characters but this dragged despite the action. I was instantly sucked in by the mystery and vivid writing but soon was forcing myself to continue. Read more Published 4 months ago by CEK 5.0 out of 5 stars Escapism At Its Best! This was actually the second time I have read this novel, and now I plan to re-read the second in the series, "The Dark Volume. Read more Published 4 months ago by Thomas S. Romo 5.0 out of 5 stars Glass book/dream eate rs I was looking for a book to read at the libray, picked this one up, realized it was capturing me so I bought this copy. It is like no other book I have ever read.... Read more Published 6 months ago by Chevitts 5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossingly original It's been over a couple of years ago since I finished this book & it still lingers in my mind as one of the most intricate, creative, and mesmerizing works ever. Read more Published 7 months ago by coll hic 2.0 out of 5 stars Can't believe I finished it One of the few books I almost stopped reading and it got so painful about halfway through, I wonder why I kept on to the end. Read more Published 7 months ago by With translation rights sold in twenty-five countries, Gordon Dahlquist's spectacular and extraordinary debut novel was one of the most-talked-about acquisitions of 2005. Now this monumental Victorian thriller is destined to be the publishing sensation of 2006.It began with a simple note: a letter of rejection from Miss Temple's fiance, written on crisp Ministry paper and delivered on her maid's silver tray. But for Miss Temple, Roger Bascombe's cruel rejection will ignite a harrowing quest for answers, plunging her into a mystery as dizzying as a hall of mirrors--and a remote estate where danger abounds and all inhibitions are stripped bare....Thus begins Gordon Dahlquist's debut novel of Victorian suspense--at once a dazzling feast for the senses and a beguiling, erotic literary adventure.Nothing could have prepared Miss Temple for where her pursuit of Roger Bascombe would take her--or for the shocking things she would find behind the closed doors of forbidding Harschmort Manor: men and women in provocative disguise, acts of licentiousness and violence, heroism and awakening. But she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a brutal assassin with the heart of a poet, and a royal doctor named Svenson, at once fumbling and heroic--both of whom, like her, lost someone at Harschmort Manor. As the unlikely trio search for answers--hurtling them from elegant brothels to gaslit alleyways to shocking moments of self-discovery-- they are confronted by puzzles within puzzles. And the closer they get to the truth, the more their lives are in danger. For the conspiracy they face--an astonishing alchemy of science, perverted religion, and lust for power--is so terrifying as to be beyond belief.In a novel that shatters conventions and seethes with danger and eroticism, Gordon Dahlquist has made a spectacular literary debut. And in Miss Temple he has created an unforgettable guide through a disturbing, seductive, and all-too-real world. By turns brutal and tender, shocking and deliciously romantic, The Glass Books of The Dream Eaters is a novel for the ages, a bold and brilliant work of the imaginationFrom the Hardcover edition. Blending science fiction and dark fantasy, this monumental Victorian thriller is a dazzling feast for the senses: an action-packed roller-coaster ride of suspense, betrayal, and richly fevered dreams. #160; It starts with a simple note. Roger Bascombe regretfully wishes to inform Celeste Temple that their engagement is forthwith terminated. Determined to find out why, Miss Temple takes the first step in a journey that will propel her into a dizzyingly seductive, utterly shocking world beyond her imagining. #160; Nothing could have prepared Miss Temple for the things she would find behind the closed doors of forbidding Harschmort Manor: men and women in provocative disguise, acts of licentiousness and violence, heroism and awakening. But she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a brutal assassin with the heart of a poet, and a royal doctor named Svenson, at once fumbling and heroicboth of whom, like her, lost someone at Harschmort Manor. #160; As the unlikely trio search for answers, hurtling them from elegant brothels to gaslit alleyways to shocking moments of self-discovery, they are confronted by puzzles within puzzles. And the closer they get to the truth, the more their lives are in danger. For the conspiracy they facean astonishing alchemy of science, perverted religion, and lust for poweris so terrifying as to be beyond belief. #160; Praise for The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters #160; The most original thing Ive read in years: deftly executed, relentlessly inventive, and with a trio of the most unusual and engaging heroes who ever took on a sinister cabal out to rule the world by means of sex and dreams. Diana Gabaldon #160; A tale that combines swashbuckling adventure, a big dose of science fiction and burgeoning romance. USA Today #160; Rich . . . studded with treats . . . beautifully written. Entertainment Weekly #160; Sweeping, highly original and absorbing . . . defies categorization. The Dallas Morning News