I spent my three-day weekend cleaning. [Labour Day weekend, which is sort of the unofficial end of summer and one of the few bank holidays in the States.] But now that my house is practically immaculate I can really get some reading and commonplacing done. Currently reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Dalhquist, which is a steampunky sort of Victorian tome. I’m not very far in, but I’m enjoying the various points of view–I do like it when novels are told by different characters. The novel is sprawling and intriguing and all those good things, but it could do with a little editing.

Also still reading and loving Great Expectations and My Wars Are Laid Away in Books , which is a biography of Emily Dickinson. I read Tom Bedlam by George Hagen last week and enjoyed it very much–it was quite Dickensian. It’s rather Victorian around my house these days–it’s interesting how you occasionally get into reading … not ‘rut’ really, just when you wind up unintentionally reading quite a few books in a similar vein. Or perhaps that only happens to me.

[This is a post from a previous blog. Original post date: 4 September 2007]

My current favourite distraction is Arcane Empires , a strategy game with a Steampunk feel. A pretty typical strategy game, the goal is to build a city and grow an army in order to continue building your city and growing your army. You mine and farm resources as well as learn magic in order to advance your goals. There are alliances (which are good) and a global chat feature, that takes up valuable screen real estate and cannot be shut off (which is bad). It’s free and would be fine for all ages if you could turn off the global chat. Currently I’m levelling up so I can train armoured mammoths. Very looking forward to that. Available for Android and iOS devices.

For those that prefer their Victorian a little less parallel-universe-y, I recommend Blackwood and Bell Mysteries & Gardens of Time . They’re by the same company and look extremely similar. The game play is the same, as well: you’ve just come on as a new detective and you earn coins and points by doing hidden object scenes in order to find clues. You then use those coins to buy things for your London street in Blackwood and Bell or garden in Gardens of Time. It’s the sort of game where you have to wait for your energy to refill so that can be frustrating. Also, you can’t really decorate your garden or block the way you’d like, as you have missions where you have to have a certain number of items before you can level up. So your screen winds up being cluttered with the multiples of the most high value items rather than a mix of what looks best. Still, they are a bit of fun. Both are free and can be played on Android and iOS devices, as well as on Facebook.

Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles . I was really looking forward to this one, but there was a load screen between every scene and sometimes when trying to do something within a scene. The graphics were good, as were the hidden object scenes and minigames. The storytelling was fine from the preview I played, but the load screen issue gave me too much time to think, ‘Why am I doing this when I could be doing something productive?’ Really good hidden object games should make you regret wasting that five hours after you’ve done so, as you were too engaged at the time to notice. I opted not to purchase the full game, but it’s $2.99USD

Title and author of book? The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist

Genre? Victorian fiction/steampunk/Victorian techie fiction

What led you to pick up this book? I wanted to read more steampunk fiction and had heard good things about this one on my favourite (now-defunct) book forum Readerville.

Summarize the plot, but don’t give away the ending . Three dissimilar people take on a nefarious Cabal set on seizing power through a mysterious Process. The Process can render memories into the physical form of blue glass books, which can then be ‘read’ by anyone. The books are addictive and the chemicals used to make them highly dangerous. Lots of swordplay, as well as most other weapons available to the Victorians.

What did you like most about the book? The action sequences were well done. Usually I don’t appreciate action scenes–I see them as necessary to get back to the characters or plot–but these were good. There are several on trains and airships that were suspenseful and interesting. And the sex scenes were well-written. This is saying something, as some of the best writers can’t write a sex scene that isn’t cringe-inducing. Dahlquist doesn’t get too explicit, yet one knows what’s going on, which is perfect. I also liked the descriptions of the Process and the gadgetry involved with that.

What did you dislike about the book? The story is told from three different points of view and each character had their own questions they wanted answered; this resulted in paragraphs of questions running through each of their minds, which was quite confusing.

What did you think of the main character? The story is told from three different points of view–a German doctor sent to look after the German prince of Macklenburg, a spoiled but resourceful young woman of means and a hardened assassin. Each character is rendered believably and they take turns telling the story–pushing the plot along. The Cabal consists of enough characters to populate a Russian novel and all of their motivations and machinations get confusing at times. It’s obvious Dahlquist has put much thought into each of the characters, though. The most prominent of the bad guys is the Contessa. Classic Lady MacBeth type, but entertaining enough. It was never clear to me what drove her other than power-lust.

Share some quotes from the book.
The chief one that comes to mind is: Dreading what you cannot change serves no purpose.

Share a favorite scene from the book.
There’s a sequence where all three of the protagonists are at a massive estate in the English countryside that is well rendered. None know where the other two are (or where they personally are on the estate) and the reader really gets a sense of the size of the grounds and the playing-it-by-ear-ness of what the characters are doing.

What about the ending?
The ending was fine. Usually I’m unhappy with endings of novels–particularly long novels where it can feel like the author simply tired of writing and said, “Fine, here’s the end,” but this one felt true to the story. This is a Victorian England story written in that style, so certain things had to happen and that was to be expected.

Overall Rating: 7/10 It could have used some editing, but overall it was a fun ride.

[Post from a previous blog. Original post date: 10 October, 2007]