Not bad for a first novel--but not great, either
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is a promising fictional debut, but one that comes just shy of being able to keep its promises. It follows three interesting characters whose personal intrigues lead them to become entangled in a political intrigue involving the cult of an alchemist painter who has invented a process for removing a person's memories--thereby making that person into an empty shell and thus a subservient slave--and putting those memories into special blue glass books which allows "readers" to experience the memories contained therein first-hand. An interesting concept, with interesting characters...but not too interesting. The plot is a bit repetetive. The three protagonists go to the villains' headquarters independently, are captured, then escape. They meet up with each other, separate, each go back to the villains' headquarters, are captured...and so on. During each cycle, they all learn a bit more about what's going on, and then share their new piece of the puzzle with the others when they are reunited, but this pattern does grow a bit tedious by the end. Everything about this novel is "not quite." The super-advanced, quasi-mystical technology of the villains *almost* works (in terms of the reader's suspension of disbelief), but not quite. The characters are likeable, but not quite loveable. Their stories are readable, but not compelling. The author's prose style is more than competent, but not quite artistic or beautiful. Rather than slogging through the whole book, my advice is to just pick up this abridged audiobook version. Here's hoping that Gordon Dahlquist's second novel will be everything that this one could have been.