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jowithtwoiis's review against another edition
3.0
This book was somewhat compelling but ultimately pointless. Not that that will stop me from reading a follow-up novel - I've GOT to find out what happens to Cardinal Chang.
alanaleigh's review against another edition
1.0
In finishing this book, Dorothy Parker came to mind... "This is not a novel to be tossed lightly aside. It should be thrown with great force."
The greatest joy that I experienced with this book came when I was finally finished and could set it aside. I disliked The Dark Volume so intensely that my opinion of the first book (in what is now clearly intended to be a series), The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, was actually tainted by association.
Gordon Dahlquist, what happened? Oh wait, I know. The large amounts of studied creativity, character development and lavish scenery gave way to the deep need to keep things going in a serial format, and thus yielded a book where very little was described in valuable detail and a great deal happened, but almost none of it was of any consequence. I may have only spent nine days reading this (or rather, trying to read this, as I couldn't ever say that I got into it enough to the point where I experienced any pains in setting it down, even in the middle of a sentence), but it felt like the longest nine days that I've experienced in a great while. As a result, not only was I frustrated, but anyone who happened to be around me while I read this was incensed against the book, too. My significant other implored me to stop reading it, as he could hardly take my growls of annoyance and exasperated exclamations of, "Just die already!" (which were directed at multiple characters throughout the course of the novel).
And as far as trajectory, well, we seem to have ended up in the exact same damn place, only everyone is much dirtier. (Though admittedly, that clearly is the goal of the author, to expose the darker, corrosive side of what might seem an alluring power. Still, I was overjoyed when a character stopped to take a bath during this volume.) Confrontation between a large number of characters where the alliances are tenuous at best before everything shatters... I mean honestly, if it was going to lead to such a similar conclusion, what was even gained by the events of this book? At least the last time we saw this tableau, it was aboard a dirigible! (There may be a dirigible on the cover of this book, but there is not one in the book... unless you count references to the sunken one from the first book.) The Dark Volume failed to have anywhere near the same amount of creativity as its predecessor (not to mention that at least The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters took place in interesting locations, whereas we spend the whole of The Dark Volume in destroyed and crumbling buildings, inhaling smoke from explosions, and crawling through the woods while everyone bleeds and vomits). While I'm not necessarily an advocate for Dahlquist spending even more time describing things, perhaps the most crucial oversight was that he failed to explain exactly why we should even care about the events taking place! He relied entirely on our attachment to the characters on the basis of the first novel and made little attempt to endear any of them to us (except, perhaps, for Doctor Svenson who was tormented by his feelings for Mrs. Dujong, but it was hard to feel sympathy when I wanted to stab her repeatedly for being stupid and useless).
And by the end? We still suspect that the majority of the baddies are dead (though again, the only person we know who is still fully functional and at large is the Contessa), and the only difference is that we are led to believe that the majority of the goodies are dead, too... (or course, as with the last book, only a fool really believes it).
I won't bother to explain the plot, I will only suggest that if you have read and enjoyed The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, you should do yourself a favor and not bother to pick up its sequel. I rarely abandon a series, but I doubt that I could survive another installment of this... and besides, I made the arrangement with myself that all I needed to set these books aside with a clear conscience was for a kiss to take place between two particular characters. Having received that small satisfaction, I say farewell to Dahlquist and I curse the urge that drove me to purchase this terrible thing in hardcover.
The greatest joy that I experienced with this book came when I was finally finished and could set it aside. I disliked The Dark Volume so intensely that my opinion of the first book (in what is now clearly intended to be a series), The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, was actually tainted by association.
Gordon Dahlquist, what happened? Oh wait, I know. The large amounts of studied creativity, character development and lavish scenery gave way to the deep need to keep things going in a serial format, and thus yielded a book where very little was described in valuable detail and a great deal happened, but almost none of it was of any consequence. I may have only spent nine days reading this (or rather, trying to read this, as I couldn't ever say that I got into it enough to the point where I experienced any pains in setting it down, even in the middle of a sentence), but it felt like the longest nine days that I've experienced in a great while. As a result, not only was I frustrated, but anyone who happened to be around me while I read this was incensed against the book, too. My significant other implored me to stop reading it, as he could hardly take my growls of annoyance and exasperated exclamations of, "Just die already!" (which were directed at multiple characters throughout the course of the novel).
And as far as trajectory, well, we seem to have ended up in the exact same damn place, only everyone is much dirtier. (Though admittedly, that clearly is the goal of the author, to expose the darker, corrosive side of what might seem an alluring power. Still, I was overjoyed when a character stopped to take a bath during this volume.) Confrontation between a large number of characters where the alliances are tenuous at best before everything shatters... I mean honestly, if it was going to lead to such a similar conclusion, what was even gained by the events of this book? At least the last time we saw this tableau, it was aboard a dirigible! (There may be a dirigible on the cover of this book, but there is not one in the book... unless you count references to the sunken one from the first book.) The Dark Volume failed to have anywhere near the same amount of creativity as its predecessor (not to mention that at least The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters took place in interesting locations, whereas we spend the whole of The Dark Volume in destroyed and crumbling buildings, inhaling smoke from explosions, and crawling through the woods while everyone bleeds and vomits). While I'm not necessarily an advocate for Dahlquist spending even more time describing things, perhaps the most crucial oversight was that he failed to explain exactly why we should even care about the events taking place! He relied entirely on our attachment to the characters on the basis of the first novel and made little attempt to endear any of them to us (except, perhaps, for Doctor Svenson who was tormented by his feelings for Mrs. Dujong, but it was hard to feel sympathy when I wanted to stab her repeatedly for being stupid and useless).
And by the end? We still suspect that the majority of the baddies are dead (though again, the only person we know who is still fully functional and at large is the Contessa), and the only difference is that we are led to believe that the majority of the goodies are dead, too... (or course, as with the last book, only a fool really believes it).
I won't bother to explain the plot, I will only suggest that if you have read and enjoyed The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, you should do yourself a favor and not bother to pick up its sequel. I rarely abandon a series, but I doubt that I could survive another installment of this... and besides, I made the arrangement with myself that all I needed to set these books aside with a clear conscience was for a kiss to take place between two particular characters. Having received that small satisfaction, I say farewell to Dahlquist and I curse the urge that drove me to purchase this terrible thing in hardcover.
mjwerts's review against another edition
2.0
Having enjoyed this book's predecessor, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, I would not have imagined how much I would dislike and be frustrated by this second chapter in the exploits of Miss Temple, Cardinal Chang, and Doctor Svenson.
Despite being together at the end of Dream Eaters, the protagonists are inexplicably apart at the opening of the novel, leaving the reader to discover in fits and starts where they each are and what they are up to. This denies the reader the pleasure of seeing them interact with each other, which felt like something that was earned by sticking with them in the first novel.
Next on the list of frustrations is that no one stays dead, while our heroes have more dumb luck than one could possibly fathom. Granted, I'm not advocating for our protagonists to die, but how many times can one be captured and still escape. Apparently, a lot. This is actually good insight into the novel's plot: It repeats itself incessantly while failing to go anywhere.
Despite being together at the end of Dream Eaters, the protagonists are inexplicably apart at the opening of the novel, leaving the reader to discover in fits and starts where they each are and what they are up to. This denies the reader the pleasure of seeing them interact with each other, which felt like something that was earned by sticking with them in the first novel.
Next on the list of frustrations is that no one stays dead, while our heroes have more dumb luck than one could possibly fathom. Granted, I'm not advocating for our protagonists to die, but how many times can one be captured and still escape. Apparently, a lot. This is actually good insight into the novel's plot: It repeats itself incessantly while failing to go anywhere.
emilybryk's review against another edition
1.0
This is less a novel than a single extended chase scene with two main features: interchangeable characters and vomiting. There is so, so much vomiting. (Also headaches. And waxy skin. And splitting fingernails (ew). And "gummed" eyelids. What has to happen for an eyelid to become "gummed" anyway? It is clearly in some way related to decomposition, but I am insufficiently familiar with the nature of corpses to fully understand.)
I return to my point.
This is essentially an extended chase scene in which the first book's Cabal is not only scattered but also unbelievably inept, everyone smells bad and gets too little sleep, Celeste is constantly being troubled by flashbacks to someone else's sex life (and commenting on things like "a rush of sweetness to her loins." Good grief), and Chang, the only worthwhile character the first time around, is now no more than a bright red stick figure with a club and dark glasses.
Oh, right, and the Contessa (let me retract my earlier statement: there were two worthwhile characters the first time around) is now both desperate and potentially bisexual and seems intent on seducing all three of our heroes in exchange for things like half a loaf of bread, etc.
I return to my point.
This is essentially an extended chase scene in which the first book's Cabal is not only scattered but also unbelievably inept, everyone smells bad and gets too little sleep, Celeste is constantly being troubled by flashbacks to someone else's sex life (and commenting on things like "a rush of sweetness to her loins." Good grief), and Chang, the only worthwhile character the first time around, is now no more than a bright red stick figure with a club and dark glasses.
Oh, right, and the Contessa (let me retract my earlier statement: there were two worthwhile characters the first time around) is now both desperate and potentially bisexual and seems intent on seducing all three of our heroes in exchange for things like half a loaf of bread, etc.
laviskrg's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second installment of the Miss Temple/Doctor Svenson/Cardinal Chang trilogy, preceded by "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters". I haven't reviewed said predecessor, but I will. I will simply mention that the first book is definitely better, fully deserving of 5 awesome stars. This one, sadly, received 4 stars simply because the romantic in me was all "Aww" when the fateful kiss arrived in the last bloody pages. But truly it is a mediocre 3-star book.
Sadly, this novel suffers from the "Second book from a trilogy" syndrome. I just made that name up, obviously. The idea is that it offers very little in terms of character development (and the characters that do get developed would have benefited from simply being ignored more) and its action is just an awkwardly stretched, badly-paced middle step that should lead the reader safely towards the epic ending (I am reading said epic ending at the moment and I do hope it picks up already).
The POV separation worked perfectly in the first installment. You got to see each of the three awesome characters react, think, fight, struggle. Technically, the second book did show this separation in more or less the same parameters, but what actually happened to the characters was lackluster, boring, overly prolonged and lacked the perfectly-constructed mystery of the previous story. Chang (my favourite, obviously) fought some random henchmen (too many of those, dear author), but hesitated when facing the greatest foe of them all (the Contessa, who is a truly amazing villain, but should have been stopped half a dozen times already). Svenson ached non stop for the bovine, pathetic, uninteresting excuse for a supporting female character that is Eloise Dujong. Miss Temple (who received the only relevant amount of development but whose background could have deserved more attention and grace) ran around, hid a lot, pretended to be someone else (hardly in a believable manor) and mostly simply existed. Okay, I admit, I loved the scene with Celeste and the Contessa. But that was right at the beginning, before the hundreds of pages of RUNNING AROUND, hiding and trying hard to struggle with a very thinly veiled mystery.
I probably sound too harsh for a 4-star novel. I do enjoy Dalquist's writing style and he is a very powerful, talented author. His metaphors are brilliant, his world is believable and I love his immense social study as a whole. The idea that completely different and relatively limited human beings get caught in this whirlpool of bizarre science, intensely perverse political intrigue only to find that they stand alone in the face of extreme corruption is something I definitely approve of. But therein lies the issue as well. I wanted more team-play. I wanted a relationship between Chang and Celeste (not just a sorrowful, desperate kiss right before Chang's "death"). I wanted Doctor Svenson to be the voice of reason, not a pathetic love-struck fool. I wanted to see the Contessa like she was in the final 10 pages: cruel, bad-ass, exhausted but still kicking and basically an evil creature. Instead, she had a series of unnatural interactions with each of the main three. Let's say I kind of understand her thing with Celeste (and I approve of the level of sexiness) but I don't buy the Doctor or, worse, Chang the expert fucking assassin not gutting her right there and then.
The awesome surprise was definitely Francis Xonck, a fine piece of work. He was a resilient, evil, terrifying, exciting villain. Much better than all the names I already forgot (well not really forgot, but failed to give a crap about). This is another issue in this novel: too many semi-villains and henchmen. In the end they all end as cannon fodder. I had a problem with this in the first book as well because it seemed to me highly improbable that an entire room filled with villains would simply FAIL in the face of three confused, tired and hurt heroes and, of course, mostly due to their own envy, maliciousness and deviousness. It does not work like that. If you want to kill someone, just do it, don't stand there talking about it. But I let this go because the scene itself was so well written that I could overlook the improbability of it all. Needless to say I wasn't at all excited or vaguely scared during the finale of the second book. So much blown up meat, and for what?
Still, I enjoy the characters, the concept of the blue glass, the Comte's art (which very much appeals to my perverse tastes) and the fact that people die in bloody, grisly ways. But I think that the separation of the POVs was done badly and the story suffered greatly. I am currently reading the third and last book and I am truly hoping for satisfaction.
Sadly, this novel suffers from the "Second book from a trilogy" syndrome. I just made that name up, obviously. The idea is that it offers very little in terms of character development (and the characters that do get developed would have benefited from simply being ignored more) and its action is just an awkwardly stretched, badly-paced middle step that should lead the reader safely towards the epic ending (I am reading said epic ending at the moment and I do hope it picks up already).
The POV separation worked perfectly in the first installment. You got to see each of the three awesome characters react, think, fight, struggle. Technically, the second book did show this separation in more or less the same parameters, but what actually happened to the characters was lackluster, boring, overly prolonged and lacked the perfectly-constructed mystery of the previous story. Chang (my favourite, obviously) fought some random henchmen (too many of those, dear author), but hesitated when facing the greatest foe of them all (the Contessa, who is a truly amazing villain, but should have been stopped half a dozen times already). Svenson ached non stop for the bovine, pathetic, uninteresting excuse for a supporting female character that is Eloise Dujong. Miss Temple (who received the only relevant amount of development but whose background could have deserved more attention and grace) ran around, hid a lot, pretended to be someone else (hardly in a believable manor) and mostly simply existed. Okay, I admit, I loved the scene with Celeste and the Contessa. But that was right at the beginning, before the hundreds of pages of RUNNING AROUND, hiding and trying hard to struggle with a very thinly veiled mystery.
I probably sound too harsh for a 4-star novel. I do enjoy Dalquist's writing style and he is a very powerful, talented author. His metaphors are brilliant, his world is believable and I love his immense social study as a whole. The idea that completely different and relatively limited human beings get caught in this whirlpool of bizarre science, intensely perverse political intrigue only to find that they stand alone in the face of extreme corruption is something I definitely approve of. But therein lies the issue as well. I wanted more team-play. I wanted a relationship between Chang and Celeste (not just a sorrowful, desperate kiss right before Chang's "death"). I wanted Doctor Svenson to be the voice of reason, not a pathetic love-struck fool. I wanted to see the Contessa like she was in the final 10 pages: cruel, bad-ass, exhausted but still kicking and basically an evil creature. Instead, she had a series of unnatural interactions with each of the main three. Let's say I kind of understand her thing with Celeste (and I approve of the level of sexiness) but I don't buy the Doctor or, worse, Chang the expert fucking assassin not gutting her right there and then.
The awesome surprise was definitely Francis Xonck, a fine piece of work. He was a resilient, evil, terrifying, exciting villain. Much better than all the names I already forgot (well not really forgot, but failed to give a crap about). This is another issue in this novel: too many semi-villains and henchmen. In the end they all end as cannon fodder. I had a problem with this in the first book as well because it seemed to me highly improbable that an entire room filled with villains would simply FAIL in the face of three confused, tired and hurt heroes and, of course, mostly due to their own envy, maliciousness and deviousness. It does not work like that. If you want to kill someone, just do it, don't stand there talking about it. But I let this go because the scene itself was so well written that I could overlook the improbability of it all. Needless to say I wasn't at all excited or vaguely scared during the finale of the second book. So much blown up meat, and for what?
Still, I enjoy the characters, the concept of the blue glass, the Comte's art (which very much appeals to my perverse tastes) and the fact that people die in bloody, grisly ways. But I think that the separation of the POVs was done badly and the story suffered greatly. I am currently reading the third and last book and I am truly hoping for satisfaction.
hpstrangelove's review
4.0
I was looking forward to this book, the second in the series. Unlike the first, this one is not self-contained, i.e. the ending isn't an 'ending', and now I'll have to wait for the third book to find out what happens.
aigra's review against another edition
1.0
Neverending chase scene with all the characters coming together for a showdown that gets rid of some of them ... sounds exciting? Eeeeh ... nope, not really.
sisteray's review against another edition
2.0
1656680 I am so angry.
The first book is wonderful, and I couldn't wait to dig into this. But as much as I wanted to love this I just can't, why because it Dahlquist didn't do his job.
If there is any real flaw in the first book is that Dahlquist loved his characters too much, here it feels like he stopped caring about them entirely. He doesn't know what to do with them and they just wander around aimlessly. Half the book is solely dedicated to them moping. The spirit of high adventure is gone, now it is an empty shell. The book is just morose awash in pathetic self pity. Blech!
Where the first book is packed with story, this book is weakly maintained by an under-arching plot, that pokes its nose in occasionally, to remind you that perhaps something might actually be happening.
Where the first book contains a story this book is a protracted denouement. It is like he stopped caring about his original characters, didn't really know what to do, and out of desperation resorted to exploring tertiary characters that he desperately wanted to make interesting.
What he needed to do was to write a new story and throw his characters in the mix. Rather than try to tie up loose ends for 800 pages.
The book is riddled with coincidence and randomly stumbling onto dramatically important and obscenely hidden elements mistakenly constantly throughout this book. So the characters never make any real decisions.
Once he finally brings everyone together they just stand around and look at each other. Ray Harryhausen talks about how when working on the giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea he only gave it 6 tentacles, because he didn't want to have to do the work to keep the other two tentacles moving. Here Dahlquist feels obligated to throw a bunch of characters in (because that's what he does?) that he just doesn't want to put the effort into moving around. At a certain point he just randomly kills them, seemingly just to cease the bother.
This book does have some great moments in it occasionally, but you have to slog through to get to them. Unfortunately, these moments are at about halfway through and start a downhill ride to the last dreadful 100 pages.
All the inventiveness and fantasy is just regurgitated (which btw also is a recurring theme) with nothing new or exciting to add. He created a fun world and did nothing with it.
It is a bad sign when you are constantly counting the pages left to go in order to encourage continuing.
The first book is wonderful, and I couldn't wait to dig into this. But as much as I wanted to love this I just can't, why because it Dahlquist didn't do his job.
If there is any real flaw in the first book is that Dahlquist loved his characters too much, here it feels like he stopped caring about them entirely. He doesn't know what to do with them and they just wander around aimlessly. Half the book is solely dedicated to them moping. The spirit of high adventure is gone, now it is an empty shell. The book is just morose awash in pathetic self pity. Blech!
Where the first book is packed with story, this book is weakly maintained by an under-arching plot, that pokes its nose in occasionally, to remind you that perhaps something might actually be happening.
Where the first book contains a story this book is a protracted denouement. It is like he stopped caring about his original characters, didn't really know what to do, and out of desperation resorted to exploring tertiary characters that he desperately wanted to make interesting.
What he needed to do was to write a new story and throw his characters in the mix. Rather than try to tie up loose ends for 800 pages.
The book is riddled with coincidence and randomly stumbling onto dramatically important and obscenely hidden elements mistakenly constantly throughout this book. So the characters never make any real decisions.
Once he finally brings everyone together they just stand around and look at each other. Ray Harryhausen talks about how when working on the giant octopus in It Came from Beneath the Sea he only gave it 6 tentacles, because he didn't want to have to do the work to keep the other two tentacles moving. Here Dahlquist feels obligated to throw a bunch of characters in (because that's what he does?) that he just doesn't want to put the effort into moving around. At a certain point he just randomly kills them, seemingly just to cease the bother.
This book does have some great moments in it occasionally, but you have to slog through to get to them. Unfortunately, these moments are at about halfway through and start a downhill ride to the last dreadful 100 pages.
All the inventiveness and fantasy is just regurgitated (which btw also is a recurring theme) with nothing new or exciting to add. He created a fun world and did nothing with it.
It is a bad sign when you are constantly counting the pages left to go in order to encourage continuing.
ingypingy2000's review against another edition
3.0
Where is the next book! I need it *now*! How dare this book end with THAT cliffhanger! Granted, I wasn't a fan of the rest of the book. I don't think this Volume lived up to 1.1 and 1.2 at all and I contemplated several times not finishing it at all. However, the ending scenes (maybe the last 50-60 pages?) felt better. I eagerly look forward to grabbing book 3 off the shelf at home fix what horror this tome ended on!
joemacare's review against another edition
2.0
Not sure why this got slammed compared to the first one - it's much the same, except actually slightly streamlined. Still a bit of an indulgence, but I would like the chance to find out what happened next.