Glassbooks of the Dreameaters

j. d. worthington said:
And with that information -- considering all the other things I've got to read for my own research on the weird tale, I think I'll give this one a pass until I hear something more compelling about it.
Click to expand...

Well, you won't hear it from me. I finished the sample, didn't like it, and have no desire to read on.
 
Hiya,

I've noticed that the thread has gone a bit dry on this since Thresa did her huff and puff act about the book..

Has anyone else read the first chapter?

i have and to be fair it is quite wordy, but i think it's got more substance then Theresa gives credit for which is identifiable by the loaded sexual tension in the coach scene and the extraordinary detail of the language. I think it will develop also into a very good story so i don't think it's worth casting off in this instance..
 
SERAFINApekkala said:
Hiya,

I've noticed that the thread has gone a bit dry on this since Thresa did her huff and puff act about the book.
Click to expand...

You have not yet seen me huff and puff Serafina. The rules of the forum are such that you probably never will.

And actually, I was quite restrained in my assessment of the book. By the time I finished reading the sample I was sorry I had wasted my time reading so far. I don't know what you categorize as substance, but for me it requires well-rounded and believable characters, and Miss Temple was so improbable as to be absolutely ludicrous.

I could say more, but that alone was enough to spoil my experience of the book.
 
I should add that the reason the topic has gone dry is that not a great many people here were interested in the book to begin with -- or had even heard of it, despite the hype elsewhere -- until marianne mentioned it. I, at least, was interested enough to read the sample.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
I didn't get as far into the excerpt as I hoped, last night, but here are my first impressions:

So far, JD, it does not seem to be Victorian Gothic in even the broadest, most liberal sense of the term. The style of narrative suggests a Comedy of Manners. (But for that to work the author needs to know the milieu he/she is satirizing, inside and out, and so far it looks like he doesn't. If he means to combine CoM with 19th century Gothic, I would suggest a course of Thomas Love Peacock.)
Click to expand...

Oh, dear- someone writing a comedy of manners without knowing the 19th century? I actually have seen this quite a bit in fantasy novels that are "historical fantasy" focusing on the swashbuckling 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the time, I get the feeling that authors really just like to dress their male characters in pink silk and engage in duels, and that's the end of it. But I think the Comedy of Manners has much more to do with character interaction and conversation than anything else- which I feel a lot of authors don't really manage.

Teresa, you also mentioned that a lot of Victorian authors would use high-strung individuals as the miain character in Gothic or Victorian suspense novels. This made me smile because I'm currently reading Armadale, by Wilkie Collins, along with a group, and one of the main protagonists is pretty high-strung, and I think he is the more "rational" of the two characters! But he also fits in much better with the more supernatural tone of the work. The book, by the way, is getting to be pretty interesting, about 2/3 of the way through! And it has much more humor in it than I expected.

To bring this back on subject, I actually haven't read Glass Books of the Dreameaters, either, but I've heard a lot about it. It seems to have done pretty well. I think it was released right around the same time as The Lies of Locke Lamora, however, and might have been overshadowed by that one. I did have plans to read it, but I don't know when! Right now, I'm in more of an epic fantasy frame of mind, I think.
 
j. d. worthington said:
Yes! For anyone trying that balancing act, Peacock would be a marvelous choice; speaking of which, I'd come across mention of someone trying to revive his work recently, but haven't been able to find anything else about it. I'd think, with the revived interest in Austin, not to mention Radcliffe, Lewis, and the entire Gothic crowd (at least, the more well-known ones) his wry take on things would find quite an audience.
Click to expand...
I don't know if you're aware JD but we have a Peacock society here in Australia. Here's the website that has online copies of a large part of his work and growing for anyone interested.

The Thomas Love Peacock Society
 
SERAFINApekkala said:
Hiya,

I've noticed that the thread has gone a bit dry on this since Thresa did her huff and puff act about the book..

Has anyone else read the first chapter?

i have and to be fair it is quite wordy, but i think it's got more substance then Theresa gives credit for which is identifiable by the loaded sexual tension in the coach scene and the extraordinary detail of the language. I think it will develop also into a very good story so i don't think it's worth casting off in this instance..
Click to expand...
Did you read the entire book?
Unlike Theresa I have. I wish I had her instinct on not reading the thing. It had its moments, but not worthy of my time. Im not sure I agree with the characters as being unbelievable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top