Glass puts serial novel back in frame The Glass Books of the Dream EatersBy GW Dahlquistorder this book
READING of an adventure is much more respectable than having one,” the first instalment of GW Dahlquist’s 10-part ode to the penny dreadful opines, with mock – austerity, from its back cover.
Mr Dahlquist’s tongue may stray within tickling distance of cheek at times throughout the course of his serialised swashbuckling debut, but for the most part the writer seems happy to shoulder the prudish mantle of the Victorian adventure novel with a straight face and a closely studied eye for detail.
The reason for this is simple: good old-fashioned propriety is all that stands in the way of a shadowy cabal’s orgiastic experiments involving human subjects and a mysterious, deadly blue glass. All who fall under the power of the glass are slaves to it, capable of any moral depravity; and its legion of followers is growing.
The future of hot scones and a decent cup of tea rest on Miss Temple, the prim heroine of the piece, unwittingly dragged into this conspiracy of sinister conditioning and bacchanalia when, in a fit of pique, she follows her diplomat ex-fiancée to a country party.
With the help of wronged Chinese assassin Cardinal Chang and the good doctor Svenson – a trio of mismatched accidental heroes – Miss Temple must uncover a rats’ nest of labyrinthine plots, mysterious deaths and ritual mind control, all while maintaining a level of decorum appropriate to a young lady.
Initially written on the New York subway in 20-minute sessions while Dahlquist was on jury duty, the book canters nicely through the genre’s trump cards: Grand Guignol, erotic masked encounters, comedies of manner and snaking country homes; but The Glass Books fails to make the impression of its forebears (Dickens, Trollope et al) due to anonymous stage sets and characters without sufficient flesh to stick in the craw.
If Dahlquist’s fiction is not quite enough to reinvigorate the serial novel by itself, it still makes a good case for its return. SIMON WROE
• The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. By GW Dahlquist. Viking £16.99/ Penguin £6.99.
