The Dark Volume: A Novel [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Gordon Dahlquist (Author), John Lee (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2009

The Dark Volume forges ahead with the impossible adventures of three unlikely allies washed ashore on the forbidding Iron Coast. Encountering a series of savage murders, Miss Celeste Temple, Cardinal Chang, and Dr. Abelard Svenson discover that their enemies are on the move and that the insidious glass books are far more bewitching-and lethal-than they'd ever imagined. Brimming with reckless desire, bold terror, and breathless suspense, this unique feat of the imagination will hold audiences in its dark thrall long after the novel has been devoured.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers unfamiliar with bestseller Dahlquist's 2006 debut, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, which is set in an alternate world similar to Victorian Europe, may have trouble following this complicated sequel, despite the preparatory word on what has already happened at the start. In The Glass Books, West Indies plantation heiress Celeste Temple, naval surgeon Abelard Svenson and criminal Cardinal Chang joined forces to combat an evil cabal that smelted a mineral into a psychotropic blue glass that captures human memory. Temple, who survived the previous book's cinematic climax involving a gunfight in a sinking dirigible, finds herself suspected of a series of mysterious murders, while Svenson and Chang discover new enemies to thwart. Too much going on at the same time, including less than engaging confrontations with various over-the-top villains, undermines a clever concept that may yet be the basis for a solid adventure series. (Mar. 31)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Dahlquist’s sequel to The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (2007) is dark indeed. The daunting “Preparatory Word” details what has gone before: who killed whom and what alchemical experiments have already taken place. If you haven’t read the first book, good luck! That said, fans of Tobsha Learner’s Soul (2008) and Jonathan Barnes’ Somnambulist (2008) will enjoy this surreal Victorian journey into the nightmarish possibilities of mind swapping. Miss Temple awakens after a dirigible crash with fragmented memories of murder and precious cargo. Separated from her companions, she flees hostile villagers in the company of the not-quite-honest Eloise, launching a seemingly endless series of adventures involving exquisite pain, sexual revelations, and near-death experiences. Meanwhile, a powerful cabal seeking a lost glass book is subverted by its victims, among them a blue-glass whore and a wily contessa. The idea of glass “books,” which absorb a person’s essence through a nasty “process,” is what makes this sometimes bewildering, overpopulated novel fascinating. It’s a big-concept story full of potent psychological metaphors, and if those metaphors never quite gel, they still offer readers much to contemplate. --Jen Baker --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Unabridged CD edition (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400110092
• ISBN-13: 978-1400110094
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,347,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So what about the old queen, Mr Dahlquist?, March 24, 2009

By 

baroquemaniac (Bavaria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dark Volume (Hardcover)

I definitely remember that when reading 'The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters' the last 300 pages or so taxed my patience to its very limits; and thus it is very odd that when I saw its sequel, 'The Dark Volume', stacked up in a local booskhop, I at once grabbed a copy: obviously the dark, oppressive atmosphere poisoning an imaginary 19th century kingdom had to some extent captivated my imagination.

`The Dark Volume' takes up the thread where its predecessoer left it, and, all in all, it is 500 pages more of the same: endlessly convoluted cabals revolving around a kind of blue glass with evil propensities. And though the characters constantly chase, flee, hunt, pursue, waylay, entrap each other etc. etc., quite early on a sort of stasis sets in, as those people might keep milling around in their small doomed universe virtually forever, forever on the move, forever scheming, at least nominally with some place of destination, but ultimately going nowhere at all. To be sure, there is some sort of linear plot development and we are treated to climactical showdown reuniting the protagonists, but these perfunctorily handled structural devices did not shape my reading experience very much.

As the book breaks off quite abruptly and the very last sentence announces that someone is planning revenge, several hundred pages more rife with intricate plotting seem to be in the offing; and as I keep wondering if the 'old queen' that has been fleetingly mentioned several times will ever step centre stage, I might well succumb to the lures of the next instalment of this haphazardly sprawling saga.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars In the book of death, March 26, 2009

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dark Volume (Hardcover)

The deadliest members of the Cabal are dead, the glass books are gone, and Gordon Dahlquist's anti-heroes have escaped with their lives.

Well... it turns out to not be that simply. Dahlquist's densely ornate second novel "The Dark Volume" picks up almost exactly where his first left off, only to hurtle his unlikely trio into the heart of new dangers -- blue glass women, deadly glass books, and old enemies transformed beyond recognition. Much of the adventure and intrigue seems to be recycled from the first, although there are some truly shocking new developments in store.

Miss Temple awakes in a small fishing village to find that Cardinal Chang (much despised by the villagers) and Dr. Svenson have both gone, and Eloise has been left to care for her. But their problems aren't over yet -- the village is being haunted by a bizarre series of killings, in which blue glass was used to murder. And the remnants of the Cabal's leadership are skulking around nearby.

In the days that follow, Chang discovers the secrets of the Trapping-Xonck family and Svenson runs afoul of a government agent and a shocking discovery about the memories embedded in blue glass. And Miss Temple -- whose mind has been infected by the blue glass books -- finds herself surruonded by the Cabal's inhuman members, and faced with a mysterious glass book that holds death.

"The Dark Volume" runs in the same pattern as Dahlquist's previous book -- a stately Victorian style, weird grotesque technologies, and three interconnected quests riddled with personal loss. In fact, that is the biggest problem with this book: Dahlquist often seems to be covering the same ground that he has before, as if he's not quite sure where to go next.

But he does provide some new twists to his story, especially of the Cabal fragmenting and turning against itself. And it's pretty obvious that a third book about the Cabal and its glass books is in the works. Not only does Dahlquist provide plenty of loose ends, but a really horrible cliffhanger.

Dahlquist's writing is still the slow-moving, dense Victorian style, using a lot of formal dialogue and evocative prose ("slipping from the moonlight like a ghost, her feet rustling through grass thick with dew..."). Along the way, he smothers the storyline in an atmosphere of dread and suspense, with plenty of horrific characters (the glass-mutated Xonck), bloody action, mutilated corpses, and weirder plotting.

Miss Temple arguably has the roughest time here, haunted by how she shot her ex-fiance and by the glass books (which leads to a creepy molestation by the Contessa). And she has a bit of romantic interest with Chang, who is developing a warmer side even as he continues to kick butt. Poor Dr. Svenson is relatively neglected, except for the discovery of his love interest's nasty allegiances.

"The Dark Volume" runs through familiar territory that makes it seem longer and slower than it is, but it's still a worthwhile Victorian sci-fi story.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second Books in Trilogies are Frustrating, September 5, 2009

By 

Joshua J. Libling - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dark Volume (Hardcover)

Whatever you do, do not read this book without reading the first one, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. If you do, you won't have a clue what is going on.

If you're still reading this review, then presumably you have already read Glass Books. You'll get more of the same in this volume. A bit slower paced. Fewer revelations. A little more inter-character sexual tension. Miss Temple continues to blossom as the most interesting of the three characters. Chang becomes a bit more interesting too. The good Doctor becomes a little duller.

Basically, the entire point of this book is a bridge to the third book. Don't read it unless you enjoyed the first one enough to justify it. If you did, you'll like this one too.