The Dark Volume

This book is fantastic and totally leaves you hanging! I can't wait for the next one! The twits and turns of the plot are masterful as well as the descriptions of people! Especially that of the Duke. It just makes your skin crawl! So worth reading but you absolutely must read the first two to have any inkling of whats actually going on.

I really liked the first book and this one held some charm also but I was somewhat disappointed that the ending left opening for a sequel. When the sequel appears I will read it but I hope this is a trilogy. I just don't see how much else can be squeezed out of this subject without massive repetition. Hopefully, the next episode will end this subject and the author can proceed to even more fantastic tales.

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.

I enjoyed this third volume even more than it's predecessors! The first volumes felt (to me) introductory in comparison, as though the world of The Dream Eater's was newly discovered and not yet complete in the author's mind - I did find the plot at times, hard to follow. However, in The Dark Volume, I feel Dahlquist's stride has been hit. His understanding of his magically executed characters is strong and sure, and the world is full and cohesive. I must admit that as a reader I enjoy fully succumbing to the character of a story - and due to Dahlquist's peerless ability to define all points of each moment (and yes, most moments in his writing ARE complex, his characters internally changing moment by moment due to almost constant action) it was so easy to disappear into this world. I really believe his books are best read by just jumping in and giving over to them - if you resist, you probably will be a bit confused. I very much hope there is another Volume on the way!

I was so excited about this one, I re-read the first book while waiting for it to come out, which provided for a perfect experience. This volume delved further into its heroes' inner workings, providing some the darkness underlined in the title. It also explored more of the powers and effects of the glass-- not only its sensuous pulls but also the *darker*, death-inspired urges it can provoke in its viewers. The writing is fantastic, the perfect style for such an adventure. My only complaint is that it ended where it did, I would very much like for the third one to be out now, and also, not everything that seems to be, there at the end, absolutely HAS to be, right? (A side note: I'm curious as to what scenes precisely some of the other reviewers found extraneous in the first novel. Having read it twice, I felt every bit was necessary and enjoyable, and I plan to read both again before the third volume comes out, unless the author behaves and puts it out right now. It's an adventure, and should be read as such, in a swoop of hungry reading, not in those few minutes between lying down and closing your eyes every night. Some have complained that there are too many characters, but it seems to me that this speaks more to an inability to concentrate/focus on the part of the reader; each character is necessary, plays a role, defines a challenge or perimeter. THIS is the way books should be: full, like the world. So different from the blanking of your mind that occurs in front of the blue screen of the television.) (A fuller review is posted at zoe-in-wonderland.blogspot)