Suppose Jane Austen were alive today, did speed, and wrote a Steampunk James Bondish story set in the Victorian era but with an amateur tea-drinking female as the lead character. The result might be something like a tame version of Gordon Dahlquist's “The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters”.
I'd call it the thinking man's beach novel, only it's much too good. Apparently it took ten years to write — but secured a $2 million advance, which is astronomical for a first novel.
Dahlquist sounds like an interesting guy in this interview at Powells Books. And he reads blogs!
Do you read blogs? What are some of your favorites?
Two favorites would be Firedoglake, a superb political blog run by Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith, and then GoFugYourself, run by the “tar-hearted” Jessica and Heather, which is superbly vicious.
Do not start this book late at night.
According to his Author’s Note on Amazon, the book took almost exactly one year to write.
Then he’s fast: it’s over 750 pages long.
Thanks for the news! and link to the book.