The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters is a 2006 novel by Gordon Dahlquist. It was followed by the sequel The Dark Volume (2008).

Imagine you had the means to bend and form another person's will as easily as plasticine, or the knowledge of how to conserve your memories in a way to relive them again and again, as intensive as the first time. Better yet, what if you could relive the most debauched memories of others as if they were your own? What could you do with such a valuable ability - Take Over the World? Well, why not - this, especially, if you're a party of bored, rich nobility and bourgeoisie with nothing better to do. Into this stumbles our ensemble, consisting of two gentlemen (to use the term quite loosely, scadalously even), and one young lady. Our trio start off with seperate reasons and in fact do not cross paths for a considerable amount of time. The unlikely adventurers in question are as follows:

• Miss Temple, a constrained, if internally rebellious young woman, wants her fiancé back - or, at the least, a good reason as to why he quite suddenly and perhaps even rudely terminated their engagement. And after what appeared to be a rather functional relationship, no less.
• Cardinal Chang, the man with a bright red coat and scars from a riding crop that give him his nickname. His real name is never revealed, in fact, nor the full extent of his motives. Chang is what one might call a hitman, if a noble one, someone with loose morals yet a defined code of honour. He, out of principle, wants to know who killed his latest mark ahead of him and why...
• Captain-Surgeon Dr. Abelard Svenson is the superego of the group. Querulous at times, Svenson nonetheless, as a military man, has a good sense of survival. His reasons for becoming embroiled are his charge, a wayward, libertine Prince of his country who has gone rather, well, missing...

After finally meeting up under most curious circumstances, they band together in order to get their answers and finding themselves discovering much more than they ever wanted to know - or were ever meant to.

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This book provides examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl For a sheltered heiress from an island Miss Temple kicks some serious ass.
• All Men Are Perverts All princes in this novel at least.
• Ambition Is Evil Roger Bascombe could be a posterboy for this trope.
• And I Must Scream poor Lydia
• Applied Phlebotinum The Indigo Clay
• Chekhov's Gun Cardinal Chang's trauma.
• Collapsing Lair More like collapsing airship
• Corrupt Corporate Executive Crabbe, though technically he is a corrupt minister
• Dark and Troubled Past Dr.Svenson and Chang led no easy life either
• Determinator Chang, as well as Francis Xonk in the second book.
• Even the Girls Want Her While still searching for her fiancé, Miss Temple can't help getting all tingly in the Contessa's presence.
• Evil Genius Oskar Veiland's the Comte d'Orkancz paintings suggest he is this.
• Eye Scream Chang had a nasty run-in with a noble.
• Femme Fatale The Contessa di Laquer-Sforza, probably the most beautiful and dangerous person you'll ever meet.
• Hitman with a Heart Cardinal Chang, who has a fondness for poetry and one particular whore at the brothel whom he goes to great lengths to rescue.
• Humanoid Abomination The 'glass women'.
  • Also, whatever thing Lydia was impregnated with.
• Les Yay Whenver the Contessa is around another woman. And you wonder what she did with the whores in her hotel room.
• Manchurian Agent The people who have undergone the process.
• My Country, Right or Wrong The doctor tries hard. Though he still fails in the end.
• Not Quite Dead Chang more than once, also the Contessa and Francis Xonk in the second book
• Only Mostly Dead The Comte d'Orkancz gets a new body from the soul within his book in the sequel
• Not So Different The Contessa insists this is true for Celeste and herself.
• Phlebotinum Handling Equipment Touch a glass book without gloves and you'll get sucked in.
• Ransacked Room more than one, on both sides.
• Scars Are Forever Played straight with Chang's eyes to which he owes his name and Miss Temples bullet scar. The Process however leaves no marks that don't fade over the course of a few days.
• Secret Circle of Secrets The cabal – only their leaders know what is going on exactly.
  • And even then, many of those leaders are conspiring against one another.
• The Atoner Doctor Svenson still can't forgive himself for not being there when his cousin was ill, only to discover later that the disease killing her was part of the Cabal's plan.
• Transferable Memory The titular glass books serve as memory containers.
• Trigger Phrase Every victim of the Process has own but only the Contessa knows about them