Kagama -The Literaturevixen

It began with a simple note: a letter of rejection from Miss Temple’s fiancé, written on crisp Ministry paper and delivered on her maid’s silver tray. But for Miss Temple, Roger Bascombe’s cruel rejection will ignite a harrowing quest for answers, plunging her into a mystery as dizzying as a hall of mirrors—and a remote estate where danger abounds and all inhibitions are stripped bare.…Thus begins Gordon Dahlquist’s debut novel of Victorian suspense—at once a dazzling feast for the senses and a beguiling, erotic literary adventure.

Nothing could have prepared Miss Temple for where her pursuit of Roger Bascombe would take her—or for the shocking things she would find behind the closed doors of forbidding Harschmort Manor: men and women in provocative disguise, acts of licentiousness and violence, heroism and awakening. But she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a brutal assassin with the heart of a poet, and a royal doctor named Svenson, at once fumbling and heroic—both of whom, like her, lost someone at Harschmort Manor. As the unlikely trio search for answers—hurtling them from elegant brothels to gaslit alleyways to shocking moments of self-discovery-- they are confronted by puzzles within puzzles. And the closer they get to the truth, the more their lives are in danger. For the conspiracy they face—an astonishing alchemy of science, perverted religion, and lust for power—is so terrifying as to be beyond belief.

In a novel that shatters conventions and seethes with danger and eroticism, Gordon Dahlquist has made a spectacular literary debut. And in Miss Temple he has created an unforgettable guide through a disturbing, seductive, and all-too-real world. By turns brutal and tender, shocking and deliciously romantic, The Glass Books of The Dream Eaters is a novel for the ages, a bold and brilliant work of the imagination

This  book has three viewpoint characters,there is Celeste Temple the proper young lady,Cardinal Chang the assassin and Dr Svenson the man of doctoring and science.

Cardinal Chang first encounter Celeste on a train when she is covered in blood after going to the villains mansion to search for her fiancee to know why he vanished and broke it off so suddenly.I cant remember how the doctor enters the plot as he was pretty unmemorable and with all the other things you had to keep track of in this book you have to expect casualties.

So when I started reading this I had all my hopes up there would steampunk elements and  good adventure throughout but I wasnt expecting all the eroticism that the backcover promises.

But when I first read it back in 2007 there was no mention of all that. So I guess it has been added later.

I dont have a trouble with sex in books I am not one of these people who only want "clean" reads but this one had me feeling a bit akward. In my head I thought of them as those awkward sexual scenes and made me wonder what purpose in bringing the plot forward they contributed to. There is a good reason the blurb of this book mentions "perverted religion" and "erotic literary adventure" because its a constant theme through the book.

The glass books of the title can be used to store a persons memories but it seems what most of them contain is memories of a sexual nature.I would have thought the technology could have some more practical use but then I am not part of twisted powerhungry cult who WANTS TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

And their evilest mastermind is a bi-sexual Contessa. :/

At least thats what I assumed they wanted to do as much of the book confused me.

I know this though...sometimes I felt like I was trapped in the authors sexual fantasy world.