On: THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION by Dexter Palmer

Done.  It took me long enough, but I can't believe I'm now done and can start reading other books, which is always a good thing. I'm making a personal vow not to ever take such a long time with a book regardless of how I feel while reading it.

THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION has a lot going on for it.  The fantastical, steampunk world created by Dexter Palmer is quite striking, the writing is extremely funny, at times curiously quirky, sentimental early on, with a huge magical child eye on its first half, and peppered through out, there's are starlingly dark scenes, that though violent, are balance by a sense of humor to keep them from turning you off from its gore.

Though the story remains compelling, it loses steam after the halfway point, mostly because its main character, Harold Winslow, becomes dour with adulthood (he's recounting his life, and from childhood up to his early twenties his life is most absorbing) and he becomes borderline abstract, almost secondary to all the things happening around him, and not as likable, only because as life dulls him, he becomes a cypher with almost no personality, and I feel like we in turn, lose the sould of the story in the process.  Also, the books starts dragging some, to the point that it becomes hard to continued reading, with things happening, it seems, just to make the story longer but not advancing it in any shape or form.

When the story reaches its climax, it feels as though Harold doesn't even want to be there, he's just doing it so that it all ends as it should; if he was an actor in a movie, this would be the equivalent of him phone it in.  Which makes me sad, because I really enjoy most of the book, and as a steampunk enthusiast, I love the world Dexter created for it, and how cool it all was at the beginning and how intriguing everything was from the point of view of Harold the kid, Harold the teenager, Harold the young adult, until Harold the 30 year old, left us a bit cold.

I'm sure others will find the book riveting from beginning to end, I just wished Dexter Palmer would have not let Harold become more or less a device to tight everything together without giving him a choice.  B-

The Dream of Perpetual Motion--Update

Ok, so I haven't finished THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION, but I'm almost done. I have only 15 pages left to go, which I should be done with tomorrow.

To Read or Not to Read

I have a cold, one of those head/dry colds that's not as nasty as a full on cold bordering on flu, but a cold nonetheless.  This post isn't about me having a cold, of course not, but head/dry colds are so irritatingly maddening, I have to vent! It's been 5 days and it just won't leave me alone.  To make matters worse, it finally got hot here in New York. Our first heatwave took us from mid 70s to mid 90s and tomorrow it's going to hit 100.  A cold and hot weather is not one of my favorite combinations, but I digress.....

The real topic here is that just over a year ago, I bought a copy of Dexter Palmer's THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION on the fly without knowing anything about it.... and I still haven't finish reading it.

I initially was very into the book.  The premise, the world Mr. Palmer had created for it, the character's, etc., but just after the halfway point, the book started changing and then I felt like it was dragging on and going on in tangents, some good, some not quite interesting, to the point that I put the book down and I haven't pick it up to finish it, even though I only have the last 70 pages to go.  I became so disenchanted with how everything evolved from the promising start, that I can't bring myself to read it the remaining of it.  What's sad, is that it's keeping me from reading anything else that's waiting patiently for me to get to.  I buy books way too often and I currently have about 40 (and counting) waiting for me to crack them open.  And of course, I have a list of books I'm wanting to get because I've heard great things about them, like the new (and one before it) China Mieville novel.

Now, I don't want to sound like I hate THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION or anything, I still really like a lot it's first half, and though I'm let down to an extent with the second half, in no way I think it sucks, it's just one of those books that you were sure was going one way and it took a turn you aren't quite into it, even as you see the reason why.

But it is keeping me from reading the other novels I have and it's been a year now.  I miss reading things other than my own--I've been doing a lot of editing and though exciting, I also want a bit of a distraction--so I'm hoping that by addressing my PERPETUAL MOTION dilemma here, it's going to give me the push I need to pick up the book, finish it, and move on to the next one.  It's only 70 pages, and though I've been quite busy, I should be able to finish it quickly, but I'm going to give myself a full week to do so. Who knows, maybe the ending will completely make up for my dissatisfaction of the last quarter.

Check back next Wednesday for a review (fingers crossed).