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Original Title:	The Dream of Perpetual Motion
ISBN:	0312558155 (ISBN13: 9780312558154)
Edition Language:	English

The Dream of Perpetual Motion Hardcover | Pages: 352 pages

Itemize Out Of Books The Dream of Perpetual Motion

Title	:	The Dream of Perpetual Motion
Author	:	Dexter Palmer
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 352 pages
Published	:	March 2nd 2010 by St. Martin's Press (first published February 27th 2010)
Categories	:	Science Fiction. Steampunk. Fiction. Fantasy

Relation Concering Books The Dream of Perpetual Motion

A debut so magical… so extraordinary… it has to be read to be believed….

Imprisoned for life aboard a zeppelin that floats high above a fantastic metropolis, the greeting-card writer Harold Winslow pens his memoirs. His only companions are the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent, the only woman he has ever loved, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father Prospero, the genius and industrial magnate who drove her insane.

The tale of Harold’s life is also one of an alternate reality, a lucid waking dream in which the well-heeled have mechanical men for servants, where the realms of fairy tales can be built from scratch, where replicas of deserted islands exist within skyscrapers.. As Harold’s childhood infatuation with Miranda changes over twenty years to love and then to obsession, the visionary inventions of her father also change Harold’s entire world, transforming it from a place of music and miracles to one of machines and noise. And as Harold heads toward a last desperate confrontation with Prospero to save Miranda’s life, he finds himself an unwitting participant in the creation of the greatest invention of them all: the perpetual motion machine.

Beautifully written, stunningly imagined, and wickedly funny, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a heartfelt meditation on the place of love in a world dominated by technology.

Rating Out Of Books The Dream of Perpetual Motion

Ratings: 3.5 From 1877 Users | 341 Reviews

Critique Out Of Books The Dream of Perpetual Motion

This book was somewhat inconsistent. At times I found my mind wandering, in fact, almost gave up on it about 40 pages in, but it finally hooked me. Then, other times, it was riveting, brilliant prose, and really emotional. I liked it a lot, but can't say I LOVED it, and wish I could. There is a lot in here to be fascinated with, it does go a bit dark, Willy Wonka if he'd done crack, a nice child's POV early on, and in the end it is really rather devastating and hits you hard, but in a good way.

I don't often give up on books, but I had to put this down when I encountered the word "obsidian" for the *seventh* time on page 132. The prose is (imho) stilted, hollow and overwritten. It reads like a manuscript accidentally published prior to any editing whatsoever (but in reality it was written by an English doctorate - and it shows). I am a huge fan of steampunk and speculative history, but there really isn't anything new here. Dirigibles, mechanical men, Shakespearean undertones - it's all

This story was much like the character Caliban: a patchwork of many different types of literary genres. Fantasy, horror, science fiction, adventure and even some humourous interludes and situations wrestle for your attention between the pages of this wonderful book. The story focuses on the life of Harold Winslow, a young boy recruited as a play-partner for the daughter of a reclusive mad genius/scientist Prospero Taligent. A man responsible for the creation of mechanical men that inhabit the

I finished reading The Dream of Perpetual Motion last night before going to bed. Its an amazing book. I was wandering around Barnes and Noble earlier this month, and ran across the trade paperback in the fiction department. It looked interesting, so I picked it up. When I got home I set in on my desk and a couple of days later went to add it to my book database only to discover that I already had a copy. Unfortunately this is not all that uncommon an occurrence. So I went down to the library and

I finished this book five days ago and still cannot quite figure out how I feel about it. Ive written and deleted things three times now. Its not what I expected- the cover promised an airship (which was provided, sure enough), mechanical men (ditto) and an alternate, Steampunk-ish history (once again, provided). I expected adventure from this, but this was not provided. Its not an adventure novel at all; its part reworking of The Tempest, part philosophy, and part sociology all with a thin skin

This is a difficult book to review. Its so dense with ideas and I enjoyed it so thoroughly that trying to do it justice in a few hundred words is very intimidating.Its an intensely intellectual, yet trippy, steampunk take on Shakespeares The Tempest, but its also a rumination on the uses and abuses of language - the inescapable power of words over perception and, paradoxically, their impotency. When young protagonist Harold Winslow wins an invitation to the birthday party of Miranda, the

For fans of the literary fantastic, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Just beware: it is both VERY literary and VERY fantastical. By that, I mean the writing and structure of the story is subtle and complex, sometimes with a dreamy feeling and bits that the reader has to think about to fully figure out. And the story is a full-on explosion of strange landscapes, odd technologies and futuristic social customs that fully immerse the reader in a world that is most definitely not our own.