The Dream of Perpetual Motion

Feb 17, 2010 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

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. P...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Clare Moss rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, favorites

There are not enough good, beautiful, excellent things to say about this book. It was a birthday gift that friends chose randomly at the bookstore, just because it sounded like the kind of story I'd like. I have since suspected that they are clairvoyant. I hesitate to recommend it to people because I feel protective of my love for it, but it really is just very good. So dreamy and peculiar and cold and beautiful and compelling and cruel, and the ending is completely brutal (although I should hav...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Mel B. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Though I was a little disheartened by the way things turned out at the end of the book, the tale itself was well spun and gripping. Harold seemed like an anti-hero -- detached from all parts of his life, except when very young -- yet Prospero Taligent thinks he knows what Harold wants: to be the prototypical hero rescuing the maiden. [return][return]The strange world of mechanical men was interesting. I found myself loving this world, even in all of its noise and weirdness and yes, bits of evil....more

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Mar 26, 2013 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book creates an alternate twentieth century that is both old-fashioned and advanced, a steampunk city that is incredibly vivid and fascinating. Prospero’s inventions throughout the book range from frivolous to amazing to deeply disturbing, but they are the heart of the city and the power this affords him makes him a very interesting antagonist. There are tons of stories within stories, and while everything is told from Harold’s perspective as he recounts his life story, there are pieces ins...more This book creates an alternate twentieth century that is both old-fashioned and advanced, a steampunk city that is incredibly vivid and fascinating. Prospero’s inventions throughout the book range from frivolous to amazing to deeply disturbing, but they are the heart of the city and the power this affords him makes him a very interesting antagonist. There are tons of stories within stories, and while everything is told from Harold’s perspective as he recounts his life story, there are pieces inserted from other characters’ writings to give a greater picture of the world Harold lives in. I did have one large complaint though, which is that the book is broken into so many small sections that it’s difficult to feel a sense of narrative momentum. Many sections are no longer than a couple pages, and a good portion of those are just a couple paragraphs, meaning you’re constantly coming to the end of a section, and jumping into a different aspect of the narrative so often makes it difficult to feel a focused story within all the information bombarding you. While this does feel like it’s purposeful given that one of the most prominent themes of the book is destructive interference (the concept that for every sound, there is an exact opposite of that sound that would effectively cancel it out and create nothingness rather than noise), the most engaging portion of the novel is the last fifty or so pages when it becomes its most narrative. At that point, the events are escalating to the climax in such a way that the tension isn’t broken by segments outside of the linear events, though there are a couple of tales within the last chapters that are told to Harold by other characters, but these tales contribute to the suspense because they’re directly related to the outcome of the story. Overall, the book is very engaging, especially given how consistently and incredibly visual it is, and the main story of the novel is amazing, but I think it would benefit from being just a bit more linear in the telling.(less)

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Dec 16, 2012 Peter marked it as to-read

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Palmer's dazzling debut explodes with energy and invention on almost every page. In a steampunky alternate reality, genius inventor Prospero Taligent promises the 100 kids he's invited to his daughter Miranda's birthday party that they will have their "heart's desires fulfilled." When young Harold Winslow says he wants to be a storyteller, he sets in motion an astonishing plot that will eventually find him imprisoned aboard a giant zeppelin, the Chrysalis,

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Palmer's dazzling debut explodes with energy and invention on almost every page. In a steampunky alternate reality, genius inventor Prospero Taligent promises the 100 kids he's invited to his daughter Miranda's birthday party that they will have their "heart's desires fulfilled." When young Harold Winslow says he wants to be a storyteller, he sets in motion an astonishing plot that will eventually find him imprisoned aboard a giant zeppelin, the Chrysalis, powered by Taligent's greatest invention, a (probably faulty) perpetual motion machine. As Harold tells his story from his airborne prison, a fantastic and fantastical account unfolds: cities full of Taligent's mechanical men, a virtual island where Harold and Miranda play as children, the Kafkaesque goings-on in the boiler rooms and galleries of Taligent's tower. Harold's narration is interspersed with dreams, diary entries, memos and monologues from the colorful supporting cast, and the dialogue, both overly formal and B-movie goofy ("I'm afraid the death rays are just a bunch of science fiction folderol"), offers comic counterpoint. This book will immediately connect with fans of Neal Stephenson and Alfred Bester, and will surely win over readers who'd ordinarily pass on anything remotely sci-fi. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for The Dream of Perpetual Motion:

“Dexter Palmer has given us a novel that's magnificent and strange and maybe a little harrowing too; I don't know quite how he did it, but it seems to have something to do with his figuring out how to let words get out about and mean what they feel like meaning that day and yet at the same time be in a tempest too. Bravo for this beautiful book!”
--Rivka Galchen, critically acclaimed author of Atmospheric Disturbances

"The breadth and depth of Dexter Palmer's storytelling is exhilarating. He's written a smart, funny, sad, and beautiful novel, full of magic, mystery, mechanical men, and a delightful amount of mayhem."
--Scott Smith, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Ruins

“Like the majority of contemporary novelists, I have often fantasized about Jules Verne, Nathanael West, and Thomas Pynchon meeting up in some netherworld saloon and, upon discovering they have absolutely nothing in common save a mutual affection for The Tempest, agreeing to reify their enthusiasm via a three-way collaboration filled with zeppelins, androids, monsters, virtual islands, linguistic felicity, and state-of-the-art weirdness. And now I must thank Dexter Palmer for making my dream come true.”
--James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder and The Philosopher's Apprentice

“The Dream of Perpetual Motion is plangent, tender and sui generis: a steampunk The Tempest with the grim and rippling beauty of a fairy tale. Dexter Palmer is an ambitious writer, with vast reach toward the exploration of big ideas, among them what it means to create, the limits of the human body, and the uses and inadequacies of language. The marvelous kicker being, of course, that he has the moxie to do so in prose that sings.”
--Lauren Groff, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Monsters of Templeton

"Dexter Palmer has written a strange, passionate, enthralling first novel, a novel which is itself a kind of perpetual motion machine---constantly turning, giving off more energy than it receives, its movement at once beautiful and counterintuitive."
--Kevin Brockmeier, New York Times Bestselling author of The Brief History of the Dead

“In The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer brings dignity coupled with an epic sense of fun to steampunk that I haven't seen since Jules Verne. Steampunk comes of age with this book.”
--Jonathan Maberry, author of Patient Zero

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Dec 05, 2012 Jared rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am admittedly smack in the middle of the target audience for a book such as this. I like steampunk and science fiction and dystopian stories, and a combination of those three genres forms the backdrop of Palmer's novel. That said, this a really remarkable effort, and it has a lot to say about what it means to be a human being in a time of modern scientific knowledge and communications technologies that seem to impede true communication as much as they improve its speed.

That said, this is a str...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Jeri Lane rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was pure fantasy. It was good, strange, ecclectic, and bizarre. I cant really sum it up other than, a boy goes to the worlds fair, gets an invitation to a birthday party for a strange girl whose father is a great inventor. The boy meets the strange quiet girl, after being wisked away by a large flying robot in the middle of the night and taken to her party. He is there with a large group of similarly perplexed children, but Miranda is drawn to Harold. The inventor is a weirdo who adopt...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Jack Rochester rated it 2 of 5 stars

The title of Dexter Palmer’s debut novel was the first hook for me. The second was ascertaining this was a steampunk novel, a genre for which I have a penchant. And although I got my literary rocks off on the allusion[s] to Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the retro themes such as the Graf zeppelin and anti-progressive technologies – and the to-and-fro of the story itself, partly told by the main character in first person and partly told by an omniscient narrator – I finally gave up, stuck in mid-bo...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Emily Park rated it 5 of 5 stars

http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2011/0...

If you were to get a giant literary blender, combine equal parts from Shakespeare's The Tempest with the steampunk genre, add in a little Jules Verne, a little Franz Kafka, and the tiniest dash of Ovid, you'd get something that roughly approximates this novel. Probably one of the more unusual books I have ever read, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is probably also one of the most lyrically elegiac novels I have ever read.

The story primarily focuses on three...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Lizz rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: one with time to spare

It can’t be un-read. Dexter Palmer’s _The Dream of Perpetual Motion_ promised, on the back cover, to be “beautifully written, stunningly imagined, and wickedly funny… a heartfelt meditation on the place of love in a world dominated by technology,” not to mention “gorgeously surreal… exhilarating, passionate, enthralling… constantly turning, giving off more energy than it receives, its movement at once beautiful and counterintuitive.”

I should have known that was too many adjectives. It turned ou...more

It can’t be un-read. Dexter Palmer’s _The Dream of Perpetual Motion_ promised, on the back cover, to be “beautifully written, stunningly imagined, and wickedly funny… a heartfelt meditation on the place of love in a world dominated by technology,” not to mention “gorgeously surreal… exhilarating, passionate, enthralling… constantly turning, giving off more energy than it receives, its movement at once beautiful and counterintuitive.”

I should have known that was too many adjectives. It turned out to be a lengthy but shallow coming-of-age/damsel-in-distress tale about Harold Winslow, an always-disappointing greeting card writer imprisoned for eternity on a zeppelin with the cryogenically frozen body of an exceptionally mad scientist, Prospero Taligent, and the disembodied voice of his daughter Miranda, who Harold claims to love even though he hardly knows the girl, having experienced only 3 or 4 brief encounters with her in the span of 30 years.

Indeed, Palmer’s story is riddled with contradiction and severely misogynistic, both in the development (or lack thereof) of the female characters themselves as well as the way male characters act upon them, rather than allowing or acknowledging any amount of free will or intelligence. That part alone is exhausting.

The time frame is absolutely impossible to place. There are mechanical men and flying cars and Prospero, in a matter of hours, is inventing all sorts of ridiculous tools that can shave granite like a block of cheddar cheese, and yet there are no airplanes or televisions and the populace has clearly experienced some sociological setbacks from the 2010 world Palmer was writing from. I found it more confusing that surreal.

Also, literary references are sort of haphazardly wedged into the narrative in way that feels entirely meaningless and unhelpful. Prospero, Miranda, and Ferdinand (who shovels coal), among other things, make it reasonably obvious that Palmer is putting a surrealist twist on _The Tempest_, mixing it around with post-modern philosophy and sociological critique, but it feels more like he ran over the Shakespeare with a Steampunk engine (or maybe a Zamboni) and took it spiraling down a really sinister, increasingly depressing rabbit hole. He took the easiest route of connecting his narrative to _The Tempest_ – stealing the names – and I just think it deserves a little more effort.

Palmer also makes an M. Night Shyamalan-style appearance at a party about half way through, which was just downright unnecessary. Also, if I wasn’t thinking it already at that point, the character Palmer, along with the annoying, pseudo-intellectual, post-modern feminist Charmaine St. Claire, certainly called my attention to the fact that I was reading a whole lot of words and very little substance. I found Charmaine’s presence as the sole depiction of feminism in Palmer’s novel incredibly upsetting and a really gross exaggeration of a bad stereotype.

That said, a few salvageable bits of the philosophy and sociology shine through as you hurdle past the blatant contradiction and somewhat pretentious nature of Palmer’s writing style. I enjoyed several passages, and found it pretty easy to detach them from the droning plot. Some of them are actually quite beautiful. Here is one:

"This is the time of night just before sunrise, the time that no one owns, and if you have found yourself awake and alone during this time, out in the city, outside the safety of the walls you call your own, then you know me, and you have felt what I have felt. This is the hour of the night it’s best to sleep through, for if it catches you awake then it will force you to face what is true. This is when you look into the half-dead eyes of those who are either wishing for sleep or shaking off its final remnants, and you see the signs of twilight in which your own mind is suspended.
At any other time it’s better. You can do the things you feel you should; you’re an expert at going through the motions. Your handshakes with strangers are firm and your gaze never wavers; you think of steel and diamonds when you stare. In a monotone you repeat the legendary words of long-dead lovers to those you claim to love; you take them into bed with you, and you mimic the rhythmic motions you’ve read of in manuals. When protocol demands it you dutifully drop to your knees and pray to a god that no longer exists. But in this hour you must admit to yourself that this is not enough, that you are not good enough. And when you knock your fist against your chest you hear a hollow ringing echo, and all your thoughts are accompanied by the ticks of clockwork spinning behind your eyes, and everything you eat and drink has the aftertaste of rust." (248)

Clearly, I can’t exactly recommend that anyone read this book, but it can’t be un-read and whether Palmer intended it or not, his writing did get me thinking in ways that could very well be useful for me to think. You never know when something will come in handy. So I’m glad I read it.

My best advice if you start reading this book is that if you’re not just positively enthralled after 60 or 70 pages, you should probably stop. I can never bring myself to do so, and that is how I know that it doesn't go uphill from there at all.(less)

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Aug 20, 2011 Daniella rated it 1 of 5 stars

A hypocritical, boring, and deeply misogynistic critique of post-modernism, this dreamy novel has poorly developed characters, a shallow plot, and unimaginative setting. If I could un-read this book, I would.

BEWARE! There are spoilers in this review, because I cannot express how wrong this book is without revealing critical details.

1. Hypocrisy:
Palmer weaves elements of Shakespeare's _The Tempest_ into the book, but in a nonsensical, non-meaningful way. Prospero, Miranda, and Ferdinand all show...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Jeff Humphreys rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sentamentalists

Recommended to Jeff by: Library

It was lovely. Not hard science-fiction. Not Arthur C. Clarke.

It was very poetic. It captures a sense of personal, an intimate journey into the fantastic. Not realistic at all. A certain type of reader will hate this sentimentality.

(view spoiler)...more

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May 15, 2011 Laurie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I finished this book five days ago and still cannot quite figure out how I feel about it. I’ve written and deleted things three times now.

It’s 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.

It’s not an adventure novel at all; it’s part reworking of ‘The Tempest’, part philosophy, and part sociology all with a thi...more I finished this book five days ago and still cannot quite figure out how I feel about it. I’ve written and deleted things three times now.

It’s 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.

It’s not an adventure novel at all; it’s part reworking of ‘The Tempest’, part philosophy, and part sociology all with a thin skin of sci-fi over it. Set in the early 1900s, protagonist (I cannot call him a hero) Harold Winslow is trapped in an airship powered by a supposed perpetual motion machine, his only fellow passengers are mechanical men, the corpse of Prospero Taligent, and the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent. Prospero Taligent was the crazed genius who invented the mechanical men that changed society, along with many other technological wonders. He was also obsessed with keeping his adopted daughter Miranda a pure child instead of allowing her to grow up, going so far as to bind down her breasts and keep her from almost all human contact.

Chance intervenes and Winslow is invited to Miranda’s 10th birthday party; for whatever reason Taligent decides that Winslow would be an appropriate companion for Miranda. This decision is quickly changed when he thinks the two children have been having sex. Miranda and Winslow do not see each other for 10 years, when Winslow is forced into rescuing her. Then another 10 years passes before he is asked to rescue her again… despite their relationship supposing to be the core of the story, they really have no real relationship.

None of the characters are very likable. Miranda comes closest to being someone that a reader can sympathize with, but she, like Winslow, seems to have no interests, no passions, no motivating force. The story drags on, seeming to take much longer to tell than it should have.

And yet I could not stop reading it. There are some passages that are so beautifully written that they are like dreams. Yes, some of those dreams are terrifying (in particular the way Winslow’s artist sister, Astrid, dies), but they are still mesmerizing.

My final decision? There is a great core of work here, but it could have used some editing.
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Mar 10, 2011 Marcus rated it 3 of 5 stars

Of all the Steampunk novels I have read until now, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is the strangest and most bizarre tale. If I had to sum it up in one sentence it would be this:
Shakespeare’s The Tempest set in a Steampunk world while Shakespeare was on a bad trip.

Mr. Palmer draws heavily on The Tempest in his novel, I also recommend everyone to get themselves at least somewhat acquainted with the plot of The Tempest and the protagonists and their role. Knowledge about this play adds a lot to the...more Of all the Steampunk novels I have read until now, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is the strangest and most bizarre tale. If I had to sum it up in one sentence it would be this:
Shakespeare’s The Tempest set in a Steampunk world while Shakespeare was on a bad trip.

Mr. Palmer draws heavily on The Tempest in his novel, I also recommend everyone to get themselves at least somewhat acquainted with the plot of The Tempest and the protagonists and their role. Knowledge about this play adds a lot to the joy of reading The Dream of Perpetual Motion. The original features on several occasions and we meet strange versions of Prospero, Miranda, Caliban and Ferdinand. They are all protagonists in The Dream of Perpetual Motion to varying degrees of importance. Prospero has some resemblance to his namesake in The Tempest, but he is a dark version of the Shakespearian character. A technological necromancer more at home with devices and machines than humans and other living beings. Miranda shares the innocence of Shakespeare’s Miranda but this innocence also harbours a dark secret. Caliban, any closer description of Caliban would spoil too much so I shall have to skip him. Personally, I found him the most likeable of the Taligent family. Ferdinand is a character from the margins. We also meet other, strange characters like the drivers of shrink-cabs (taxis which also sort your psyche out) and a sculptor who for 25 years did nothing but portray Miranda. Now he is an obsessed and insane wreck and a chilling testimony to corrupted art.

The plot itself begins in the childhood of the narrator, Harold Winslow. He narrates the story from his cabin aboard a giant Zeppelin, the Chrysalis. We learn that as a child he lived in poverty with his father and elder sister in Xeroville and by fortune or fate his life became intertwined with that of the city’s ruler, Prospero Taligent, and his adoptive daughter, Miranda.
The story follows several strands, some in the recent past of the narrator’s life, some recollections of his childhood and youth, which makes the novel a bit difficult to follow at times but it all makes sense in the end.
All lines converge , all the riddles are solved and all the mysteries revealed. Although The Dream of Perpetual Motion is not the easiest novel to get through (my only point of contention), Dexter Palmer manages beautifully to draw the reader into the the story. Once one has gotten into the plot, it is hard to put the book aside.
We learn about the city through Harold’s eyes and as his life progresses it becomes clear that everything is not headed towards the scientific Utopia which is the promise the future holds when Harold is a child. Instead, we witness the decay of a society under the influence of too many machines and too much science and logic for its own sake.
In between there are almost dreamlike sequences when Harold recalls his visit to Prospero’s tower. The Tower is a strange and haunting amalgam of smoke, mirrors, strange inhabitants and high technology. It is haunted by Prospero’s dreams, both those he made real and his final dream, which eludes him almost until his death.
Prospero’s dreams are what is revealed to be the driving force behind everything in Xeroville. Prospero wants to be a benefactor, a loving father and a philantropist. But he cannot really understand his fellow men and all his endevours eventually end in frustration and horror. As the story progresses, Dexter Palmer starts paint a chilling picture of an increasingly alien and yet hauntingly familiar culture and society, dominated by a monolithic cooperation and its dictates on human lives. Reality itself becomes mutable just as it is inside Prospero’s tower. It begins with the seeping-in of casual insanity in places we do not expect and ends with the unravelling of Prospero’s and Caliban’s true nature and the final fate of Miranda.
Also, although I would hesitate to call The Dream of Perpetual Motion an action-novel, the tension never leaves the story. It always feels like there is a revelation, something marvellous, unexpected or horrifying waiting on the next page. When a revelation does occur, Mr. Palmer still manages to have it come from an unexpected angle and thus surprise us.

The Dream of Perpetual Motion to me is a moral tale of the wonders of technology gone mad, of human endeavours being corrupted by misunderstood motivations and ill-placed good intentions. It is a haunting and harrowing tale and it is not for the casual reader. This said, I believe it is already a classic and I would not be surprised to one day find it on a “required reading” list for a Shakespeare seminar. Dexter Palmer’s debut let’s him take a place among the masters of Steampunk literature. It is my hope that the somewhat open end of this tale leaves enough space for a sequel.(less)

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May 08, 2010 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Hello Miranda.

The Tempest is one the most potent of Shakespeare's plays. The idea of the singular genius, living apart from the rest of humanity despite, or perhaps because of his unique gifts. An innocent, sheltered daughter of that genius, kept from the world. Caliban, who believes he is heir to Prospero's holdings and powers. Dark secrets. Hidden abilities. The conflict between the private and the public. The meaning of humanity.

Is it any wonder that it makes for strong meat for subsequent wr...more Hello Miranda.

The Tempest is one the most potent of Shakespeare's plays. The idea of the singular genius, living apart from the rest of humanity despite, or perhaps because of his unique gifts. An innocent, sheltered daughter of that genius, kept from the world. Caliban, who believes he is heir to Prospero's holdings and powers. Dark secrets. Hidden abilities. The conflict between the private and the public. The meaning of humanity.

Is it any wonder that it makes for strong meat for subsequent writers to use for their own fodder?

Dexter Palmer takes the story of the Tempest, and brings it into an alternate, steampunk infused early 20th century in The Dream of Perpetual Motion, a novel that lives in the borderland between science fiction and the world of literary fiction.

The world of The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a borderland too, as the gadgets and clockwork men of Prospero Taligent have transformed Xeroville into a wonderland of automation and automata. In this world, we follow the story of Harold Winslow. A chance encounter at a young age brings him forever into the orbit of the mysterious, reclusive Prospero Taligent, who never leaves his fortress and tower like skyscraper, and as importantly, into contact with his adopted daughter, Miranda. Twisted and sculpted by her father's idiosyncratic methods of raising her, the novel is also the story of how these two characters meet, part, grow, change and finally come to terms with each other.

"One world from you is all I want. Just speak one word, and we will begin. Name, rank and serial number, perhaps the misquoted lyrics from a popular song: anything will do. From there we'll move with slow, cautious steps to gentle verbal sparring, twice-told tales, descriptions of the scarred and darkest places of our old and worn-out souls..."

The novel is also the story of magic versus science and miracles versus technology. Again and again, the transformation of the world, through the agency of Prospero, into a world of gears and clockwork men is described as a fundamental change in the world itself. While the agent of Prospero in the Tempest is one of the magician in a world losing magic, In the Dream of Perpetual Motion, like the HBO series Carnivale, Prospero is hastening the end of wonder and the beginning of the age of reason and science.

The novel's virtues and strengths lie in the literary field more than the science fiction (to be specific, steampunk). The novel works as a literary study of Harold Winslow and his relationship with Prospero,Miranda (and briefly, Caliban). The automata, the fantastic gadgets, the amazing Zeppelin upon which Harold is imprisoned are really backdrop, stage, and setting for his story to unfold. The Dream of Perpetual Motion does not take the virtues of science fiction so much as it cloaks, shapes and colors its literary virtues in the trappings of gears and metal.

What this means is that the novel is designed for, and clearly works on the level of contemporary fiction with a steampunk cast to it. Readers not used to science fiction, but eager to read and enjoy literary fiction will have the opportunity to get a taste of the fantastic along with the character studies found in this book. Conversely, readers who prefer science fiction and fantasy who want to peek outside of the great kingdom of fantasy and science fiction literature into the republic of literary fiction might find a steampunk-dressed, Shakespeare-invoking novel such as this a passport to that foreign country.

Palmer clearly had fun writing this book, his first novel. In a tradition more suited to SF than literary fiction, he even tuckerizes himself into the book, a character with his name and profession appearing briefly at a party for the art of Harold's sister Astrid.

In summation, Palmer has created an interesting hybrid novel, one that will reward readers of both genres that it straddles. Perhaps not as a colossus, but certainly as a bridge between two realms of the written world that do not often talk to each other.(less)

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Apr 22, 2010 Andrew Gilbert rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought the book was very well written. While the book is written mostly in journal form (with every other chapter being a journal entry, and the chapters in between being a relatively short account of "the present"), this positively adds to the progression of the plot. Not overly sci-fi, the main story occurs in the early 1900s but with certain technological advances that the world has yet to see (at least on a large scale). It's almost as though Dexter Palmer has created a Sci-Fi/Noir, which...more

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Jul 03, 2010 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those that like to think

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was brilliant. Layers upon layers of plot, intrigue, mystique and zeal: Palmer took Shakespeare's tale and evolved it into one of his own. While I never read The Tempest, this book was powerful and unforgettable. The divisions of the book only emphasize the strength of each individual chapter. The poetic prose waxes across the pages, and even though I read it quite a bit of time ago it is still vivid and fresh in my memory. When introduced to characters like Caliban, we don't know whom...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Sara Ferenchak rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've been trying to decide how I feel about this book. I know I liked it and I can point out the parts that I especiallie liked, but I didn't love it and I also know why.

I liked that this book made me think. I like the thing it made me thin about... the place of love in a world full of technologie... the ways in which the rituals of love change... the ways in which they don't...

I recently read "The fault in our stars" and I've been thinking about what it means to be a hero. And I think that th...more

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May 20, 2010 Americanogig rated it 2 of 5 stars

At first this novel screamed Steampunk and it was,I suppose, but in a very slight understated way. Miranda, Prospero, Caliban and even Ferdinand make their appearance in what is essentially The Tempest retold. The story begins with the main character floating above the world in a dirigible that is supposedly a perpetual motion machine that will carry him forever. Yet he notices definite signs of wear and tear and knows that it is slowly winding down even though the resident robots were trained t...more

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Mar 23, 2010 Debut Authors Blog rated it 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been putting off reviewing The Dream of Perpetual Motion for a few days. Honestly, it is because I don’t know if I can do Dexter Palmer’s work of art justice. But, since the really nice marketing people over at St. Martin’s Press sent me a copy of this book, I feel that I probably should give it a whirl.

This steam-punk novel is narrated by Harold Winslow, a writer for a greeting-card company. The story alternates between the first and third person as Harold writes to his imaginary reader in...more I’ve been putting off reviewing The Dream of Perpetual Motion for a few days. Honestly, it is because I don’t know if I can do Dexter Palmer’s work of art justice. But, since the really nice marketing people over at St. Martin’s Press sent me a copy of this book, I feel that I probably should give it a whirl.

This steam-punk novel is narrated by Harold Winslow, a writer for a greeting-card company. The story alternates between the first and third person as Harold writes to his imaginary reader in his journal. He knows that no one will ever read his work because he has been imprisoned on the zeppelin Chrysalis, which is equipped with a perpetual motion machine. His only companions are a host of mechanical men, the voice of the woman he loves, Miranda Taligent, and the body of her dead father Prospero.

Harold’s journal covers more than two decades; the writing of it spans the first year he is imprisoned upon the Chrysalis. The bulk of the journal is written in third person, which is odd seeing that it is written in a journal by the main character. It will leave you a little confused at first, but I urge you to let that go. When Palmer reveals why it has been written like that, or you figure it out from the text, the story will fall into place.

The novel follows Harold’s life and the events which lead to his imprisonment on the ship. The most important of these was his meeting Prospero Taligent and his daughter Miranda. Prospero is the genius who invented most of the machines that exist in Palmer’s alternate reality.

Palmer creates a dream-like reality for his readers, full of mechanical men, “shrink cabs”, and flying cars. His captivating prose draws you in as he uses his universe to examine love’s place in our increasingly chaotic world. One of my favorite images in the novel is that of phase interference, the idea that there is so much noise in the world that every possible sound is being made. Therefore every sound wave has its opposite, one that is exactly 180 degrees out of phase, effectively canceling each other out, leaving the world in silence.

Palmer’s world will draw you in, keep you turning the page, and leaving you begging for more at the end. Harold’s heart-wrenching and disturbing tale will leave you questioning your own reality. When I finished this strange but enthralling debut novel, I found myself unable to fully grasp what I had just read. The only answer I could come up with was to read it again.(less)

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Sep 10, 2009 Ab rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: post-apocalyptic-futuristic, utopias-dystopias

Since there's no description of what this book is about, like, ANYWHERE, I'm just going to type what the book has on it. Obviously I'm reading the ARC.

"Imprisoned aboard a zeppelin floating high above a steampunk metropolis, greeting card writer Harold Winslow is composing his memoir. His companions are the only woman he has ever loved and the cryogenically frozen body of her father, the devilish genius Prospero Taligent.

Amidst a world where deserted islands exist within skyscrapers, where the...more Since there's no description of what this book is about, like, ANYWHERE, I'm just going to type what the book has on it. Obviously I'm reading the ARC.

"Imprisoned aboard a zeppelin floating high above a steampunk metropolis, greeting card writer Harold Winslow is composing his memoir. His companions are the only woman he has ever loved and the cryogenically frozen body of her father, the devilish genius Prospero Taligent.

Amidst a world where deserted islands exist within skyscrapers, where the well-heeled have mechanical men for servants, and where the world of fairy tales can be built from scratch, Harold Winslow heads toward a final, desperate confrontation with the mad inventor. And all the while, he is an unwitting participant in the creation of the greatest invention of them all -- the perpetual motion machine."
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So I finished the book. A very interesting story, and very dystopian in the sense of "technology is overrunning the world and taking it over and invariably going to lead to its ruin and a core sense of relentless apathy amongst the people of the world". At times I felt a little like I felt when I read Genesis, especially when reading Caliban's journals (he is a secret son of Taligent's who lives in a cage in a room filled with tubes that he can just reach and put to his ear to hear a different room from each one). So worth a read, I think, but not amazingly amazing, and a bit too overly "grey-cast" and dark for me. My mental picture is of a city filled with a reddish, hazy, grey smoke, everything is rust-colored, metallic, or black, and people go from work to home to work with dazed, zombified looks on their hopeless faces. Pretty chilling, to me.

My one negative comment about this book is that the author, being a first-time author and all (and even if he wasn't) should NOT have included a chapter where the main character meets him, Dexter Palmer, and he becomes a chapter-length, superficial character, but nonetheless a character... in his own book! A bit too ... TOO. If you get my meaning. (less)

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Apr 02, 2010 Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars

This re-spinning (spinning like a top!) of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', set in an alternative present, floats above the earth in a dirigible powered by a flawed perpetual motion machine. Palmer does with this what the best in fantastical literature does, fusing the mythical with the ordinary. Carnivals take on a new imagery of being held together precariously with tin-men-robots while keeping that magical grime that we overlook with childhood. Miracles no longer exist, replaced by logic. This fa...more This re-spinning (spinning like a top!) of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', set in an alternative present, floats above the earth in a dirigible powered by a flawed perpetual motion machine. Palmer does with this what the best in fantastical literature does, fusing the mythical with the ordinary. Carnivals take on a new imagery of being held together precariously with tin-men-robots while keeping that magical grime that we overlook with childhood. Miracles no longer exist, replaced by logic. This fantasy would perhaps appeal to lovers of Rushdie, Gibson and family, though Rushdie's deftness and storytelling ability is missed. A lot of this may lean, sometimes heavily, on the schmultzy, however on the whole the book remains dark and ambient. The biggest problem with the book, by far, is it's wordiness -that leads to major pacing problems later on. To get through as much as you have in order to have some character that you didn't even know existed five seconds ago go on a fifteen page ramble about being the wizard's hired portraiturist, something that finally delivered a bit information that could have been delivered in a couple of paragraphs, maybe, is the hight of the problem. I found myself skipping over paragraphs a lot -not something that I do very often at all. A first novel by someone with a PHd in literature of some sort, and so some of the wordiness is to be expected maybe. Also, the main character, the one penning his memoirs goes through some sort of change somewhere in the middle and becomes some sort of bitter character, an unfounded bitterness that, compared to the person that he was at the beginning half of the book, wasn't someone whom I wanted to spend time in the company of. It's okay to be a jerk in literature, in fact sometimes it's such a joy to read about a jerk, but the jerk has to be charming in some sort of way. This guy is just a hater. Hates women for being women, hates middle-aged people for being middle-aged people, he becomes one dimensional in the worst kind of way. I like the ambition of such a book, something with such ambience. As Dexter Palmer's abilities mature, perhaps his novels will round out, and I'll pick up his new works.(less)

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May 22, 2010 Matt rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, steampunk

In some cases, a spiffy cover can make me read it and be very impressed. Case in point: Cherie Priest's "Boneshaker," which I was drawn to from awesome cover art alone. In other cases, a great jacket design can make me read it, and feel like I wasted several hours of my life. "The Dream of Perpetual Motion" is one of these cases.

Although it is not the worst book that I ever read, Palmer's debut novel fails on so many levels. It manages to try to do too much, while managing to accomplish nothing....more

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Nov 08, 2009 Roxane rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: steampunk, dystopian, agency-author, unfinished

I'm giving up on this one. Besides, I was mostly reading it for work (note that it's in the agency-author shelf, yes this is a newly created shelf for those books I'm reading because/thanks to work! These will be advance reading copies or manuscript mostly).

The book in and of it self is not bad really, it's just in terrible need of some serious editing which, my understanding is, it's not going to get...

I will only say that this book will probably appeal more to mainstream readers. If you're a...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Adom rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was drawn to this through the cover art, just one of those fancy books you can't help but want to read cause it looks amazing alone. Though it brings me to the saying "Never judge a book by it's cover". Though it's cover was amazing I wasn't very drawn to the inside of the book as much. It's one of those moments you feel like you could have done something way more productive with your life.

Though I must say it's not the worse book I've ever read, I mean there are much more time wasting books I...more

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Feb 27, 2011 MB Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars

I finished reading The Dream of Perpetual Motion last night before going to bed. It’s 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 an...more I finished reading The Dream of Perpetual Motion last night before going to bed. It’s 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 looked for the other copy; but since couldn’t find it I assumed I had accidentally added it twice. Oh well, since it was out I started reading it and added it my currently-reading self. When I went to pick the edition, I saw the hardback cover and recognized it immediately. I may have a hard time remembering titles, but cover art I do remember. I went back down to the library and knowing exactly what I was looking for it was much easier to find.

The two covers could hardly be more different. I suspect the publisher decided to target a different audience. The hardback is clearly playing up its science fiction / steampunk nature, while the trade seems to going for main stream fiction.

Whatever. This is a very good book and I think it works either way. The novel is clearly set in an alternate steampunkish early 20th century world, but not overpoweringly so. In too much streampunk, the steampunkness of it seems to be the driving force. In The Dream of Perpetual Motion the story is nearly all character driven; the steampunk nature of the world is important to the story but it’s not the whole story.

The Dream of Perpetual Motion is the primarily the story of Harold Winslow, the narrator; Prospero Taligent, the inventor who created mechanical men and other steampunk technology; and Miranda, Prospero’s adopted daughter. Harold’s sister Astrid and his father also play significant roles; as does Prospero’s love for his daughter and his inability to express it or even understand it.

The novel begins near the end, with Winslow writing his memoirs while imprisoned in the zeppelin Chrysalis. The bulk of the novel is the story he recounts of Miranda’s tenth birthday party which he attends for mysterious reasons and the events that unfold afterwards. As the novel only focuses of the parts of Harold’s life that are significant to the story it is somewhat episodic in nature, with years frequently elapsing between events.

Unlike a lot of contemporary science fiction, I found the plot of this novel mostly unanticipatible. The plots of the individual episodes were not so much hard to anticipate; but the overall path of the story was never clear in advance. The interludes between major sections of Harold aboard the Chrysalis served as a reminder (and foreshadowing) of the direction of the story, but how the story was going to get from here to there was always surprising. The story was almost nothing like what I imagined from the cover blurbs, it was much better.

All in all, I found this to be a very entertaining read, if somewhat unconventional one. This is Dexter Palmer’s first book; it’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
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Dec 19, 2009 Neil rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book with some serious flaws that shouldn't stop you from giving it a whirl.

The story is told from the point of view of Harold Winslow, a greeting card writer who narrates the story while trapped with only the company of himself, a voice, and his memories while floating through the sky in a perpetual motion flying machine that may or may not be working. From this vantage he tells the story of his family (a mildly inventive, but largely inneffectual toy-making father and his angr...more This is a great book with some serious flaws that shouldn't stop you from giving it a whirl.

The story is told from the point of view of Harold Winslow, a greeting card writer who narrates the story while trapped with only the company of himself, a voice, and his memories while floating through the sky in a perpetual motion flying machine that may or may not be working. From this vantage he tells the story of his family (a mildly inventive, but largely inneffectual toy-making father and his angry, sexually aware artist sister) and how they, and especially he, became involved with the Taligents.

Prospero Taligent is an inventor and industrialist, a kind of god in the book's steampunk world. His mechanical men and other inventions have literally driven miracles from the world that debut author Palmer imagines. Now working from a huge skyscraper which he rarely leaves, Prospero is driven by two things, the desire to create ever more powerful and intricate machines and his doting love for his daughter Miranda. Unfortunately, this obsessive love for his daughter degenerates further and further as the novel progresses. I won't spoil, but the forms it takes are truly creepy. There's also a Caliban is this Tempest-derived story, a "son" who has no contact with the world but listens in obsessively.

Harold becomes involved with Prospero and Miranda as a boy, when his meanderings in an amusement park lead to an invitation to Miranda's birthday party. Each of the 100 boys and girls who attend the party will be rewarded their heart's desire in future years by Prospero, but Harold's "gift" is the greatest of all, as he captures Miranda's attention the most.

Strong points: the books is clever and inventive, with lots of interesting metaphysical philosophies about the relationship of technology and belief. The worldbuilding is powerful, perhaps the most fully realized steampunk settings I've encountered. Allusions to The Tempest are intriguing. There are many beautiful, yet frightening images (the children being carried to the party by flying mechanical angels and demons; a desert island on the skyscraper's 101st floor; Harold's sister Astrid's artwork made from competing sounds played by blaring Victrolas). There are many darkly funny riffs of humor as well.

Weaknesses: the author indulges too many of these riffs, especially annoying metareferences (introducing himself briefly as a character to no real effect; an acid-throwing maniac; Harold's work at the greeting card factory; and many more), that ultimately just don't have much to do with his story. I found Harold's relationships with his father and sister more emotionally involving than his interaction with the Taligents, but these seem unfinished in the end. The characters are sympathetic but not too likable, which ultimately makes it hard to care about their fates. The business about the perpetual motion machine and its final flight, in particular, is just not as interesting as Harold's youthful interactions with his family and Miranda. The stories of the coal shoveling foreman and the portraitmaker provide a lot of insight but come too late in the book.

If Palmer learns how to connect the emotions generated by his book to the ideas in it, he will be formidable. He's definitely an author I will watch. If you like literary fantasy and science fiction like I do, then you'll enjoy this book thoroughly and think about it a great deal, even though some of the flaws are obvious. Read it: It will annoy the heck out of you at times, but it's images will stick and the ideas will keep percolating. (less)

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Oct 07, 2011 Jim Razinha rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh, dear. How to describe? First, a bit of explanation...I am a mostly non-practicing admirer of steam punk. By that, I mean I don't go to conventions, dress up in costumes (though I reserve that right - I have been known to dress up for the major holidays, like St. pats) or blog as a character. I am attracted to the visual part of steam punk, and have a set of brass goggles my family gave me. I took apart a Nerf pistol and had a lot of fun punking it. But reading about it?I wasn't sure.

And I'm...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Rob Atkinson rated it 3 of 5 stars

A fictional riff on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (yes, another one) with a distinctly steampunk flavor. Set in imaginary city "Xeroville" in an alternate 'early 20th century' in which 'tin-men' automotons and flying cars exist, but radio remains the only broadcast medium and manual typewriters, wax-cylinder phonographs etc. remain the standard. (A good visual analogue might be the retro-futurism of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".) Ten-year-old protagonist Harold Winslow is drawn into the sphere of the...more

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May 13, 2010 Paul Eckert rated it 5 of 5 stars

A friend posted something about this book in an internet forum. The cover alone almost sold me on the book, and then when I read the premise, I knew that I would be moving this book straight to the top of my reading queue (which I did). There are books on that queue that have been waiting for years to be read, so they were a bit upset, but I promised I would get to them one day.

The Dream of Perpetual Motion is the story of Harold Winslow and how his life intersected with the mad genius Prospero...more A friend posted something about this book in an internet forum. The cover alone almost sold me on the book, and then when I read the premise, I knew that I would be moving this book straight to the top of my reading queue (which I did). There are books on that queue that have been waiting for years to be read, so they were a bit upset, but I promised I would get to them one day.

The Dream of Perpetual Motion is the story of Harold Winslow and how his life intersected with the mad genius Prospero Taligent and his adopted daughter, Miranda. Prospero is the inventor of the “mechanical man”, a robot that is capable of doing a human’s work without the nagging need to be treated like a human. The story is being told by the Harold that is trapped onboard a zeppelin that is supposedly powered by a perpetual motion device, all invented by Prospero. Most of the book is the story of how he came to be onboard the zeppelin.

I’ve never read anything billed as steampunk before, but if this book is any indication, I’ll be interested to read more. There is plenty of fanservice for lovers of steampunk, with crazy contraptions and inventions on almost every page. But none of the contraptions feels frivolous either, and each seems to be very symbolic and fit well with the themes of the book. The broad theme at play in this story is how machines are used to fulfill human desire, and whether those machines are enough for humans. The driving force behind Prospero Taligent’s inventions is his belief that there is no such thing as a soul, that he will one day be able to create a robot indistinguishable from a human. However, he is also obsessed with preserving a supposed innocence in Miranda. To accomplish this he keeps her locked in the tower but provides her with a “playroom” that simulates different people and places. When Harold becomes her playmate, it sets the rest of the story in motion.

This story was addicting. I couldn’t wait until I sat down to read it again. The characters and plot were fascinating and full of philosophical symbolism. My only wish would be that some of the characters, like Harold and Miranda, had been a bit more fleshed out. In the end, I didn’t feel like I knew them as well as I should have to make the story as a whole come together. In this respect, I felt that the individual scenes may have worked better than the overall story. But instead of being frustrated, I’m looking back through the book for subtle hints that I might have missed before. The mystery of some of the characters actually makes them feel like real people, and combing the book for clues feels like reading their diary to figure out just who they are. I think this proves how much I really cared for these characters (or the beginning signs of insanity) and how real they felt.

Palmer’s prose is beautiful without being pretentious, simultaneously crafting sentences with a sophisticated vocabulary without being complex or overwrought.

Can’t wait to see what Palmer does next.

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