I really wanted to like this book. But it was rather boring, between fairly flat characters, and weird situations that didn't really belong. I didn't finish, but skimmed ahead to the ending, which honestly didn't make a whole sense, but maybe it would have if I had read the book completely.

Adult fiction. Steam punk with a dash of existentialism? Sort of interesting, but drags a bit through the last 1/3. ( )

I'm a sucker for a writer who knows how to use his words. Right off the bat, The Dream of Perpetual Motion gives you this -

"I’ll love you back; I’ll tell you secrets— "

The story is so-so. Long winded. The Wizard of Oz meets Something Wicked This Way Comes and then collides with a boxcar full of steampunk cliches. But then he hits you with a paragraph or a sentence or even just a phrase of simply brilliant prose, and you keep going. Because there may be more, and you kind of want to be able to say "I read Dexter Palmer's first book before everyone knew who he was". ( )

Writers, stop writing about art if you don't know anything about it. It's so annoying the cliches that you use every time. It was pretty bad in 'Gnomon' and it's even worse here. The art world! Gaaagh! ( )

Great writing style - but too slow, not enticing, not for me, thank you very much. Stopped after some 50 pages or so. ( )