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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
It's exciting. The main characters are well-developed and we feel their highly strung emotions as they desperately struggle to accomplish their mission and don't dare to admit their feelings. We also agonize with them over the impending catastrophes.
But I find the plot too far-fetched (inconsistent transfers between worlds, totally unrealistic recovery from life-threatening injuries, etc.) Also, there is too much gore and destruction for my taste, and the many characters, constant wanderings in an unfamiliar world, and complex sequences of events meant I easily lost track.
But I find the plot too far-fetched (inconsistent transfers between worlds, totally unrealistic recovery from life-threatening injuries, etc.) Also, there is too much gore and destruction for my taste, and the many characters, constant wanderings in an unfamiliar world, and complex sequences of events meant I easily lost track.
Wow! How do I write a review to do this book justice? KM Weiland wrote an excellent story that had me enthralled from page 1! The premise alone grabbed me:
"What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?"
... but Weiland's writing style had me turning page after page wanting more.
This book is filled with sweeping visual imagery, historical settings, epic battles, evil antagonists, a reluctant hero, lots of interesting characters, two distinct worlds and a great underlying love story. This book would make a great video game ... I wanted to fight in the battles as any one of the many characters and it would make an excellent movie!
At times the descriptions slowed down the story just a bit, but it was well worth reading through. Each character had such a unique voice and each world was so well detailed. Weiland did an excellent job of keeping the story moving no matter where the protagonist woke up. And the ending ... well I don't want to spoil it for you ... it didn't end how I thought it would or wanted it to ... and yet it did.
Great book!
"What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?"
... but Weiland's writing style had me turning page after page wanting more.
This book is filled with sweeping visual imagery, historical settings, epic battles, evil antagonists, a reluctant hero, lots of interesting characters, two distinct worlds and a great underlying love story. This book would make a great video game ... I wanted to fight in the battles as any one of the many characters and it would make an excellent movie!
At times the descriptions slowed down the story just a bit, but it was well worth reading through. Each character had such a unique voice and each world was so well detailed. Weiland did an excellent job of keeping the story moving no matter where the protagonist woke up. And the ending ... well I don't want to spoil it for you ... it didn't end how I thought it would or wanted it to ... and yet it did.
Great book!
Chris Redston has been plagued by vivid dreams all his life, dreams that are turning into nightmares. Worse, when he wakes up, someone is leaving him notes about the dreams he’s having. But they couldn’t be real, could they?
As a Searcher, Princess Allara is waiting for “The Gifted” to cross the barrier between worlds, even though his appearance will spark a war. A once in a lifetime occurrence, the new Gifted will be the second one in her lifetime after the first Gifted nearly destroyed her home.
The story follows Chris on his journey as a reluctant hero, never really sleeping but instead crossing from the world he knows into an alternate universe each time he “falls asleep.” Initially he doesn’t believe what is happening to him and is duped into creating a rift between the worlds. The story that ensues is his journey from apathetic to champion, from blame to forgiveness. The alternate world is drawn with beautiful clarity and the wars that follow Chris’s arrival are intense and realistic. Through the alternate world he is able to find peace in his real world, even as both worlds begin to crumble. It’s up to him to find the key that will restore the balance between the two.
On the plus side: I really enjoyed the story. The author leaves enough bread crumbs to guess at the final outcomes and resolutions. It was a compelling read, one that held me in the story through to the end to a natural conclusion.
On the down side: Brooke’s character didn’t really resonate with me, but she was probably the only one I didn’t quite get (I think it could have been written without her). While Orias’s motivation was explored in depth, there came a point where I became impatient with him. As a “berserker,” I didn’t quite buy into the length of time/justification he spent in voluntary captivity. It didn’t ring true, in spite of the author’s attempts to convince me.
Overall, recommended. A time travel with an open door to a world where dreams become realities.
As a Searcher, Princess Allara is waiting for “The Gifted” to cross the barrier between worlds, even though his appearance will spark a war. A once in a lifetime occurrence, the new Gifted will be the second one in her lifetime after the first Gifted nearly destroyed her home.
The story follows Chris on his journey as a reluctant hero, never really sleeping but instead crossing from the world he knows into an alternate universe each time he “falls asleep.” Initially he doesn’t believe what is happening to him and is duped into creating a rift between the worlds. The story that ensues is his journey from apathetic to champion, from blame to forgiveness. The alternate world is drawn with beautiful clarity and the wars that follow Chris’s arrival are intense and realistic. Through the alternate world he is able to find peace in his real world, even as both worlds begin to crumble. It’s up to him to find the key that will restore the balance between the two.
On the plus side: I really enjoyed the story. The author leaves enough bread crumbs to guess at the final outcomes and resolutions. It was a compelling read, one that held me in the story through to the end to a natural conclusion.
On the down side: Brooke’s character didn’t really resonate with me, but she was probably the only one I didn’t quite get (I think it could have been written without her). While Orias’s motivation was explored in depth, there came a point where I became impatient with him. As a “berserker,” I didn’t quite buy into the length of time/justification he spent in voluntary captivity. It didn’t ring true, in spite of the author’s attempts to convince me.
Overall, recommended. A time travel with an open door to a world where dreams become realities.
Book: ***
Performance: ***
A moderately interesting premise about parallel worlds accessible through dreams; and something that many fans of the fantasy genre have either encountered, or perhaps even imagined, in our youth. In fact, I find echoes of the Thomas Covenant series … except that the protagonist here is actually a decent human being and not a miserable twit. Of course, the world building more a lot more simplified here, so I am tempted to call it even … except I hated Thomas so much that I was never able to finish that series … so the win goes to Dreamlander here.
Lael is an alternative world accessible to earth through our dreams, provided we exist in both worlds. In other words, when we sleep on earth, we are awake in Lael and vice versa … ignoring the obvious problem of time asleep vs time awake not being one for one between the two worlds. If your doppelgänger dies, the survivor stops dreaming. Leal differs from earth with its more primitive and/or limited technology that gives it a steampunk feel in a basic feudal society on a word with only two warring nations (Lael and Karod [sp?]) . There is a mysterious shape changing (or size changing) proleptic being known as The Garowai that doesn’t seem to add much outside of a typical McMuffin. Stir in a blue blooded master warrior race called the Cherazzi and their companion Riever race that contributes a few support characters to play the cat’s paw and that is pretty much the extent of the world building.
Once in each generation, there appears a prophetic human able to actually (physically) travel between the worlds using an artifact (magic rock) called the Orimere. Only in this case, Chris Redston is the Second of the generation, with the first setting the scene for the coming conflict between the only two nations known on Lael that puts both worlds “out of balance.” If Chris can’t defeat the enemy warlord, both worlds will be destroyed. Oh … and apparently Chris is also The Gifted … who is some form of messianic figure that is supposed to do something in Lael. The two other players in this drama are The Seeker, a minor love interest whose job is to find The Gifted when they appear, and the Keeper, a treasonous Cherazzi who keeps the dream rock until The Gifted comes. There is a lot of hand waving here to gloss over the things that make you go huh, but the pacing of the story is fast enough that you don’t have much time to dwell on any of it, so it mostly works … until you get to the end.
The narration was strong, but there was an aspect that didn’t feel natural to me and was an ongoing irritant throughout. The character voices were actually pretty good though. At 21 hours, there is a lot of entertainment here.
I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Performance: ***
A moderately interesting premise about parallel worlds accessible through dreams; and something that many fans of the fantasy genre have either encountered, or perhaps even imagined, in our youth. In fact, I find echoes of the Thomas Covenant series … except that the protagonist here is actually a decent human being and not a miserable twit. Of course, the world building more a lot more simplified here, so I am tempted to call it even … except I hated Thomas so much that I was never able to finish that series … so the win goes to Dreamlander here.
Lael is an alternative world accessible to earth through our dreams, provided we exist in both worlds. In other words, when we sleep on earth, we are awake in Lael and vice versa … ignoring the obvious problem of time asleep vs time awake not being one for one between the two worlds. If your doppelgänger dies, the survivor stops dreaming. Leal differs from earth with its more primitive and/or limited technology that gives it a steampunk feel in a basic feudal society on a word with only two warring nations (Lael and Karod [sp?]) . There is a mysterious shape changing (or size changing) proleptic being known as The Garowai that doesn’t seem to add much outside of a typical McMuffin. Stir in a blue blooded master warrior race called the Cherazzi and their companion Riever race that contributes a few support characters to play the cat’s paw and that is pretty much the extent of the world building.
Once in each generation, there appears a prophetic human able to actually (physically) travel between the worlds using an artifact (magic rock) called the Orimere. Only in this case, Chris Redston is the Second of the generation, with the first setting the scene for the coming conflict between the only two nations known on Lael that puts both worlds “out of balance.” If Chris can’t defeat the enemy warlord, both worlds will be destroyed. Oh … and apparently Chris is also The Gifted … who is some form of messianic figure that is supposed to do something in Lael. The two other players in this drama are The Seeker, a minor love interest whose job is to find The Gifted when they appear, and the Keeper, a treasonous Cherazzi who keeps the dream rock until The Gifted comes. There is a lot of hand waving here to gloss over the things that make you go huh, but the pacing of the story is fast enough that you don’t have much time to dwell on any of it, so it mostly works … until you get to the end.
The narration was strong, but there was an aspect that didn’t feel natural to me and was an ongoing irritant throughout. The character voices were actually pretty good though. At 21 hours, there is a lot of entertainment here.
I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Yes!
I really enjoyed this book! I've never read anything like it before, and very much looking forward to the next in the series. I loved the characters and their journey together.
I really enjoyed this book! I've never read anything like it before, and very much looking forward to the next in the series. I loved the characters and their journey together.
A solid fantasy filled with carefully-drawn, engaging characters wrestling with real-world issues. Deft handling of a character caught between the worlds, pulled back and forth, without losing the reader. The last 50 pages are a thrill-ride of action between real and fantasy worlds, with an ending that will surprise you. Great job!
Without divulging the ending, let me say that it was supremely satisfying, the best point of the book by far (and I don't mean the rambling final ~5 pages of denouement, but the actual climax). Hopefully it gives not too much away but it had me in tears.
Before I review this book, please be warned that I haven't been reading much pure fantasy (such as this) in a while. I was swayed by the portal via dreams into another world thinking this might be more metaphysically bent than it was. The book is far more grounded into standard fantasy with the dream mechanism being a simple device to mirror the two worlds: our familiar one (set in Chicago) and the fantastic one, called Lael.
I have, however, read some fantasy, and, for a book of this length, I expect a much richer set of characters (really only 2 are well detailed, others are only cursorily developed) and more complex plotline (one of my favourite fantasy books of all time is Tigana, and I'm a huge fan of Ursula K. Le Guin). That said, the book should have been 100 pages shorter and far far tighter.
The two main characters were well developed with good back story etc, but I can't say that I liked them especially. Nor was I particularly convinced from what I knew of them that they would fall in love; although, the actual falling in love was convincing enough. The antagonist is insane and that supposedly explains his actions all of which are violent and destructive -- I was very disappointed here.
For comic relief, we have Pitch and Raz, ugly little sidekicks with quick repartee in Lael (well done), and ridiculous Brooke on the other (didn't believe her character in the slightest). Overall, not nearly enough such relief though so the book is monotonously intense/despairing/etc.
The actual writing: at times flourishing and beautiful but never at the right times! When the narration should be punchy and driven, it rambles into poetic diversions, and when it can afford a little elaboration, the text is dry. Overall, the pacing could have been far better presented, likely the biggest failing of this novel. This led to no little frustration on my part since the unwanted diversions drew me from the story and the rest bored me. I'm a very picky reader with zero qualms to quit a book and I nearly quit this one several times. I stuck with it for random reasons nothing to do with the book.
Overall: I don't think I would recommend this book to all but the true fantasy diehards that devour books of this size regularly for breakfast. There's certainly some quality entertainment here, just not worth the >500 pages of reading to get them imo.
Before I review this book, please be warned that I haven't been reading much pure fantasy (such as this) in a while. I was swayed by the portal via dreams into another world thinking this might be more metaphysically bent than it was. The book is far more grounded into standard fantasy with the dream mechanism being a simple device to mirror the two worlds: our familiar one (set in Chicago) and the fantastic one, called Lael.
I have, however, read some fantasy, and, for a book of this length, I expect a much richer set of characters (really only 2 are well detailed, others are only cursorily developed) and more complex plotline (one of my favourite fantasy books of all time is Tigana, and I'm a huge fan of Ursula K. Le Guin). That said, the book should have been 100 pages shorter and far far tighter.
The two main characters were well developed with good back story etc, but I can't say that I liked them especially. Nor was I particularly convinced from what I knew of them that they would fall in love; although, the actual falling in love was convincing enough. The antagonist is insane and that supposedly explains his actions all of which are violent and destructive -- I was very disappointed here.
For comic relief, we have Pitch and Raz, ugly little sidekicks with quick repartee in Lael (well done), and ridiculous Brooke on the other (didn't believe her character in the slightest). Overall, not nearly enough such relief though so the book is monotonously intense/despairing/etc.
The actual writing: at times flourishing and beautiful but never at the right times! When the narration should be punchy and driven, it rambles into poetic diversions, and when it can afford a little elaboration, the text is dry. Overall, the pacing could have been far better presented, likely the biggest failing of this novel. This led to no little frustration on my part since the unwanted diversions drew me from the story and the rest bored me. I'm a very picky reader with zero qualms to quit a book and I nearly quit this one several times. I stuck with it for random reasons nothing to do with the book.
Overall: I don't think I would recommend this book to all but the true fantasy diehards that devour books of this size regularly for breakfast. There's certainly some quality entertainment here, just not worth the >500 pages of reading to get them imo.
I got this book for free in exchange for a review as an ebook, and I'm sometimes wary of those. However, I'm an avid follower of the author's blog, and I know she can write. I was very impressed with this novel. The idea behind it was very interesting, where your dreams are actually you living your life in another world. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were well developed, and the story was thought out. I am very happy I have added this book to my "read" list.
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This review might contain spoilers:
Having read K.M. Weiland's blog quite a few times, I was impressed by her advice on writing and curious to read the novels she had written. Coming into this book with such high expectations was most likely my biggest error. While I wasn't disappointed, I was certainly underwhelmed. Weiland's grasp on writing is sturdy, and her prose is well written, although at times it comes across as a bit stuffy or full of itself. Weiland crafts an interesting world and history, but her overly doubtful characters went from being realistic to just irritating to read, and left much to be desired.
Weiland's MC, Chris, begins the story as a normal guy, crashing in his friend's apartment until he can find work. Almost overnight, he transitions radically into a powerful, strong leader with just a hint of vulnerability, but his continuous dumb mistakes and lack of passion left a bad taste in my mouth. Chris wasn't a fiery main character, and he had little to no personality that I could see. Overall, he was just a normal guy trying to figure stuff out, and I don’t think he ever quite became the hero I wanted to see. Although this may have been the point, it certainly didn't make this novel any easier to swallow.
Her other lead character, the princess Allara, had the etchings of a strong female, but once again this was brought down by her constant self-doubts. It is, of course, important to give your characters flaws, but to make them the center of who they are makes them annoying. If there's one trope I'm tired of reading, it's the strong female with walls built around her emotions being "saved" by a handsome man. Again, everybody has doubts, but making it the entire arc of said character is just monotonous to follow. I began to believe that Allara could be the strong woman who saves herself, but this came crashing down when she begged Chris not to "leave her all alone". A relatively interesting character arc fell flat with just a few words.
The beginning of this novel dragged tremendously, which is one of the reasons I had such a hard time liking the characters right off the bat. However, it begins to take more shape about a quarter of the way through, when Chris accepts his destiny as the Gifted and his Searcher, Allara, stops dogging on him constantly. Unfortunately, with more action comes more predictability- Chris' naivety is taken advantage of at each turn, resulting in more sighs than gasps. Weiland presents many plot switchbacks- moments when the rug is pulled from beneath the MC's feet- unfortunately these moments come too often to be as surprising as they could.
Weiland's biggest trouble is her dogmatic following of the "rules" of writing that she outlines in her blog. While structure is undoubtably important, I couldn't help but feel her novel would have prospered had she not followed her own rules so rigidly. Due to the predictability, her writing read less like the thought-provoking work it could have been and more like a math formula.
Overall, Dreamlander isn't a novel that will stick with me for very long. I'll continue reading her blog, as her advice on writing is invaluable, but I’ll have to try going into her other novels with more of a healthy curiosity than the high expectations that I had with this one.
Having read K.M. Weiland's blog quite a few times, I was impressed by her advice on writing and curious to read the novels she had written. Coming into this book with such high expectations was most likely my biggest error. While I wasn't disappointed, I was certainly underwhelmed. Weiland's grasp on writing is sturdy, and her prose is well written, although at times it comes across as a bit stuffy or full of itself. Weiland crafts an interesting world and history, but her overly doubtful characters went from being realistic to just irritating to read, and left much to be desired.
Weiland's MC, Chris, begins the story as a normal guy, crashing in his friend's apartment until he can find work. Almost overnight, he transitions radically into a powerful, strong leader with just a hint of vulnerability, but his continuous dumb mistakes and lack of passion left a bad taste in my mouth. Chris wasn't a fiery main character, and he had little to no personality that I could see. Overall, he was just a normal guy trying to figure stuff out, and I don’t think he ever quite became the hero I wanted to see. Although this may have been the point, it certainly didn't make this novel any easier to swallow.
Her other lead character, the princess Allara, had the etchings of a strong female, but once again this was brought down by her constant self-doubts. It is, of course, important to give your characters flaws, but to make them the center of who they are makes them annoying. If there's one trope I'm tired of reading, it's the strong female with walls built around her emotions being "saved" by a handsome man. Again, everybody has doubts, but making it the entire arc of said character is just monotonous to follow. I began to believe that Allara could be the strong woman who saves herself, but this came crashing down when she begged Chris not to "leave her all alone". A relatively interesting character arc fell flat with just a few words.
The beginning of this novel dragged tremendously, which is one of the reasons I had such a hard time liking the characters right off the bat. However, it begins to take more shape about a quarter of the way through, when Chris accepts his destiny as the Gifted and his Searcher, Allara, stops dogging on him constantly. Unfortunately, with more action comes more predictability- Chris' naivety is taken advantage of at each turn, resulting in more sighs than gasps. Weiland presents many plot switchbacks- moments when the rug is pulled from beneath the MC's feet- unfortunately these moments come too often to be as surprising as they could.
Weiland's biggest trouble is her dogmatic following of the "rules" of writing that she outlines in her blog. While structure is undoubtably important, I couldn't help but feel her novel would have prospered had she not followed her own rules so rigidly. Due to the predictability, her writing read less like the thought-provoking work it could have been and more like a math formula.
Overall, Dreamlander isn't a novel that will stick with me for very long. I'll continue reading her blog, as her advice on writing is invaluable, but I’ll have to try going into her other novels with more of a healthy curiosity than the high expectations that I had with this one.