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judeandolin 's review for:
Dreamlander
by K.M. Weiland
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.