| Dreamhunter | Contributor: Beck | Posted: 06/03/07 | 19:44 |
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page 2 of 3 The book begins with two cousins, Laura and Rose, getting ready for their Try. Both are eligible to participate, having reached the age of fifteen. Rose, the confident, outspoken leader of the pair, is certain that she will pass and become a Dreamhunter. Her mother, Grace Cooper, is one of the earliest and most powerful Dreamhunters. Quiet Laura, almost Rose’s opposite, isn’t quite so confident. Her father is the famous Tziga Hame (try saying that out loud three times fast), who discovered The Place when he mysteriously vanished on a trip with his sister 20 years before. Tziga married Verity Tiebold, sister of Chorley Tiebold, who in turn married Grace Cooper, Rose’s mother. Confused? It's that kind of book. The start is very slow, talking about the summer holiday the two families take every year to Sisters Beach. A few times every holiday, Tziga is whisked away by special train to perform a freshly caught dream to a select audience. Laura doesn’t know where he goes, nor does she care to find out until he disappears on one of his trips. This happens to be just before Laura’s Try, though he is not found to be missing until after Rose Tries and fails. Laura, on the other hand, succeeds, but at a cost. During her testing, she picks up a nightmare, and the chain of events that follows leads her to search for her missing father and uncover the secret of the Hame family. She also discovers the dark side of the Dream Regulatory Body, who are using dreams for foul purposes. She even meets her very own Sandman servant on her way. The cover describes the book as “Fast Paced and dazzlingly imaginative…”. Imaginative it may be, but the pace doesn’t pick up until the last third. It’s a bit tedious to get there, but when the pieces of the puzzle Knox hangs all through the book start fitting together it becomes worth it. The end seems to come right in the middle of the climax, very obviously paving the way for the sequel, Dreamquake (check back for our review soon). This first books poses and answers plenty of questions, but leaves you with even bigger ones. Thankfully, the fairly predictable start is not indicative of the genuine surprises at the end. You could describe the writing style as poetic, but sometimes “poetic” can border or plain strange. For example: He was annoyed at himself for poking the chisel of his complaints into this crack in Tziga’s certainty.
Similar oddities abound. The book is also full of small excerpts that really don’t add anything to the story or the description of events, they just feel out of place. And for a novel heady with imagery and manifold destinies, the actual names of characters, places and concept are rather uninspiring. There’s a town called Doorhandle. One can imagine Knox typing away and then suffering terrible writer’s block, searching around her room for something, anything… ah, there. A door handle. The Place. Try. |
