The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around - and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he's been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever. What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving? The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries - including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo's dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real? In this sweeping and breathtaking new novel by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, the shadow of the past is as real as the ghosts who haunt the citadel of murdered gods. Fall into a mythical world of dread and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and carnage. |
Review
Taylor’s prose is bewitching and some of the best writing I’ve read in ages, even if the descriptions do run a bit long sometimes. I loved the magical realism, and the world this author has built is whimsical yet convincing. However, a novel cannot stand on writing technique alone—no matter how good that writing is.
This novel has a fascinating premise that centres around a forgotten city with a forgotten name and the teenage godspawn children trapped atop a floating citadel, but nothing of real interest happens in Strange the Dreamer until the halfway point. I was 300 pages (of about 450) in before I felt like the plot was gaining momentum. Much of what came before that, in my opinion, was a very pretty way of saying ‘Once upon a time there was a boy called Lazlo whose life sucked until he went on a marvellous adventure.’
For the most part, Taylor builds realistic characters with relatable motivations—even when those motives lead to heinous actions. However, Ruby, Feral, and Sparrow feel like stage props. Feral and Sparrow have important roles in keeping the godspawn alive but none of these three characters has any real agency, except where it relates to who’s kissing whom. There’s nothing new about privileged jerk characters taking advantage of honourable disadvantaged characters but Taylor puts an interesting spin on it by emphasising that Nero is taking Laszlo’s dream as opposed to something more tangible.
There’s an amazing revelation in the denouement, followed shortly by a character being such an absolute moron that I wish I could’ve hit them over the head with this book. Really, few things annoy me in a book as much as characters wilfully, and with FULL KNOWLEDGE of the repercussions of their actions, doing idiotic things. Especially at the end. Insert much swearing here.
Strange the Dreamer: an enchantingly well-written but slow novel with a horrible ending. There’s no way in hell I’ll be reading Muse of Nightmares.