Dream Lords: Lord of Nightmares

The Dream Lords #2

by Adrian Cole

Centuries after the holocaust that destroyed Earth, Galad Sarian is exiled from his home planet of Zurjah to Karkesh, the desecrated city of chains on the planet Ur. There, the former heir to the Dream Lords throne is to be eternally imprisoned with the vilest species of monsters in all the nine worlds.

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery

221 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Adrian Cole was born in Plymouth, Devonshire in 1949. He is currently the Director of College Resources in a large secondary school in Bideford, where he now lives with his wife, Judy, son Sam, and daughter Katia. He remains best known for his Dream Lords trilogy as well as his young adult novels, Moorstones and The Sleep of Giants.

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being the hero of the piece, Galad muddles through the story with remarkably little actual agency. He's carried by plots and machinations and things larger than himself, whether Annulian's war plans or Vellonica's seduction or the Chosen One role suggested by Chalremor and his prophecy or, at the last, by the Priests taking a direct hand in literally using him to enact justice/vengeance. He is directed by events rather than directing events, and when he does issue orders it is as the proxy of someone else.

Surprisingly, the hallucinatory aspects of the first book--the sense that The Dream Lords control via illusion and mind control--have been muted in this episode, leaving straightforward if extremely bloody adventure. Despite the ongoing sense that Plague of Nightmares was careening out of control, the actual Dream Lord business had real charm and suspense, which this book does not have.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second in the Dream Lords series by Adrian Cole, which is one of the best heroic fantasy trilogies out there and way underrated.

[Scott Nieradka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well the first 50 pages was jaw dropping painfully bad, but i think that might just be cause its summing up the previous book, which ive never read, and they really are expecting me to have monumental levels of suspension of disbelief. But then it levels out into mockable sci fi psionic barbarian drivel, and well hey.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good SiFi series that has a strong fantasy feel to it. Very recommended

[Matthew J.]

I did not love this.
I didn't realize that it was actually a sequel to a book called "Plague of Nightmares." I don't think it matters. There was a bunch of info-dumping at the beginning that was basically a recap of the first. There's weird use of the Book of Revelations as inspiration for much of this novel.
It feels like there were a lot of moments that should have had emotional weight, but meh.