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Dreamstalkers #1
The Night Train
The first novel in a spellbinding new fantasy adventure series from the author of The Huntress trilogy. Perfect for readers 8-12 and fans of Philip Pullman, Abi Elphinstone and Katherine Rundell.
Everything changed the day the dreams disappeared… and the nightmares came.
Twelve-year-old Bea lives with her mother Ula and her owl Pip in a cottage on the wild moors. Since the day the dreams disappeared, and an affliction of nightmares began sweeping across the lands, everyone is leaving and their settlement is being abandoned. But when Ula grows sick with the affliction, she won’t leave – and she’s keeping a secret from Bea.
Just as Bea begins to despair, the mysterious Night Train steams across the moors, bringing a stranger who offers her the chance to save her mother. Bea is flung into a faraway adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers, skilled warriors and performers who must go to work each night inside the dreams of the powerful. But the nightmares are following close behind.
It’s time to board the Night Train and dive into an epic, magical adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers. (But beware the nightmares…)
Everything changed the day the dreams disappeared… and the nightmares came.
Twelve-year-old Bea lives with her mother Ula and her owl Pip in a cottage on the wild moors. Since the day the dreams disappeared, and an affliction of nightmares began sweeping across the lands, everyone is leaving and their settlement is being abandoned. But when Ula grows sick with the affliction, she won’t leave – and she’s keeping a secret from Bea.
Just as Bea begins to despair, the mysterious Night Train steams across the moors, bringing a stranger who offers her the chance to save her mother. Bea is flung into a faraway adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers, skilled warriors and performers who must go to work each night inside the dreams of the powerful. But the nightmares are following close behind.
It’s time to board the Night Train and dive into an epic, magical adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers. (But beware the nightmares…)
- GenresMiddle GradeFantasy
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2024
3 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Driver
11 books65 followersSarah Driver was born on the Sussex coast and started writing as a small child. She graduated with distinction from the Bath Spa MA in Writing for Young People in 2015, after winning the 2014 United Agents prize for ‘most promising writer’. She is also a nurse and midwife, having trained at the Florence Nightingale School at King's College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dreamstalkers: The Night Train is releasing on February 1st 2024. It is the first in a new middle grade fantasy-adventure duology, telling the story of Bea Grimspuddle and Pip, an owl who smells like butter and candle smoke. In the world of Hirathorn, Bea lives in the remote wilds of a rugged moorland settlement called Thunderheart Tor. She longs to become a mage, riding off on adventures, with the power to use wild magic. Instead she is taught that all the magic of Hirathorn resides exclusively with the elites in the faraway city of Silvervein. Everything changes when the dreams disappear, strange shadows are glimpsed and nightmares come walking. Then the Night Train steams across the moors, and Bea is swept into an adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers.
Other novels by Sarah Driver are The Huntress trilogy, which tells the story of Mouse, who grows up aboard a ship captained by her grandmother in a world of moonsprites, terrodyls and merwraiths. Once We Were Witches is a fantasy duology which follows Spel Wrythe and her sister Egg, who grow up in Mistress Mouldheels' School for Wicked Girls believing they are the daughters of criminals. Learning the truth will lead them on an adventure to a strange funeral parlour guarding even more secrets.
Photo credit: Lauren Psyk.
Dreamstalkers: The Night Train is releasing on February 1st 2024. It is the first in a new middle grade fantasy-adventure duology, telling the story of Bea Grimspuddle and Pip, an owl who smells like butter and candle smoke. In the world of Hirathorn, Bea lives in the remote wilds of a rugged moorland settlement called Thunderheart Tor. She longs to become a mage, riding off on adventures, with the power to use wild magic. Instead she is taught that all the magic of Hirathorn resides exclusively with the elites in the faraway city of Silvervein. Everything changes when the dreams disappear, strange shadows are glimpsed and nightmares come walking. Then the Night Train steams across the moors, and Bea is swept into an adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers.
Other novels by Sarah Driver are The Huntress trilogy, which tells the story of Mouse, who grows up aboard a ship captained by her grandmother in a world of moonsprites, terrodyls and merwraiths. Once We Were Witches is a fantasy duology which follows Spel Wrythe and her sister Egg, who grow up in Mistress Mouldheels' School for Wicked Girls believing they are the daughters of criminals. Learning the truth will lead them on an adventure to a strange funeral parlour guarding even more secrets.
Photo credit: Lauren Psyk.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 5, 2024
Bea Grimspuddle is unsettled, her dreams have disappeared and she doesn't know why.
Her mother Ula is ill and she wants them to leave their home on the Tor as nightmares are taking over from dreams.
Forced to leave Ula she and her friend Martha embark on a wonderful adventure aboard the night train where she goes to Silvervein where the Dreamstalkers are, but they have lost control and the nightmares have taken over.
Hoping to save her mother Bea knows it's upto her, Martha and her little owl Pip to battle Queen Mora, the agent of destruction and who is behind the insidious nightmares.
This was a very fresh, inventive fantasy with great characters that would appeal to children and adults.
The storyline was engaging and as a lover of fantasy this was a perfect read for me.
Throughly enjoyed it.
Thank you for the chance to read it.
Her mother Ula is ill and she wants them to leave their home on the Tor as nightmares are taking over from dreams.
Forced to leave Ula she and her friend Martha embark on a wonderful adventure aboard the night train where she goes to Silvervein where the Dreamstalkers are, but they have lost control and the nightmares have taken over.
Hoping to save her mother Bea knows it's upto her, Martha and her little owl Pip to battle Queen Mora, the agent of destruction and who is behind the insidious nightmares.
This was a very fresh, inventive fantasy with great characters that would appeal to children and adults.
The storyline was engaging and as a lover of fantasy this was a perfect read for me.
Throughly enjoyed it.
Thank you for the chance to read it.
February 24, 2024
Well, this started as one of the more distinctive fantasies for this age range for quite some time. Yes, it has the really old basis, of a girl unaware of her true destiny and how she can change/repair/save the world, but it does it with brio, energy and distinction. In the isolated corner of the land is an isolated village and isolated from that is our heroine and her mother, cast out much like witchy-type characters often are. But quite quickly everyone is cast out – the problem is everyone has become unable to dream, and nightmares might be prowling the real world instead. A mage arrives to say everyone needs to become refugees elsewhere – but this doesn't sit in with the family past. For the mother had a career she's kept quiet about, and her daughter is stuck in the a**e-end of nowhere because she is not supposed to inherit it. Well, look you now, for that's just what she's going to do. If she can sort good from bad, and train herself up to enter dreams and restore their natural order, that is.
Despite all that wonderfulness, this is not without problems. It could probably afford to lose any percentage of its over-burdened running time you care to mention and get away with it – at times it felt not like the opening of a trilogy but the first two books in a set of five. And despite the wonderfulness of the cover (if you in your territory are seeing what I'm seeing), that too is a let-down when the mahoosive train of the title is off these pages for hour after hour. And there's more – the fact the book can (and does) divert into this dreamscape, that nightmare, this situation and that imaginative piece means we really do lose the concision and tautness of the earlier sections. This ends up doing what it feels like, whether it ought to or not.
That aside, this still has merits. Our lass is a feisty thing, heavily yet excusably very flawed in her interactions with others. The book definitely has the sincerity and conviction to carry this mythology off, and when the blot dragons turn up in the illustrations you see that carried across to our artist too. For yes, there are dragons, as well as familiar/daemon-type birds, secret underground refuges, and all that the dream worlds here entail. But while I was probably going to launch into a "buttercruds in heaven, this is brilliant" mode, this is more of a "thistles and gorse, this is too woolly, far too long, and just bring back the train already" mish-mash. A mish-mash that more patient readers will slog through and relish the thought of more from – just because it tested my patience it doesn't mean to say others will find it anything other than quite wondrous. But from me now it's three and a half stars – built on the first third and the ending, and not enough of what was in between.
Despite all that wonderfulness, this is not without problems. It could probably afford to lose any percentage of its over-burdened running time you care to mention and get away with it – at times it felt not like the opening of a trilogy but the first two books in a set of five. And despite the wonderfulness of the cover (if you in your territory are seeing what I'm seeing), that too is a let-down when the mahoosive train of the title is off these pages for hour after hour. And there's more – the fact the book can (and does) divert into this dreamscape, that nightmare, this situation and that imaginative piece means we really do lose the concision and tautness of the earlier sections. This ends up doing what it feels like, whether it ought to or not.
That aside, this still has merits. Our lass is a feisty thing, heavily yet excusably very flawed in her interactions with others. The book definitely has the sincerity and conviction to carry this mythology off, and when the blot dragons turn up in the illustrations you see that carried across to our artist too. For yes, there are dragons, as well as familiar/daemon-type birds, secret underground refuges, and all that the dream worlds here entail. But while I was probably going to launch into a "buttercruds in heaven, this is brilliant" mode, this is more of a "thistles and gorse, this is too woolly, far too long, and just bring back the train already" mish-mash. A mish-mash that more patient readers will slog through and relish the thought of more from – just because it tested my patience it doesn't mean to say others will find it anything other than quite wondrous. But from me now it's three and a half stars – built on the first third and the ending, and not enough of what was in between.
June 26, 2024
The cover of this book is so appealing and I couldn’t wait to read it .
Everything changed the day the dreams disappeared… and the nightmares came.
Twelve-year-old Bea lives with her mother Ula and her owl Pip in a cottage on the wild moors. Since the day the dreams disappeared, and an affliction of nightmares began sweeping across the lands, everyone is leaving and their settlement is being abandoned. But when Ula grows sick with the affliction, she won’t leave – and she’s keeping a secret from Bea.
Just as Bea begins to despair, the mysterious Night Train streams across the moors, bringing a stranger who offers her the chance to save her mother. Bea is flung into a faraway adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers, skilled warriors and performers who must go to work each night inside the dreams of the powerful. But the nightmares are following close behind.
It’s time to board the Night Train and dive into an epic, magical adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers. (But beware the nightmares…)
This was such a great book to start a series off, it was fast paced and full of adventure, we got an introduction to some great new characters which are going to be interesting to follow throughout the series.
I loved the idea of a magical train that can take you to magical worlds.
I also liked how the two main characters didn’t really like each other but as the book went on they learnt more about each other and became friends.
I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures await in the next book.
Everything changed the day the dreams disappeared… and the nightmares came.
Twelve-year-old Bea lives with her mother Ula and her owl Pip in a cottage on the wild moors. Since the day the dreams disappeared, and an affliction of nightmares began sweeping across the lands, everyone is leaving and their settlement is being abandoned. But when Ula grows sick with the affliction, she won’t leave – and she’s keeping a secret from Bea.
Just as Bea begins to despair, the mysterious Night Train streams across the moors, bringing a stranger who offers her the chance to save her mother. Bea is flung into a faraway adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers, skilled warriors and performers who must go to work each night inside the dreams of the powerful. But the nightmares are following close behind.
It’s time to board the Night Train and dive into an epic, magical adventure in the world of the Dreamstalkers. (But beware the nightmares…)
This was such a great book to start a series off, it was fast paced and full of adventure, we got an introduction to some great new characters which are going to be interesting to follow throughout the series.
I loved the idea of a magical train that can take you to magical worlds.
I also liked how the two main characters didn’t really like each other but as the book went on they learnt more about each other and became friends.
I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures await in the next book.
February 28, 2024
In Sarah Driver's new middle-grade book, Dreamstalkers: The Night Train, dreams have disappeared and nightmares are prowling Tor of Thunderheart, forcing Torfolk to abandon their settlement. As 12-year-old Bea’s mother becomes sick from the nightmares, Bea discovers her mother used to be a Dreamstalker, a guardian of dreamscapes.
When the Night Train suddenly appears at Bea’s home, she embarks on a journey to Silvervein with her pet owl, Pip, and friend, Martha, in a bid to save her mother and town. Bea finds herself battling menacing nightmares and self-doubts, as she trains to be a dreamstalker and faces off against cruel Queen Mora who is determined to destroy everything with her nightmares.
The Night Train, the first book of the Dreamstalkers Trilogy, is an imaginative and magical adventure. The superb worldbuilding sees our feisty heroine encountering blot dragons, skinshifters, moving towers, magical dreamscapes and more. This is one book I’d love to see adapted to screen - its magical elements would be such a visual spectacle 😉
I recommend this book for tweens and those older who love a good fantasy story. Dreamstalkers: The Night Train is available at all good bookstores. Thank you Definitely Books Kids (Pansing) for sending this newly-released title over!
When the Night Train suddenly appears at Bea’s home, she embarks on a journey to Silvervein with her pet owl, Pip, and friend, Martha, in a bid to save her mother and town. Bea finds herself battling menacing nightmares and self-doubts, as she trains to be a dreamstalker and faces off against cruel Queen Mora who is determined to destroy everything with her nightmares.
The Night Train, the first book of the Dreamstalkers Trilogy, is an imaginative and magical adventure. The superb worldbuilding sees our feisty heroine encountering blot dragons, skinshifters, moving towers, magical dreamscapes and more. This is one book I’d love to see adapted to screen - its magical elements would be such a visual spectacle 😉
I recommend this book for tweens and those older who love a good fantasy story. Dreamstalkers: The Night Train is available at all good bookstores. Thank you Definitely Books Kids (Pansing) for sending this newly-released title over!
March 7, 2024
Dreamstalkers: The Night Train” by Sarah Driver Is an intriguing premise: the concept of a magical Night Train that ventures into dreams is captivating. We are definitely pulled into an imaginative world with many themes: identity, dreams, courage, and family bonds.
We have fearless Bea, her familiar Pip an owl, and Martha her almost friend. On a quest from their hamlet to the big city to stop an evil power hungry queen from tipping the balance of society.
There's a lot happening as the girls seeks their destiny, grow into her skills and abilities, whilst trying to confront the big, bad in the world. And in places it was just too much. I couldn't warm to any of the characters and found them misguided and lacklustre. This meant that there were many fits and start before I really started the book, with unintentional long pauses between reads, which is surprising as it all the ingredients to be engaging, thrilling and enjoyable.
It's likely to be a me thing, at the very least it's my reason for not reading and reviewing by the publication day. I'm sure others will be enthused to go on this adventure into dreams.
My thanks to NetGalley and publishers for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
We have fearless Bea, her familiar Pip an owl, and Martha her almost friend. On a quest from their hamlet to the big city to stop an evil power hungry queen from tipping the balance of society.
There's a lot happening as the girls seeks their destiny, grow into her skills and abilities, whilst trying to confront the big, bad in the world. And in places it was just too much. I couldn't warm to any of the characters and found them misguided and lacklustre. This meant that there were many fits and start before I really started the book, with unintentional long pauses between reads, which is surprising as it all the ingredients to be engaging, thrilling and enjoyable.
It's likely to be a me thing, at the very least it's my reason for not reading and reviewing by the publication day. I'm sure others will be enthused to go on this adventure into dreams.
My thanks to NetGalley and publishers for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 27, 2024
An epic fantastical adventure at full throttle. Beautifully written with fabulous characters, this dreamy magical tale will fire your imagination and battle your nightmares.
I'm already at the station awaiting the next one!
I'm already at the station awaiting the next one!
August 17, 2024
I thought this was a good start to a new fantasy series for older juniors. I liked the main characters and the world created for them. It was a little long but had plenty of adventure and action and I'm looking forward to how the series develops.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews