Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, A Prose Novel

Marvel Press Novels

by Devin Grayson

The world is falling apart. Violent crime is surging while the global economy craters. Doctor Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, has defeated demonic hordes, battled evil wizards and tirelessly defended our realm against invading interdimensional armies. But when a dangerous dream begins inspiring normal people to act out their darkest ambitions, even Doctor Strange is pushed to his very limits. Working alongside his longtime nemesis, Nightmare, the Sorcerer Supreme must delve into the nightmares, delusions and desires of an entire planet. To save the Dream Realms, he'll have to give up some illusions of his own - including his heroism. And in the fallout, what dreams will haunt the Sorcerer Supreme?

Genres: Fantasy, Marvel, Comics, Fiction, Audiobook, Superheroes, Science Fiction

266 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Devin Grayson is an avid gamer, former acting student, and enthusiastic reader fortunate enough to have turned a lifelong obsession with fictional characters into a dynamic writing career. She has a B.A. from Bard College, where she studied creative writing with novelist Mona Simpson. Best known for her work on the Batman titles for DC Comics, Devin has been a regular writer on Catwoman, Nightwing, and The Titans, and contributed to the award-winning No Man’s Land story arc. With the publication of Batman: Gotham Knights in March of 2000, she became the first (and, sadly, only as of 2020) female to create, launch and write an ongoing Batman title.

Additional career highlights include the launch of the critically acclaimed series Omni for Humanoids, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, an original novel featuring Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, and USER—a highly personal three-part, creator-owned miniseries about gender identity and online role-playing, originally published by Vertigo and newly available as a collected edition hardcover through Image. Devin is also the creator of Yelena Belova, a Marvel character staring in the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie (played by Florence Pugh), Damien Darhk, a DC character now appearing regularly in CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (played by Neal McDonough), and Catalina Flores, a DC character recently featured as the super-villain Tarantula in The Lego Batman Movie.

Frequently cited for compelling character development and nuanced exploration of complex themes, Devin’s work has been showcased in mainstream media such as USA Today and Working Woman as well as in alternative press such as The Village Voice, The Advocate, and Curve magazine. Over the years, she has written in several different media and genres, from comic books and novels to video game scripts and short essays. She is currently working on an original graphic novel for Berger Books.

Devin lives in Northern California with her husband, step-son, devoted Early Alert Canines Diabetic Alert Dog, and somewhat less devoted cat. Openly bisexual, she is a passionate advocate for the GLBTQ community, as well as being a committed environmentalist, and a public speaker for T1 Diabetes awareness and Diabetic Alert Dogs. She is always happy to take on a new challenge, especially if it involves making some new fictional friends.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams
By Devin Grayson
This was an entertaining book when I felt a Marvel moment coming on. Something light on the brain, no major twists, and turns to follow.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable Odyssey through a series of "Dream Dimensions" alongside the Sorcerer Supreme and some colourful supporting characters as Strange tries to ward off increasing episodes of random violence and delusions among seemingly ordinary, untroubled people.



Unexpectedly I found this book shed a lot of light on details of Stephen Strange's early life I had no prior knowledge of, very interesting stuff for fans of Greenwich Village's most uncanny inhabitant.

Audiobook Note: The full cast reading was fun! though at times the background noise/music felt a little overbearing.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgive me, for I am weak. And, in my defense, it is the second half of December (which is supposed to be a time of rest and recreation, or something like that). But, regardless, I have done a foolish thing, even if I don't entirely regret it. I have now read, back-to-back, three (yup, count 'em, three) Marvel (comic) prose novels (at the end of a year in which I'd read one earlier, which, of course, contributed to me having the stack of Marvel prose novels in the first place - so, yes, just to be clear, that means I read (what was I thinking?) four Marvel prose novels in one year), and I've got one left on the stack (but I'm really ... really ... going to take a break before I read the next one).

And, um, I liked (enjoyed) them. ... And I think this one was the best of the four (although the Guardians of the Galaxy was a close second)....

For context, and this is all about context, here's the others:
- Iron Man: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... -
- X-Men: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... -
- Guardians of the Galaxy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

I was surprised that I enjoyed this one so much given that, I was never really a Doctor Strange fan (although I enjoyed the movie far more than the critics - I found it hugely entertaining, nicely cast, and well done); and, ahem, I figured I'd be bored after having read a few of these back-to-back. And, yet ... the author (whom I wasn't really familiar with), set the hook nicely early on, kept things moving at a brisk pace, interjected enough humor to make it fun, and wrapped it up before I had a chance to get bored.

Having said all of that, I think that the primary reason I found it more enjoyable than, say, Iron Man or X-Men, is that, well, Doctor Strange is supposed to be, well, strange, and magical and mystical and unconventional and other-worldly and not bound by normal conventions and ... so ... Doctor Strange doesn't need to be bound by the reality-based, analytical, common sense tethers than we crave in our science fiction.... It's magic, and it's not sleight-of-hand, don't look behind the curtain magic, it's ... just ... magic, so there's no rules. And, once you start making stuff up, well, the same goes for vocabulary ... in a spell, a good rhyme counts for more than logic or reason or Webster's or American Heritage or even the OED. C'mon, in magic, babble or mumbo jumbo rules!!!

Closing riff - and this isn't a spoiler - but I expect that anyone that took a course or two in Psychology in college or has studied or read about dreams will either be completely appalled or highly amused by the book's premise and primary story line. This isn't Gaiman's epic, sublime Sandman graphic novel run, but it's an exposition, passion play, drama built upon dreaming ... and, for whatever reason, it worked for me.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"But first, I need to finish my exam." She lifted his right hand in her own, and Stephen had to exhale to keep himself from pulling it back. "How are your hands feeling?" she asked.

Stephen forced himself to look at them. They were covered in surgical scars and felt alien to him, like relics from someone else's life. And they hurt — always. In addition to the constant dull aching and occasional flare-ups of burning nerve pain, thinking about his hands always seemed to bring up some deeply buried biological memory of having been under surgical anesthesia — the nausea and bitter aftertaste — as well as a stab of shame concerning the man he used to be.

"They're fine," he said, more brusquely than he meant to. "Or rather, they're unchanged, but I'm fine." He paused, realizing he didn't definitively know whether that was true.

Some tie-in spinoff novels are just mediocre paint-by-numbers stories cashing in on the popularity of the other thing. And then, other times, they are excellent features in their own right. This is one of the latter! It's beautifully-written and has so many great moments, to the extent I just kept marking more and more quotes. (The only bummer is that there's no ebook of The Fate of Dreams so I had to buy a hardcover physical copy, although it looks like an audiobook does exist.)

This is specifically a tie-in to the comic books, but it also functions really well if you want to see it as an expansion of the MCU Doctor Strange.

It features lots of wacky magical worldbuilding re: the sort of lunacy he has to deal with in his everyday, and his easy competency handling it; the Bar With No Doors and the casual camaraderie and sense of community amongst the magic-oriented superheroes of the city; the more spooky esoteric features of the Sanctum Sanctorum; the interesting structure of the realm of dreams and its various kingdoms. The book takes time to plumb into Doctor Strange's nightmares and even his desires and longing, as Erotica dangles temptation in front of him when he accidentally stumbles into her dream kingdom.

There's his unresolved issues about his estranged wife Clea, and most importantly imo, so much focus on his hands: the MCU has really glossed over the disability aspect of the character, but here it comes up over and over, and his pain is a constant undercurrent to his day. It's a really really valuable emphasis for the character, because it underscores the importance of him choosing his duty as the Sorcerer Supreme over fixing his hands.

There's also a really, really lovely scene reflecting on his sister Donna's death, which feels like an outright refuting of the common comics tropes of fridging female characters, and I adore both the author and this Doctor Strange for it: because he's adamant that Donna was not a stepping-stone for him to become a doctor, her death did not occur to fuel his own story, and to claim that is a complete disservice to his sister as a person. I loved this angle and seeing his anger over the very assumption, this attempted reduction of a beloved family member to only be a part of his fate and his alone.

There's also Strange's unwavering belief in the magic beneath all things, and in science & magic being two sides of the same coin. This is another of my favourite sequences:

He reached out suddenly and touched the exact center of her forehead with one finger, drawing what felt like an oval before pressing the heel of his palm against it. It was the first time she'd really looked at his hands. They were horrifically damaged — stiff and scarred. And as he touched her, sending a small jolt of energy through her flesh like a pinpoint of electrical current, they began tremoring.

"Wong says you were a brain surgeon once," she blurted suddenly, feeling like she ought to know more about the man in whose attic she was about to sleep. "Is that true?"

"That was another lifetime ago." He was about to get up, but seemed to think better of it, steepling his hands as he explained. "I should probably clarify — I don't mean that literally. It was a long time ago, and I was a different man then." Sharanya watched him intently, trying to ignore the feeling of Nightmare's eyes on her back. "I can see that you're struggling with all of this," Strange acknowledged. "Think of magic as an extension of science; go beneath the molecules and the atoms, and there it is, holding everything together. It's the why, the triumph of collective interdependencies over classifying dissimilarities. It's life wanting to exist, and finding a way to thrive, in an indifferent universe."

He took her hand, calmly balling it into a fist as he covered it with one of his own. It seemed to Sharanya that the scars were from operations — maybe dozens of them.

"Reality," he said, with his hand covering the whole of her fist. Next, he lightly tapped her thumb. "Science." And then he tapped her pinky. "Magic. All the same components — we're just untangling the problem from the opposite end."

His confidence seemed absolute, and when he rose again she could think of no objections worth uttering, as crazy as the whole plan still seemed to her.

The supporting cast is great, like Sharanya herself: a neuroscientist baffled by having her worldview shattered but having to broaden her horizons and roll with the changes, much like Strange once did. She's also a bisexual Indian-American woman in science, and she's just great; the little touches of her dissimilarities between her and her more old-fashioned mother were great.

There's also Jane Bailey, the dreamwalking Inhuman, and her unexpected friendship with Nightmare — plus Nightmare and Strange's own reluctant teaming-up — is so endearing.

The whole book is just really strong, delivering feelsy character introspection, fascinating worldbuilding, and juicy interactions between the entire cast of characters, even brand-new ones who aren't comic book staples. Devin Grayson just gets it. She does such a good job of balancing Doctor Strange's crisp impatient competency and occasional arrogance, but also his humility and his care for the people around him, but also his self-destructive tendencies. I expected a neat and tidy happy ending here, but the denouement is actually genuinely bittersweet and unnerving and I want to yell from the rooftops about it.

I've grown more and more attached to the character of Doctor Strange over time, and this book really just cemented the things I love about him. Highly, highly recommended to anyone who's even mildly curious tbh.

[Lori S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
An interesting take on a full cast audio, though the production team could use some tips from Big Finish.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story if you're a Doctor Strange fan. Really delves into the issues he has and forces him to confront them. Devin is an excellent writer, and it looks like she really did her research on the subject of dreams and whatever else needed fleshing out. I only wish she would be hired to write more of him!

Very mild spoilers here!


I was a bit surprised by the ending, as it seems to end on a tone that suggests Strange may not have learned his lesson. But I like that, since this no doubt was tied in with "price of magic" theme that was running in the comics at the time (and currently).

[Tia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was able to get hold of the Audiobook version of Fate of Dreams, and I will say, the Audiobook is significantly better than the print. Everyone really gives it their all in terms of performance, and yes, I say *everyone* because this isn't just another audiobook where its somebody reading the literature at you. This, is a full scale radioplay, complete with music, sound effects (one of which actually gave me a jumpscare and nearly ran me off the road when I was listening in my car...) with narration. If you can, seek out the Audiobook version.

[David Macpherson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Strange and friends have to save the dream world from a power play from one of the dream rulers so that Dr Strange has to team up with his old enemy Nightmare. Nightmare was portrayed quite well, falling in love with an Immortal with dream powers. Never thought I would have to write a sentence like the last one. It was fun, but the final epilogue was surprisingly dour and it kind of took some of the good feelings from the book.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, By Devin Grayson is an original "prose" novel based on the Marvel comic’s occult superhero Doctor Strange.

The Fate of Dreams, concerns itself with Doctor Strange's efforts to address an mysterious enigmatic corruption affecting the various realms of the dream dimension. He works in eventual concert with a dream-specialist neuroscientist Doctor Sharanya, a young Inhuman girl Jane Bailey (i.e. superpowered human-alien hybrid), and Strange's erstwhile foe Nightmare, a sovereign of the dream realms. In order to not only save the realms of dreams itself, but to save humanity from this mysterious supernatural threat.

Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams walks a delicate line, as it manages to appeal to regular comic book readers as well as those fans who are newer to Doctor Strange and his magical world. The world as presented is the current Marvel Universe that fans would know and recognize and there are brief shout outs to the current status of the Marvel Universe that fans can immediately pick up on. This is a world where other superheroes exist—the Inhumans are among us, Parker Industries is headquartered in the Baxter Building, and other magic users congregate together (which has been seen in recent Doctor Strange comics as well).  But for those uninitiated, there’s more than enough groundwork laid to explain who people of significance are—such as Scarlet Witch, who makes an early appearance.

Grayson weaves a tapestry here that focuses as much on the otherworldly nature of magic and dreams as it does on the characterization of not just Doctor Strange, but also two new characters, which become point of view characters for the audience. Long time Doctor Strange villain Nightmare shows up, and when he’s on the page, the pages crackle with energy as Grayson delves deep into what makes a demonic villain like Nightmare tick.

Translating a character like Doctor Strange, plus his magical world, to the prose page is a daunting task, as many of his most memorable adventures over the years in the comics have focused on the imagery of magic and the many realms he’s traversed and enemies he’s vanquished. With the benefit of these visuals stripped away, Grayson does a brilliant job of describing what Doctor Strange sees in a truly new way. The description of the magic he wields, and how it presents itself, is very intriguing.  Because of the nature of prose, I found that there were some great character beats which would have been much harder, if not almost impossible, to work seamlessly into the visual medium of comics. Doctor Strange’s origin is explicitly about him losing the ability to perform delicate surgeries with his hands, and his resulting descent into desperation to recover this utility so that he can be the man he was. He ends up finding something more important than his previous goals, but his hands remain damaged. He might be able to wield magic more potently than anyone else on earth, but his hands still tremble and shake. It’s that aspect of his humanity that Grayson makes wonderful use of, as we’re constantly reminded of his wounded hands , as he’s often beset by pain and tingling. It makes so much sense to build this into his character, and yet it’s often never addressed at all in the comics themselves. It makes Doctor Strange far more relatable, which can at times be difficult to achieve in the comics given the vastness of the power he wields as well as the threats he faces.

Grayson brings to life a great adventure into the dreamworld, exploring how different dream realms would operate, and how Doctor Strange would interact with them. It’s very imaginative, as Grayson vividly brings to life the different dream realms, fully realized and with great internal logic and consistency. There’s a great emotional arc in the story, and even Nightmare (traditionally a somewhat two-dimensional villain) is given further depth and characterization. The main villain of the story is a credible threat, and an interesting one given their origins within the story. Grayson makes the reader look at dreams in a completely different manner. There are different types of dream realms that contribute to the overall experience one gets while asleep.  Nothing is necessarily straightforward in these territories, with different realms leading into others. This makes sense given the mutable quality of dreams.

Overall, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams is an engrossing and thrilling superhero adventure, which has Doctor Strange up against a foe he can’t simply use his magic against, but instead must outthink, outmaneuver, and band together with new allies in order to defeat. Doctor Strange can be a difficult hero to write for, given the depth of his power and mastery over magic, but Grayson has found a credible threat that feels well-suited against Doctor Strange, and uses his history of combating Nightmare in the dream realm to the story’s benefit. If you’re a seasoned fan of Doctor Strange, you’ll feel right at home reading this adventure, and if you’re a new fan who’s enjoyed the character in the various MCU films, you’ll be able to quickly and easily jump into this tale.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of those books that is an audio drama with sound effects. Not really the best I’ve heard. The story itself was one where you don’t understand it all until the end, but despite that the final scene was actually very easy to anticipate about halfway through the book. it was fun, but definitely not a can’t miss title.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say I've ever read anything Doctor Strange focused before. That being said, the book was still enjoyable. I've also never read anything related to Marvel's Dream Verse. The author did a good job at creating descriptive visuals and compelling characters.

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent start but underwhelming follow through

[Gary Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected. Sadly Doctor Strange is a dick, but all the other characters are great. Fun creative story. A little uneven. 4.1/5

[Penny Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I knew that DC Comics had published various novels based on their iconic comic book characters (such as Catwoman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), I wasn’t aware that Marvel had done this as well until I happened upon this novel at my favorite comic book shop.

Doctor Strange is my favorite Marvel character, as well as my favorite superhero. While I’m not a fan of the MCU movie (there were no incantations and it wasn’t campy enough!), I’m always excited when I see a new Doctor Strange story, and I added this novel to my much-too-large pile of comics.

The Fate of Dreams follows Doctor Strange as he tries to discover what’s causing people to fight one another on the streets and carry out wild ideas, which seems to be creating unease in the magical community.

Working alongside Sharanya Misra, a dream researcher, and an Inhuman named Jane Bailey, Doctor Strange creates a shocking alliance with his classic nemesis, Nightmare, the ruler of one of the dream dimensions. Together they travel into the dream dimension to try to find and fix the problem.

While I had some issues with the novel, I generally enjoyed it. It was interesting to get more backstory about Doctor Strange’s life than what you would normally find in a comic book, especially when it delved into his early life and the death of his sister. I’m not sure how canon this history was, because I haven’t seen the same specific details anywhere else, but they certainly added an extra dimension to his history, and even explained his reasons for becoming a doctor.

I found the character of Sharanya irrelevant to the story. Despite being a dream researcher traveling through the dream dimension, she didn’t do much to advance the story and seemed to be written into the narrative simply to add another character. Her presence didn’t annoy or bother me, but I truly feel that nothing would have changed had she not been in the story. Perhaps this can be attributed to the lack of character development. If there’s one huge fault in this novel, it’s that the readers are expected to have some pre-existing knowledge of the Marvel characters and that the new characters (Jane and Sharanya) aren’t given enough backstory and personality for us to grow attached to them.

One of the most interesting aspects of the novel for me was watching Nightmare work alongside Doctor Strange, and witness Nightmare’s fondness for Jane, the Inhuman character. Nightmare is one of my favorite Doctor Strange villains, and reading about him holding hands with a character (Jane) and being practically friendly with Doctor Strange was bizarre, although slightly enjoyable at the same time.

Another thing I’d like to point out is this interesting description of spells that Doctor Strange gives to Sharanya:

“The magical arts have a long literary tradition. Words are powerful. So powerful, in fact, that when we first started writing them down, we ‘spelled’ them. … Spells have to be crafted, and using rhyming or alliteration is one way of channeling power and intent through them.”

One of my favorite aspects of Doctor Strange comics has always been the use of slightly campy incantations, and I was thrilled that those were included in the novelization.

If you are looking for a quick, enjoyable novel about Doctor Strange, I’d recommend checking this out from your local library. It’s not the kind of thing a person might read multiple times, but it is fun.

[Olman Says · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dreamscape is so subtle, so iridescent and volatile it couldn’t have been described better in this book. Strange’s motivations and characterization are always on the forefront. His chronic pain after the accident is felt as much as his goal to defend the Multiverse from it’s own dreams. The analogies between what happens in the oneiric and the world as is today callously explains our current state of affairs and behaviors. How technology has affected our access to the collective unconscious ad viceversa. The Fate of Dreams compartmentalizes our sleeping experiences into easy to digest realms, whilst their avatars recall effigies so familiar yet alien, wrought from the dreams we weave day to day.

Nightmare perhaps was my biggest disappointment. His monstrosity is perhaps too tame and anthropomorphic that steered away from the fearsome lord he’s supposed to be. The author did her best to make him vulnerable and relatable, but I guess I like my Faustian monsters intact. Let’s hope this is not the case in the upcoming movie.

Oh, and Magic has no place in the Dreamscape. That is a beautiful premise. <3

[Adrian Montanez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was just a dream!

So with the recent Wandavision episodes, I decided to finally read/hear this adventure. Here we have a story about dreams and the effects they can have in our lives. We find an Inhuman with powers related to the dream realms, trying to prevent a prophecy that ends in the destruction of all the realms.

(Mostly read it because I wanted to remind myself of Nightmare's powers. I have a theory for Wandavision.)

If you want to read a cool Doctor Strange adventure after getting hooked on the show, I fully recommend getting the audiobook version of this book. It was a rather enjoyable experience and counts as the first marvel novel of the year. Planning on reading a couple more and eventually catch up to the 2020 novels.

3.5 stars out of 5 stars

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had not followed Doctor Strange in the comics, but I did enjoy the movie, so I thought I would give the book a chance. It was an okay book. It starts off slow before kind-of picking up [some] speed toward the end. I did enjoy the cameos of some other characters from the Marvel U; I think the book might have been more enjoyable if one or two of the cameos had stuck around a bit longer to assist Strange. The character development was kinda spotty; I did learn quite a bit about Strange's backhistory through the book, so that was interesting. The other characters, no so much [and not really enough for me to truly care about them, per se].

Some things I did like about the book:
I did like that Wanda, Doctor Druid, and Satanna had cameos in the beginning. I kind-of think the book might have been better if one or more of them had interacted with Strange in "solving the mystery" of what was going on with people. At the same time, Strange did have the help of a neuroscientist, an Inhuman, and a demon to defeat the antagonist.

I did like the "epiphany" that Strange [finally] had about how magic might not be able to solve everything. He kept saying throughout the book "mundane problems require mundane solutions", only he discovered he needed some mundane solutions to overcome some of the problems he was facing. He also realized [through the villain's monologue] that "overwhelming force" is not always required to solve a problem. I don't know how to articulate it, but it was one of the better segments of the book.

I enjoyed the segment where he and the others enter a "Kree-dreamstate" and meet up with a Kree "dream-sovereign" who assists them and helps them recover from their ordeals to face their final task. It was a well-written sequence, and it had some great humor in it. After I read Men-Dar's statement about how the Pathways allowed intercourse between the dimensions and Strange's wanton, reckless, unthinking violence was destroying the protective barrier between realms, I for the life of me did not expect Strange to say, "You want me to use protection?" and her to reply "yes." It was both hilarious and bizarre [because I did not expect the conversation to turn sexual, per se]. Regardless, I did enjoy how the Healing Dreamscape was to be found in a Kree hospital, and that Strange would use the Kree "medical dream facilities" to try to learn more about their opponent.

Mixed feelings:
I usually enjoy reading in books or comics or seeing in movies references to Nebraska. Sometimes they are hilarious stereotypes [such as in Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels] and other times it is mentioned in passing. So I was surprised to learn that Stephen Strange grew up in Hamilton County, Nebraska on a farm. It is just that I felt like Nebraska and being a farmer were so disparaged in the book, as if both Nebraska and farming were somehow inferior to "everything else" in existence. But, as I am thinking about it, this perception could merely be Stephen Strange's and stemmed from his arrogance of youth and anger over the death of his biological family; thus, we the reader are seeing things from Strange's perspective and not necessarily the author's opinion. If so, it was subtly written and does a nice job of expanding upon and describing an aspect of Strange's character. If not, then it bugs me. I love living in Nebraska, and I have a lot of respect for farmers, for what they do. hahahah

Some other things:
Strange's parents [father, anyway] are implied to be Christians, and Strange abandons the faith of his parents as soon as he can. Perhaps this was added on at some point in Strange's backhistory in the comics; I don't know as I generally don't read his comics, but I felt like this did nothing to add to the story. Well, not really add anything; the dream sovereigns do try to use his abandoning the faith of his parents against him toward the end. At the same time, though, a Father Lamonte would like Strange's assistance during an exorcism and Strange has Wong tell Lamonte he will be there to assist, so there you go.

Perhaps it is because I do not usually read fantasy books or books about magical beings, but it was very strange to me to read about a "demon" befriending an Inhuman and coming to care about her as a person and to develop "feelings" for her. It just did not sit well with me.

Then having the book end with Strange studying Necromancy. That did not sit well with me, either. But that is me.

I did feel like the book was kinda like how I wished the second Matrix movie to have been. In the book, the characters keep moving from dimension to dimension to dimension, some of it involving people's dreams. I would loved to have seen the Keymaker taking Neo and the others through various dream sequences while fleeing the Agents of the Matrix. It also kind-of reminded me, in a very-mild-sort-of-way, of some of Philip K. Dick's stuff [not sure why, but it did].

It was an okay book; I am glad I read it. I might never read another like it again, and I might never read this one again, but I am glad I read it.

------------------------------------------------

The following blurb[s] are more my thoughts and not so much a part of the review, but I thought I would include them. Some "observations" triggered by reading the book:
One thing I did find "funny" about the book. This book came out during the presidential election of 2016, so it was in the process of being written well before the election campaigns started [unless the author is a super-fast reader]. In the book, Strange is described as using women and discarding them, of having multiple lovers and one-night stands. He is using the women to try and meet some need in his life, to heal some kind of hurt. Regardless of why he is using them, the fact remains that he is still using women and discarding them; he does not really seem to care about their feelings or how hurt they might be after the fact. In addition, he is still married [the marriage is in a strange state of affairs] in the book and he was still married [estranged/separated] at the time he was having the multiple lovers and one-night stands, which also makes him an adulterer. Not only that, but Men-Dar tells him that his many one-night stands will never heal the hurt within. Yet, he is still portrayed as a 'hero' despite how he is so cavalierly using and treating women. So it is funny to me to read the book and consider Strange's behavior and treatment of women in light of the anger and ire that came about in this election cycle.

Something else that "jumped out" at me: The primary villain was a woman who is described in terms of how attractive she is. It also has another character called "Erotica" who is described in sexual terms; Strange wakes up in bed with her. Now, to be honest, this normally would not have phased me at all, but in a class I took this past fall, the authors of two of my textbooks complained about the negative imagery of women in the Book of Revelation, how women were described negatively in sexual terms. So it was amusing/interesting to read a book written by a woman about women in negative terms. So not only is the villain of the piece a woman fighting with a man, but the man [hero] attacks her with an axe in order to either defeat her or injure her enough to slow her down! Again, had I not read the two textbooks during my fall class, I would not have thought twice about it [well, maybe the part of Strange attacking Numinous with an axe - that was a bit much], but having read the two books prior to this one made me stop and wonder about this book. Not only that, but Strange sacrifices the life of a young female in order to save reality at the end of the book! What the heck?!!? It was nuts.

Now, there are two women who are heroes as well. One is a Kree-human hybrid; the other woman's parents immigrated to the United States from India. Well, the Inhuman [Kree-human hybrid] is more of a young woman [child] than an adult woman, but that does not stop her from acting heroically in the book. I did think Jane [the Inhuman] was an interesting character, and it might have been fun to read about her in subsequent books, but that is not meant to be. She gave up her life to save Numinous, sacrificing herself so that the Pathways could be restored and the various Dream Realms [and all of reality, by extension] could be saved. It sounds noble, but it was still a child sacrifice.

One final blurb: I did like how Sharanya was able to create dream-warriors to fight her battles for her, and how she was able to defeat the 'darkness' of Numinous's armies with positive imagery and celebrating "fond memories" [for lack of a better word]. While Strange was using violent magic to attempt to defeat their foes, Sharanya was using 'more peaceful' methods to fight back; in doing so, she was doing less damage to the various "dream realms" in which they were traversing than Strange. There was one sequence where she created eight or ten Indian guardians to protect them from harm; it was pretty cool, on the one hand. Not sure why, but I enjoyed that part of the narrative.

[juu!! ꩜ · Rating 2 out of 5]

𝓓𝓸𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓻 𝓢𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮: 𝓕𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓓𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓼 ;
★★

IT'S OVER! I'M FREE! (this was worse than Powerless... how the hell?!)
What in the actual fuck did I just read. This book wasn't even long (less than 300 pages), but MORE THAN HALF OF IT could have been summarized into a single chapter or completely removed from it's storyline, and it wouldn't make a goddamn difference. Guess that says a lot of how well developed this novel is... (sarcasm intended 😓)

For starters, the characters were shitty. Doctor Strange was okay, I guess. Don't have much to comment about him, as he was simply flat. Basic. Boring. All of those adjectives fit THIS version of Stephen, which most might have assumed, that was disappointing. He's such an awesome character in the MCU (can't say much for his comic book version as I haven't read any of his issues yet), with an iconic personality and memorable arrogance, something he was drained of in this novel. Only part he talked like the Stephen I know was in the last two pages where he basically ignores Wong's worries and does the complete opposite of what was suggested (also enjoyed how his life is impacted by how badly damaged his hands are. Found it to be really realistic the fact he's "embarrassed" of his scars). The books' title is DOCTOR STRANGE and who truly stole the scene was Nightmare, ot at least until he became friends with that whiny little bitch called Jane. Okay, first off: Nightmare. A whitty demon with great sense of humor and an ability to make things awkward at the best of times. Knew how to be functional, had his own goals (and worked to achieve 'em) and somehow, got me to grow fond of him. Even entered my "hear me out" list. That, until he established a father-daughter relationship with Jane, the Inhuman who did nothing but scream for 250 pages and ended up saving the day 'cause why the fuck not (I'll get into that in a second (everything reminds me of Joel and Ellie from TLOU so yes their dynamic was kinda sweet). He became a bit less bitter, and consequently, lost his spark. Now, don't get me started on Jane. She was so annoying I was genuinely grinning when she finally died, that stupid, useless, crying woman who was 19 but acted 7. To say she was frustrating would be an understatement, as I can't think of proper words to describe how MAD I felt when she interrupted Strange's plan, fucked up with his magic, saved the villain (who no one cared about), and made herself the hero for a reason I didn't fully understand. That whole prophecy shit was overly complicated... the author didn't even explain what she meant with "Jane having to kill Sharanya" at the beginning. Sad she didn't end her, though, as Dr. Misra was nearly as bad as the younger girl. A stupid, stereotypical indian bisexual woman whose only problem in life was she wasn't married yet. That didn't stop her from being nosy, that didn't stop her from asking irrelevant questions at the WORST TIMES possible, and that didn't stop her from being random. Straight up.

This book is random as a whole, actually. The dialogue doesn't work too well, chunks of it seem to have been rewritten, then thrown with the rest of it with little to no connection at all. Let's not even talk about the writing. Holy shit, chatGPT could do better. Complicated and long words inserted poorly, paragraphs too long to be read with full attention, and a plot that doesn't sustain itself. The big reveal happens a bit after you get done half the book, and it's honestly not even that much of a plot twist. For two main reasons, in my personal opinion:
1. It was all too confusing for me to FULLY understand the story in depth and care about anything that was happening
2. I didn't connect to a single character, so whether they lived or died, it didn't matter much to me.

All of that to say it's bad. Fuck everyone, I'm so done with trying to enjoy these non-oficial Marvel books. They're never good, despite having big potential. Ugh, the plot could've worked out so well! Dreams are such an interesting aspect of our lives, and they could've been worked on with more detail, even more confusion (but one that eased throughout the book) and a touch of "human" to all that.

A waste of my fucking time.

[Hokomoko · Rating 2 out of 5]

I certainly got my anticipated escapism for a couple evenings. I had hoped for more, I don't know why. The Marvel Comics feel really didn't abate. The attempt to involve the reader in the inner life of the characters fell flat. The plot took three protagonists into the Dream Realm and nothing could be more personal than lucid dreaming and the encounters set up by the story. I appreciate that though prose, the author wrote to a comic enthusiast audience. The classic 'retelling and deepening of the origin story' for Doctor Strange tires me out, after having gone through it more times than I can count. Why do I return for more? I have read most of Dr Strange - and still consider a few of the writer/artist extended sequences to be among my favorite comics. In The Fate of Dreams, the juncture of themes combined for promising potential: the Dream Realm at risk, prolonged self encounter and overcoming, against the backdrop of sorting out changes and drama in our modern world and how that affects our collective psyche. Unfortunately, despite the build up to the inevitable showdown and save the day at a cost, I can only respond with a yawn.

[Harrison · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story was unique and it kept me reading until the end, purely because I wanted to know what happened in the end and I can never bring myself to DNF a book.

I just really didn’t like the author’s style of writing. They fall victim to the “show, not tell.” It seems every noun has an according adjective, making each sentence lines and lines long. I understand that a good author breaks some rules of writing, but putting two sentences randomly together separated by a comma just seemed poor. Definitely wasn’t for me. I’m a fan of the MCU & Fox films but I just couldn’t get behind this one; I ended up skim-reading it at the end. Not for me, wouldn’t recommend.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed in this book. It was mediocre at best. Half the book was just fluff that didn't really need to be in the story. This felt like a mashup of comic books Strange and MCU Bendydict Cucumberpatch Strange and it just didn't work well for long time fans of the universe or character. I would recommend this to someone that has no previous knowledge of Marvel universe or Dr. Strange and wants to dabble to see if they want to get involved in Marvel. Long time fans, don't waste your time.

[Nicholas Ahlhelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good start, disappointing follow through.

I'm a fan of Devin Grayson's comics, but this prose work left me underwhelmed. While the story gets off to a strong start with Doctor Strange facing down a string of mysteries, the tale falls apart as soon as Strange and company reach the Dream Dimension.

This proves a frustrating read as it feels like there's a lot of good stuff here, but it never comes together in the end.

[PMoslice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an excellent entry into the Marvel novel series. I was torn on how to rate it. Since there are no half measures, I had to give it s 3, it's certainly more of a 3.5! It was really good, trip through the Dream lands and using the mystic arts. Lots of action and heart as each of the characters grow just enough to propel the story. Each learning about themselves and the others as they journey to determine who or what is creating this disturbance. It's one of the best Marvel novels so far.

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent story about Doctor Strange as he assists a woman and confronts a god of dreams named Nightmare. The Sorcerer Supreme is forced to battle powerful individuals and is forced to re-learn who is right and wrong in the subconscious universe. He also needs to re-evaluate many of the actions of his past that led him to become a surgeon. He learns many things about his identity.

[Meagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was exactly what I was hoping for and more. I love with the Doctor Strange movie that we're getting a lot more older/newer stories and now this prose novel? I loved it. It seems to take place in the same universe as the more recent graphic novels as it has the same illustrations in the book.

[TheFangirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a real pleasure to finally be able to read a Doctor Strange story. It's original and I really like how the realm of dreams was described. And I found Nightmare strangely endearing. I hope there will be more Doctor Strange books in the future.

[Liubov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like to dive into this theme.. World of dreams.. What can be more interesing to explore?.. Besides it's a good chance to read smth new about Dr. Stephen Strange, the most unusual character of MARVEL..

[Paulo Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it I was expecting that nightmare would be the villain of the book, after knowing that he and Stephen worked together I loved it, I wish he would use his powers more alongside doctor strange but he acted more as viwer than a fighter but overall it was a nice story

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Doctor Strange is just so cool. But this book just didn't hit like I was hoping. There were parts of the story that were interesting, but overall the plot was pretty simplistic (and confusing) and the characterization fell flat.

[Ramesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inception.Magical style.