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The Dreamhunter Duet #2
Dreamquake
The dreamhunting began as a beautiful thing, when Tziga Hame discovered that he could enter the Place and share the dreams he found there with other people. But Tziga Hame has disappeared and Laura, his daughter, knows that the art of projecting dreams has turned sour. On St. Lazarus's Eve, when elite citizens gather at the Rainbow Opera to experience the sweet dream of Homecoming, Laura, determined to show them the truth, plunges them into the nightmare used to control the convict workers. The event marks the first blow in the battle for control of the Place, the source of dreams. Then, when Laura's cousin, Rose, uncovers evidence that the government has been building a secret rail line deep into the Place, Laura follows it to find out what lies at its end. As she struggles to counter the government's sinister plans, a deeper mystery surfaces, a puzzle only Laura can unravel, a puzzle having to do with the very nature of the Place. What is the Place, after all? And what does it want from her?
Inventive and richly imagined, Elizabeth Knox's dramatic conclusion will satisfy readers - whether or not they've read Book One.
Inventive and richly imagined, Elizabeth Knox's dramatic conclusion will satisfy readers - whether or not they've read Book One.
449 pages, Hardcover
First published February 20, 2007
18 people are currently reading
1633 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Knox
33 books962 followersElizabeth Knox was born in Wellington‚ New Zealand‚ and is the author of eleven novels and three novella and a book of essays.
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April 12, 2020
En sevdiğim her şey dozunda ve özgün 👍 tek eleştiri yazarın kalemi çok akici değil bu olabilir biraz alışınca geçiyor değişik bir yazım tarzı 🤷♀️
June 20, 2011
I would have written a disappointed if (okay, trying to be fair) optimistic review of Dreamhunter: book one if I hadn't finished Dreamquake: book two first. It wasn't over yet and could still have emotional weight. I'm harder on the series than I would have been if the potential hadn't been there to be good, and if the second book didn't piss me off so very much. Why should I care if I'd been duped into reading yet another tomb of how great insipid fifteen year old girls are? And the many men who love them? Sooooobs. Why me? Why is this my life?
Time travel books should have warning labels on them so that I don't expect them to not perform unimpressive feats of cop-outness.
As for the teen girls I should know better by now. That there will be pointless descriptions of never to be seen again men admiring their attractiveness is a given.
Okay, I'm turning into a picky little moaning pissant. My ex told me plenty of times that it was unfair for me to expect everything to be as great as The Wire. I don't think I'm unfair. If you are going to write a story you should at least know who the people are and what the hell you are trying to say in the first place. Why else would you write at all? (Nooooo, don't tell me that there are those who write for money! Or that it is okay to be mediocre and have good ideas and short change them for easiness! la la la I've never heard of Law and Order la la la.)
I'd have said it was good, could have been great if the gaze wasn't too outward on asethetic details than emotional ones. I cared more about the toll the land took on those who lived there than the lay of the land. It read like the point got lost somewhere in the getting to know yous. It could have been a hell of a story if the interest had been emotional...
Alright! I wouldn't have said those other things. I would have said it had more in common with Being John Malkovich being inside someone else's head than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind living and reliving memories, willfully lying to ourselves and how much it HURTS to feel. BJM was impressive and different. It didn't make me think about what it was like to be someone else (I'm even less interested in nature of celebrity stories [pretend I'm the average bear and haven't known more about Malkovich than most bears for a long ass time. Because he's cool! Not famous]). BJM = impressively original and cold. Eternal Sunshine is my definition for impressively original and warm and sad and real. When I began Dreamhunter I was really intrigued by the differentness. I said to myself that it wasn't like anything I'd ever read before. The more that I read the more I began to get impatient that I wasn't getting any further. (The more that I read the more that I began to think about parts from other stories as well. It's also a bit like Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the Harry Potter series. Intriguing, underdeveloped parts from other stories. What about the inmates who can't escape even inside their own brains? Oops, this isn't that story either! There are similarities to Sabriel by Garth Nix, as well, namely the whole daddy's girl on a mission in an otherworldly place thing.)
Then I read Dreamquake: book two. Different and...
Backwards.
Retcon. Retcon in ways that I wouldn't have dreamed (heh) were possible. Screwed all the usual retcon holes and then tore all new ones? Something like that. The lay of the land didn't matter! It mattered EVEN less who the people were. The point that got lost wasn't a point anymore, didn't matter at all in fact. The point was a testament to the supposed god-given greatness of an insipid fifteen year old girl. Nooooooooooooooo! Not again!!!!!
Much more than wanting to know why there was a place like The Place, where Dreamhunters chase dreams to share with others, I wanted to feel how this life changed the people it touched. No, not glamour of making money and being famous (as the parents of Laura and Rose do). (if you think the second book will answer why some people can go in and others cannot... Nope! That didn't matter any more in book two.) The government seizing control of the dreams for their own use was... well, I already named the Harry Potter series. This is handled, in the end, with about as much believability as house elf rights in Harry Potter (yay we're all free and everything is better now! Human nature changed for good! Squeee let's have chocolate frogs). It should have mattered more, should have mattered how they got that way. The only one who mattered was Laura and that negated the first book entirely. That negated the reason for a book since Laura wasn't a character at all...
There are many good things about the books and many other things (I don't even know where to start listing the fatal flaws of these two books!) sooo wrong that I'm annoyed. I sound like I hated this more than I did. It's that after taste feeling when you go back and wish you did things differently and maybe feel queasy like what the hell did I do last night? I had cared! Then... What the?
The protagonist is a cipher to get around answering any of the interesting implications that the story suggests. Picture someone who has total faith in God - not faith from experience but faith they are born with from in-born MAGICAL ABILITIES- and that's our heroine Laura. Not a God that touches the world, or anyone in it. I was at a loss where it came from. It would have been different if it had come from anywhere. Well, it should have come from something deserved. I can have faith if they believe it from something other than saying it is so. I wish. What the fuck, Knox, what the fuck. It is a lazy storytelling advice to get around answering any of the tough questions. God wants it to be so. I'm supposed to have that. It's all about me. You don't get to say they are born this way and then live the same way, not touching anything!
At first I was impressed that Laura was not perfect, that she was afraid to make decisions. She's not a Mary Sue (at least not in my eyes) because she's such an infant. Only she can DO everything when the plot needs her to, and the plot is moved on and on and on because Laura can do everything Knox needs her to do. No implications, no questions. That was what was supposed to happen. I had questions. The world revolves around Laura. That was one of the biggest mistakes Knox made. Why create a world for one person? I say biggest mistakes. It's more like a fatal flaw.
Unlike other reviewers of Dreamquake, I LIKED that the books switched perspectives, even to the so-called questionable people. That did give me false hope that anyone else was going to matter. (I'm bitter!) This is a new world, right? Are we supposed to know that the Dreamhunters are bad, the regulatory board evil? It shouldn't have been clear cut and dried. It would have been a different book if it hadn't been (a better book!). What about the church who are against both? Sighs.
She doesn't have to decide anything because it is taken out of her hands when something she believed proved her fate to be one thing isn't true, she can live her life again. Not because she EARNED anything by being a REAL character, made any decisions ever (her only defining characteristic from book one is that she never makes decisions for herself) or earned anything that wasn't given to her by birth right. What the fuck?!!!! THIS is your story? THIS?! All of this happened for this? Are you fucking kidding me? (I could go on about all of the times she was carried in her sandman's arms, or how she fell in love instantly with both her men. But these things are common occurrences in young adult lit these days...) I just wanted her to do something because she felt it was the right thing to do because she cared about the consequences. Not because her daddy told her to do it, or because she "knew" that God wanted her to do it, or "something" spoke to her. Because LAURA wanted it. Is that too much to ask? Why create a person who doesn't exist in any sense? (To me that means giving a shit.)
Laura is a terrorist (I'll say it because that's exactly what she was in the end of book one) because once people know what is going on they'll stop it? They don't. The bad guys are only prevented from using dreams to mind control everyone into obedience by Laura's inherited magical abilities and spoilerific and no less inherited before the books begin situation. Just because kind of a thing. A what was the point of reading about this then kind of a thing. Then in the epilogue the prisoners are no longer forced to do manual labor. (They are after thoughts. Isn't it neat when the reason for a great cause is reduced to an after thought?) People woke up and cared about people 'cause that's what people do? Um... It wasn't lost on me that their land is based on 19th century New Zealand. Australia of today locks up illegal immigrants in prison, as does the usa. Countries founded on prisoners and runaways. What the hell is memory of a people, of what was went through? Since when does getting the word out change for the good? After book one they don't hear that the inmates are suffering, just that they get the mining jobs! Now the epilogue? Yeah, prisons used to be worse. Would anyone want to be in a mental asylum now? Even if it isn't like in Victorian England? (Or from the 1950s in the Usa.) It's not hopeless to change things (you have to keep fighting to keep them from sliding back) but in no way do I swallow that getting rid of one method of subduing people for power is the end. No way. How did they wind up with those kinds of powers in the first place? There should have been more about those minds that didn't want to listen in the first place, not that the voice they listened to was taken away.
Laura's cousin Rose said they should help the inmates because it was right, not because God loved them. I trust Rose more. What if someone heard a voice telling them that God DIDN'T love them.
No, resemblance to real life is not good enough. WHY did these people want to live in dreams? What about the stories, films and poems they also had? People in real life have those things. I want to believe they teach empathy just as the news could (doesn't?). Why did Laura do what her father told her to do (and only because her father told her to do it, though he reneges in book two because book one no longer matters, apparently) and force the nightmare meant for prisoners on unsuspecting dreamers? (That her aunt was very nearly blamed and could have been imprisoned does not occur to Laura. I don't think she would have cared if it had. She was doing what was best! Vomits.)
Why did people live like that, hunting for dreams and living to stay awake to pass on dreams to others? Wouldn't people, I don't know, THINK or feel things about what it is like to be someone else? Why were there split dreams that offered different perspectives from the same dream? (Too bad the dreams were all part of a time travel plot that was all about Laura's god-given birth rights.) Did the culture gossip, feel connected to each other for sharing these things? Did they forget what it was like when the dream was over? Then why did some dreams become traditions? Why were others mistrustful of the dreams?
Why did it all have to be a message for Laura? Why did Knox create this whole damned world for this one girl who didn't develop or change or move at all? The ending of her Sandman starts all over again, back to the beginning, as any time travel story would. It's a loop right? Circles aren't progress? Does that mean you don't feel anything? Isn't being born and then dying a timeline with a definite outcome too? One fucking spot and never moving is more like it. Ugh!
You know the ending of Eternal Sunshine when Joel and Clementine are running through the snow? And it loops continuously? It could either mean that they are back together or it is another memory. I liked that ending a lot. It could mean that it mattered because it HAPPENED and no memory erasing could ever kill it for good. Or it could just mean that it was over and the memory was all that was left and they were both alone (assuming Clementine didn't meet any other "nice" guys). Emotional shit matters to me in stories (always). I like the new ideas of erasing memories and people getting rid of relationships. I liked even better they analyzed the ramifications of getting rid of your own life. What matters so much you can't erase it. Right? Loops aren't dead either. The point is you make your own world and you can make it better or worse by what you make with it. It isn't made if it is handed to you.
So what the hell did these people dream other people's dreams instead of their own for? It made them feel more alive and they felt good? (If they didn't get a nightmare.) The people sold it for money but they could get money in other ways that didn't require walking through wasteland of "another world" without sleep and getting addicted to drugs that kept them from sleeping. Benefits and costs. There was more to it than that.
What did that say about those people? They didn't want to think for themselves? Laura definitely did not want to think for herself. So what about that? Why did you put all of that stuff out there and then get rid of it, Elizabeth Knox? You can't distract me with romance and time travel twists and fancy new(ish) worlds. You don't get to renege and have Tgiza say he was out of his mind in book two when you want to drop a plot twist. Why did he torment prisoners with nightmares and then want everyone to share it, through his daughter? Why did he abandon his daughter her whole life (oh yeah, because he was dreaming it away!)? Why did Laura drift through life and then decide on a meaningless purpose of god? (Just because people do kill in the name of god is not good enough. YOUR story. You should know.) Give it meaning or you don't get to name it.
Cop out.
P.s. My fantasy shelf title "asleepanddreaming" and my youngadult shelf "thelostgirls" worked so very well for these two books too. Sob!
Time travel books should have warning labels on them so that I don't expect them to not perform unimpressive feats of cop-outness.
As for the teen girls I should know better by now. That there will be pointless descriptions of never to be seen again men admiring their attractiveness is a given.
Okay, I'm turning into a picky little moaning pissant. My ex told me plenty of times that it was unfair for me to expect everything to be as great as The Wire. I don't think I'm unfair. If you are going to write a story you should at least know who the people are and what the hell you are trying to say in the first place. Why else would you write at all? (Nooooo, don't tell me that there are those who write for money! Or that it is okay to be mediocre and have good ideas and short change them for easiness! la la la I've never heard of Law and Order la la la.)
I'd have said it was good, could have been great if the gaze wasn't too outward on asethetic details than emotional ones. I cared more about the toll the land took on those who lived there than the lay of the land. It read like the point got lost somewhere in the getting to know yous. It could have been a hell of a story if the interest had been emotional...
Alright! I wouldn't have said those other things. I would have said it had more in common with Being John Malkovich being inside someone else's head than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind living and reliving memories, willfully lying to ourselves and how much it HURTS to feel. BJM was impressive and different. It didn't make me think about what it was like to be someone else (I'm even less interested in nature of celebrity stories [pretend I'm the average bear and haven't known more about Malkovich than most bears for a long ass time. Because he's cool! Not famous]). BJM = impressively original and cold. Eternal Sunshine is my definition for impressively original and warm and sad and real. When I began Dreamhunter I was really intrigued by the differentness. I said to myself that it wasn't like anything I'd ever read before. The more that I read the more I began to get impatient that I wasn't getting any further. (The more that I read the more that I began to think about parts from other stories as well. It's also a bit like Prisoner of Azkaban, the third in the Harry Potter series. Intriguing, underdeveloped parts from other stories. What about the inmates who can't escape even inside their own brains? Oops, this isn't that story either! There are similarities to Sabriel by Garth Nix, as well, namely the whole daddy's girl on a mission in an otherworldly place thing.)
Then I read Dreamquake: book two. Different and...
Backwards.
Retcon. Retcon in ways that I wouldn't have dreamed (heh) were possible. Screwed all the usual retcon holes and then tore all new ones? Something like that. The lay of the land didn't matter! It mattered EVEN less who the people were. The point that got lost wasn't a point anymore, didn't matter at all in fact. The point was a testament to the supposed god-given greatness of an insipid fifteen year old girl. Nooooooooooooooo! Not again!!!!!
Much more than wanting to know why there was a place like The Place, where Dreamhunters chase dreams to share with others, I wanted to feel how this life changed the people it touched. No, not glamour of making money and being famous (as the parents of Laura and Rose do). (if you think the second book will answer why some people can go in and others cannot... Nope! That didn't matter any more in book two.) The government seizing control of the dreams for their own use was... well, I already named the Harry Potter series. This is handled, in the end, with about as much believability as house elf rights in Harry Potter (yay we're all free and everything is better now! Human nature changed for good! Squeee let's have chocolate frogs). It should have mattered more, should have mattered how they got that way. The only one who mattered was Laura and that negated the first book entirely. That negated the reason for a book since Laura wasn't a character at all...
There are many good things about the books and many other things (I don't even know where to start listing the fatal flaws of these two books!) sooo wrong that I'm annoyed. I sound like I hated this more than I did. It's that after taste feeling when you go back and wish you did things differently and maybe feel queasy like what the hell did I do last night? I had cared! Then... What the?
The protagonist is a cipher to get around answering any of the interesting implications that the story suggests. Picture someone who has total faith in God - not faith from experience but faith they are born with from in-born MAGICAL ABILITIES- and that's our heroine Laura. Not a God that touches the world, or anyone in it. I was at a loss where it came from. It would have been different if it had come from anywhere. Well, it should have come from something deserved. I can have faith if they believe it from something other than saying it is so. I wish. What the fuck, Knox, what the fuck. It is a lazy storytelling advice to get around answering any of the tough questions. God wants it to be so. I'm supposed to have that. It's all about me. You don't get to say they are born this way and then live the same way, not touching anything!
At first I was impressed that Laura was not perfect, that she was afraid to make decisions. She's not a Mary Sue (at least not in my eyes) because she's such an infant. Only she can DO everything when the plot needs her to, and the plot is moved on and on and on because Laura can do everything Knox needs her to do. No implications, no questions. That was what was supposed to happen. I had questions. The world revolves around Laura. That was one of the biggest mistakes Knox made. Why create a world for one person? I say biggest mistakes. It's more like a fatal flaw.
Unlike other reviewers of Dreamquake, I LIKED that the books switched perspectives, even to the so-called questionable people. That did give me false hope that anyone else was going to matter. (I'm bitter!) This is a new world, right? Are we supposed to know that the Dreamhunters are bad, the regulatory board evil? It shouldn't have been clear cut and dried. It would have been a different book if it hadn't been (a better book!). What about the church who are against both? Sighs.
She doesn't have to decide anything because it is taken out of her hands when something she believed proved her fate to be one thing isn't true, she can live her life again. Not because she EARNED anything by being a REAL character, made any decisions ever (her only defining characteristic from book one is that she never makes decisions for herself) or earned anything that wasn't given to her by birth right. What the fuck?!!!! THIS is your story? THIS?! All of this happened for this? Are you fucking kidding me? (I could go on about all of the times she was carried in her sandman's arms, or how she fell in love instantly with both her men. But these things are common occurrences in young adult lit these days...) I just wanted her to do something because she felt it was the right thing to do because she cared about the consequences. Not because her daddy told her to do it, or because she "knew" that God wanted her to do it, or "something" spoke to her. Because LAURA wanted it. Is that too much to ask? Why create a person who doesn't exist in any sense? (To me that means giving a shit.)
Laura is a terrorist (I'll say it because that's exactly what she was in the end of book one) because once people know what is going on they'll stop it? They don't. The bad guys are only prevented from using dreams to mind control everyone into obedience by Laura's inherited magical abilities and spoilerific and no less inherited before the books begin situation. Just because kind of a thing. A what was the point of reading about this then kind of a thing. Then in the epilogue the prisoners are no longer forced to do manual labor. (They are after thoughts. Isn't it neat when the reason for a great cause is reduced to an after thought?) People woke up and cared about people 'cause that's what people do? Um... It wasn't lost on me that their land is based on 19th century New Zealand. Australia of today locks up illegal immigrants in prison, as does the usa. Countries founded on prisoners and runaways. What the hell is memory of a people, of what was went through? Since when does getting the word out change for the good? After book one they don't hear that the inmates are suffering, just that they get the mining jobs! Now the epilogue? Yeah, prisons used to be worse. Would anyone want to be in a mental asylum now? Even if it isn't like in Victorian England? (Or from the 1950s in the Usa.) It's not hopeless to change things (you have to keep fighting to keep them from sliding back) but in no way do I swallow that getting rid of one method of subduing people for power is the end. No way. How did they wind up with those kinds of powers in the first place? There should have been more about those minds that didn't want to listen in the first place, not that the voice they listened to was taken away.
Laura's cousin Rose said they should help the inmates because it was right, not because God loved them. I trust Rose more. What if someone heard a voice telling them that God DIDN'T love them.
No, resemblance to real life is not good enough. WHY did these people want to live in dreams? What about the stories, films and poems they also had? People in real life have those things. I want to believe they teach empathy just as the news could (doesn't?). Why did Laura do what her father told her to do (and only because her father told her to do it, though he reneges in book two because book one no longer matters, apparently) and force the nightmare meant for prisoners on unsuspecting dreamers? (That her aunt was very nearly blamed and could have been imprisoned does not occur to Laura. I don't think she would have cared if it had. She was doing what was best! Vomits.)
Why did people live like that, hunting for dreams and living to stay awake to pass on dreams to others? Wouldn't people, I don't know, THINK or feel things about what it is like to be someone else? Why were there split dreams that offered different perspectives from the same dream? (Too bad the dreams were all part of a time travel plot that was all about Laura's god-given birth rights.) Did the culture gossip, feel connected to each other for sharing these things? Did they forget what it was like when the dream was over? Then why did some dreams become traditions? Why were others mistrustful of the dreams?
Why did it all have to be a message for Laura? Why did Knox create this whole damned world for this one girl who didn't develop or change or move at all? The ending of her Sandman starts all over again, back to the beginning, as any time travel story would. It's a loop right? Circles aren't progress? Does that mean you don't feel anything? Isn't being born and then dying a timeline with a definite outcome too? One fucking spot and never moving is more like it. Ugh!
You know the ending of Eternal Sunshine when Joel and Clementine are running through the snow? And it loops continuously? It could either mean that they are back together or it is another memory. I liked that ending a lot. It could mean that it mattered because it HAPPENED and no memory erasing could ever kill it for good. Or it could just mean that it was over and the memory was all that was left and they were both alone (assuming Clementine didn't meet any other "nice" guys). Emotional shit matters to me in stories (always). I like the new ideas of erasing memories and people getting rid of relationships. I liked even better they analyzed the ramifications of getting rid of your own life. What matters so much you can't erase it. Right? Loops aren't dead either. The point is you make your own world and you can make it better or worse by what you make with it. It isn't made if it is handed to you.
So what the hell did these people dream other people's dreams instead of their own for? It made them feel more alive and they felt good? (If they didn't get a nightmare.) The people sold it for money but they could get money in other ways that didn't require walking through wasteland of "another world" without sleep and getting addicted to drugs that kept them from sleeping. Benefits and costs. There was more to it than that.
What did that say about those people? They didn't want to think for themselves? Laura definitely did not want to think for herself. So what about that? Why did you put all of that stuff out there and then get rid of it, Elizabeth Knox? You can't distract me with romance and time travel twists and fancy new(ish) worlds. You don't get to renege and have Tgiza say he was out of his mind in book two when you want to drop a plot twist. Why did he torment prisoners with nightmares and then want everyone to share it, through his daughter? Why did he abandon his daughter her whole life (oh yeah, because he was dreaming it away!)? Why did Laura drift through life and then decide on a meaningless purpose of god? (Just because people do kill in the name of god is not good enough. YOUR story. You should know.) Give it meaning or you don't get to name it.
Cop out.
P.s. My fantasy shelf title "asleepanddreaming" and my youngadult shelf "thelostgirls" worked so very well for these two books too. Sob!
July 10, 2013
WARNING, THIS REVIEW IS FOR BOTH BOOKS IN THE DUET.
Part 1: The Spoiler-Free Review
Ana’s Take:
Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are the two Fantasy novels that form the Dreamhunter Duet – they have been originally published separately but are effectively one story in two parts, hence this combined review. The two books were actually published in Australia as one omnibus edition called The Invisible Road.
The Dreamhunter Duet is set Southland, an alternate version of a New Zealand that has been colonised by 5 migrating families (some of them descended from Bible’s Lazarus). It features a story about families, about cousins, about lovers, and about friends. It is also a story about power and politics and dreams.
Above all, it is a story about a place. The Place. The Place is a fantastical realm that appeared suddenly a few years back and where a few specific people (dreamhunters) can travel into to capture dreams.
In terms of worldbuilding, there is a whole industry that has been built around The Place: dreamhunters capture dreams and then broadcast them to a paying, sleeping audience that gets to live through amazing experiences . In Southland’s capital, the most famous broadcasting place is the Rainbow Opera where the biggest names in dreamhunting can make a fortune. But it all goes much beyond that: Dreamhunting also affects the future generations of this nation because young people dream of becoming hunters (so that they can improve their lives) and there are also questions of politics, economic progress, fame and fortune connected to The Place and its different uses (most of them benign, some of them horrifyingly nightmarish).
Two of the most famous, most powerful Dreamhunter families are the Tiebolds and the Hames. Cousins-almost-sisters Rose Tiebold and Laura Hame are reaching the age where teenagers can try out dreamhunting and whereas Rose dreams about it and has built her entire life around it, Laura dreads the moment. Surprisingly, it is Laura who succeeds in becoming a Dreamhunter. The story follows the two girls as they deal with disappointments and successes and the narrative follows the two as well as the other members of their family. The overarching plot deals with a recurring dream that Laura’s father Tziga has and the mysterious uses he makes of it – all connected with a political plot.
And this is only but the barest bones of the duet. I devoured it like there wasn’t tomorrow a few months ago and although I admit that the details are now slightly fuzzy, the overwhelming impression I still carry with me is how this was simultaneously uniquely remarkable and horrifyingly problematic.
There is a LOT to unpack here: I think overall, in terms of worldbuilding, it is a remarkable fantasy and I have not read anything quite like it before. Everything in book 1 (and the vast majority of book 2) just blew my mind away in terms of the concept of the dreamhunting, the details of the world constructed around it, the combination with Judeo mythology (the early families who settled there, the Hame’s ability to create Golems ), the two girls’ friendship, how thematically speaking it all centres around free will and decision-making. I loved that the novel is constantly changing viewpoints and that we get to spend time with the adults and see their relationship with each other. I enjoyed the sweet romance between Laura and the young Sandy and above all I LOVED Rose, her forthrightness and the way she struggles to find meaning in the life that she has to build after her dreams of dreamhunting have been destroyed.
I also loved the way that gender roles are played and how Laura’s uncle (Rose’s father) is the central maternal figure of the story, for example. There is so much that is interesting and engaging with the topics of politics, power, family dynamics, gender roles, identity in these books.
It all sounds awesome, right?
BUT.
The revelations at the end of the book and the ultimate resolution ruined the whole thing for me – my reaction is a blend of EXTREME personal dislike (I did not care for how things ended for the two girls and I had problems with a certain “vibe” I found in the narrative) and my questioning of the overall arc and general worldbuilding that make no sense after the final twist is revealed.
More about those in the discussion in the second part of this review.
I just wanted to end my part by saying this: I thought reading this was well worth it for the family dynamics and the impressive imagery. Despite my personal aversion for how things ended up, I still do not regret reading it.
(In other words: these are the most amazing books I have ever hated. Or the most fucked up books I have ever loved. Or something.)
Thea’s Take:
I am both grateful and appalled that Ana put these books into my hands after reading them.
I am grateful, because as Ana says, the Dreamhunter Duology is mindblowingly amazing when it comes to worldbuilding, basic premise, writing style, and imagination. The concept of The Place – a mysterious land to which only a select few can travel, and even more select few can capture and rebroadcast dreams – is fascinating. The idea of “dreamhunting” itself and the commercialization and institutionalization of certain dreams is also unique and freaking fantastic. The Place and Dreams are a mystery, and I love the questions posed especially by the first book. Why are dreams tied to certain locations? Why do they feature certain central figures (convicts, in particular)? What do the dreams mean and where are they coming from?
Beyond the outstanding premise and world, I also loved the female characters in the duology, especially Rose (Laura…well, more on that in the spoiler section). Even though this is an alternate world set in the early 1900s, I love that Rose, her powerful dreamhunter mother, and even at certain points Laura (but really, more on that in a bit) are women that have agency and are empowered and make their own decisions – be it with friends, having sex for the first time, surviving a fire, and so on. I love the threads of friendship and of family in both of these books, especially when it comes to cousin Rose and her relationship with both her mother and cousin (who is really like a sister) Laura.
ALL THAT SAID – I agree with Ana in that there are some major, un-overlook-able problems with the book. I personally did not care for the ending – scratch that. I personally hated the ending of the book. While everything is nicely resolved and all the questions are answered (about dreams, The Place, Laura’s EXTRA SPECIAL SPECIALNESS), I resented the resolution and its implications. I hated the way that the girls’ storylines are tied up; I especially abhorred the romantic elements to this story so far as Rose and Laura are concerned. Especially Laura (whose character is basically ruined for me completely). Finally, this also bothers me deeply: the fact that this takes place in a kinda-sorta version of New Zealand, but a New Zealand that has been completely erased of its Maori population and history (more on that below).
Ultimately, I am torn when it comes to this duology. It’s undeniably brilliant, with an imaginative scope that is off the charts. It’s also incredibly infuriating, and left me feeling both creeped out and ripped off. Do I recommend it? Yes, because it is a duology that SHOULD be read, dissected, appreciated, and debated.
(In other words: I understand why Ana told me to read these books – because this is the type of thing that needs to be discussed. With spoilers. Below.)
Part 2: Book Discussion with ALL THE SPOILERS
**READER BEWARE! Spoilers follow below. If you have not read the duology and do not wish to be spoiled, LOOK AWAY**
After Thea finished the books, both of us frantically sent a flurry of emails back and forth and have condensed all our feelings into the following few key points. Ready?
1. It is revealed that the Place was created by Lazarus Hame, the future son of Laura and Sandy.
This Future!Lazarus! has a terrible life and so he buries himself alive and accidentally creates a living thing – THE PLACE! – which broadcasts his dreams from the future into the past as an attempt to communicate with other Hames so they can… help him. Survive. Because The Place is a NOWN, and NOWN is required to protect Laura Hame and all those she cares for NO MATTER WHAT. We both loved this (TIME TRAVEL! THE PLACE IS A SAND GOLEM!) and hated this (it is all about Laura and Sandy and their son and Laura’s innate greatness and goodness???!!!!!! WHYYYYYYYYY! What a waste of a perfectly good premise!). (Not to mention, OF COURSE after Laura has sex with Sandy, he supposedly dies and then Laura discovers she is pregnant. This is one of our most irritating pet peeves in literature. NO.)
2. This creates a HUGE worldbuilding problem.
If this is all about the Hame family and very specifically about their ability to create golems and shape clay/sand/dust/ash/food items into living things, HOW AND WHY can other people (non-Hames) become Dreamhunters and Rangers? How can they enter The Place at all? What about the other dreams (the Gate dream comes to mind)? There’s also the problem of paradoxes and fractured timelines. When Lazarus rises from the grave – where he has been buried alive but not dead for years and years – he is alive. And yet, his memories of his past are intrinsically tied to the existence of The Place in his childhood and his upbringing with his single mother (who is no longer a single mother). There’s a “many worlds” explanation that would allow this to work, but it feels a bit like a cheap cop-out.
3. In the end, the two extremely young female protagonists end up the book married and with children.
Laura finds Lazarus and saves him and then learns that he is her son. This happens exactly at the point at which she realises she is pregnant with her supposedly dead boyfriend’s baby. But because she KNOWS Lazarus, she has no choice but to keep the baby. Our feelings about this are complicated: do we accept this as Laura’s CHOICE or do we think this is not a “choice” at all because it was imposed on her by the plot? Laura is also effectively stripped of ANY agency because she acts on things that she is TOLD to do by her father, by her family, and even by fate itself. The whole history of this world and the entire plot hinges on young Laura having baby Lazarus. It is the end-all and the origin of the whole story. (Except for the fact that this Lazarus is from an alternate timeline and might not matter at all if Laura keeps the baby?)
Meanwhile, Rose marries Future!Lazarus! who is her cousin (we can even say that it is almost her nephew if you think how close she and Laura are, like sisters!!!) who is also a MUCH older man. Rose and her husband (Future!Lazarus!) live together with their daughter as well as Laura, Sandy and Baby!Lazarus!, whom Rose helps raise. It’s so fucked up we can’t even, especially considering the next point:
4. In the beginning of book Laura, in the footsteps of her father, creates a Golem, called NOWN. The relationship between Laura and NOWN is SO SO CREEPY.
The creative impulse behind Laura’s creation of NOWN (and then giving him his free will) is undeniably because of her desire for a father figure to take care of her following Tziga – her real father – and his disappearance. She creates NOWN to make decisions for her and to love her like a father tending a child… and more. There is DEFINITELY a sexual vibe between Laura and NOWN, with her need for NOWN to “cherish” her and love her in a very un-fatherly kind of way.
Basically, the duology as a whole has a really weird, really pervasive incestuous vibe going on that is never questioned at all.
5. Finally, a point that we find DEEPLY, INTENSELY problematic: erasing people from history.
The story takes place in an alternate history New Zealand-inspired location. BUT in this world, there are no natives to New Zealand at all. The island was colonized by the five migrating families who arrive to find the island empty…and that’s it. So BASICALLY the Maori – the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, who made their way to the islands in 1250-1300 CE – have been ERASED FROM HISTORY.
*forever weeping*
And that is all we have to say about that.
Part 1: The Spoiler-Free Review
Ana’s Take:
Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are the two Fantasy novels that form the Dreamhunter Duet – they have been originally published separately but are effectively one story in two parts, hence this combined review. The two books were actually published in Australia as one omnibus edition called The Invisible Road.
The Dreamhunter Duet is set Southland, an alternate version of a New Zealand that has been colonised by 5 migrating families (some of them descended from Bible’s Lazarus). It features a story about families, about cousins, about lovers, and about friends. It is also a story about power and politics and dreams.
Above all, it is a story about a place. The Place. The Place is a fantastical realm that appeared suddenly a few years back and where a few specific people (dreamhunters) can travel into to capture dreams.
In terms of worldbuilding, there is a whole industry that has been built around The Place: dreamhunters capture dreams and then broadcast them to a paying, sleeping audience that gets to live through amazing experiences . In Southland’s capital, the most famous broadcasting place is the Rainbow Opera where the biggest names in dreamhunting can make a fortune. But it all goes much beyond that: Dreamhunting also affects the future generations of this nation because young people dream of becoming hunters (so that they can improve their lives) and there are also questions of politics, economic progress, fame and fortune connected to The Place and its different uses (most of them benign, some of them horrifyingly nightmarish).
Two of the most famous, most powerful Dreamhunter families are the Tiebolds and the Hames. Cousins-almost-sisters Rose Tiebold and Laura Hame are reaching the age where teenagers can try out dreamhunting and whereas Rose dreams about it and has built her entire life around it, Laura dreads the moment. Surprisingly, it is Laura who succeeds in becoming a Dreamhunter. The story follows the two girls as they deal with disappointments and successes and the narrative follows the two as well as the other members of their family. The overarching plot deals with a recurring dream that Laura’s father Tziga has and the mysterious uses he makes of it – all connected with a political plot.
And this is only but the barest bones of the duet. I devoured it like there wasn’t tomorrow a few months ago and although I admit that the details are now slightly fuzzy, the overwhelming impression I still carry with me is how this was simultaneously uniquely remarkable and horrifyingly problematic.
There is a LOT to unpack here: I think overall, in terms of worldbuilding, it is a remarkable fantasy and I have not read anything quite like it before. Everything in book 1 (and the vast majority of book 2) just blew my mind away in terms of the concept of the dreamhunting, the details of the world constructed around it, the combination with Judeo mythology (the early families who settled there, the Hame’s ability to create Golems ), the two girls’ friendship, how thematically speaking it all centres around free will and decision-making. I loved that the novel is constantly changing viewpoints and that we get to spend time with the adults and see their relationship with each other. I enjoyed the sweet romance between Laura and the young Sandy and above all I LOVED Rose, her forthrightness and the way she struggles to find meaning in the life that she has to build after her dreams of dreamhunting have been destroyed.
I also loved the way that gender roles are played and how Laura’s uncle (Rose’s father) is the central maternal figure of the story, for example. There is so much that is interesting and engaging with the topics of politics, power, family dynamics, gender roles, identity in these books.
It all sounds awesome, right?
BUT.
The revelations at the end of the book and the ultimate resolution ruined the whole thing for me – my reaction is a blend of EXTREME personal dislike (I did not care for how things ended for the two girls and I had problems with a certain “vibe” I found in the narrative) and my questioning of the overall arc and general worldbuilding that make no sense after the final twist is revealed.
More about those in the discussion in the second part of this review.
I just wanted to end my part by saying this: I thought reading this was well worth it for the family dynamics and the impressive imagery. Despite my personal aversion for how things ended up, I still do not regret reading it.
(In other words: these are the most amazing books I have ever hated. Or the most fucked up books I have ever loved. Or something.)
Thea’s Take:
I am both grateful and appalled that Ana put these books into my hands after reading them.
I am grateful, because as Ana says, the Dreamhunter Duology is mindblowingly amazing when it comes to worldbuilding, basic premise, writing style, and imagination. The concept of The Place – a mysterious land to which only a select few can travel, and even more select few can capture and rebroadcast dreams – is fascinating. The idea of “dreamhunting” itself and the commercialization and institutionalization of certain dreams is also unique and freaking fantastic. The Place and Dreams are a mystery, and I love the questions posed especially by the first book. Why are dreams tied to certain locations? Why do they feature certain central figures (convicts, in particular)? What do the dreams mean and where are they coming from?
Beyond the outstanding premise and world, I also loved the female characters in the duology, especially Rose (Laura…well, more on that in the spoiler section). Even though this is an alternate world set in the early 1900s, I love that Rose, her powerful dreamhunter mother, and even at certain points Laura (but really, more on that in a bit) are women that have agency and are empowered and make their own decisions – be it with friends, having sex for the first time, surviving a fire, and so on. I love the threads of friendship and of family in both of these books, especially when it comes to cousin Rose and her relationship with both her mother and cousin (who is really like a sister) Laura.
ALL THAT SAID – I agree with Ana in that there are some major, un-overlook-able problems with the book. I personally did not care for the ending – scratch that. I personally hated the ending of the book. While everything is nicely resolved and all the questions are answered (about dreams, The Place, Laura’s EXTRA SPECIAL SPECIALNESS), I resented the resolution and its implications. I hated the way that the girls’ storylines are tied up; I especially abhorred the romantic elements to this story so far as Rose and Laura are concerned. Especially Laura (whose character is basically ruined for me completely). Finally, this also bothers me deeply: the fact that this takes place in a kinda-sorta version of New Zealand, but a New Zealand that has been completely erased of its Maori population and history (more on that below).
Ultimately, I am torn when it comes to this duology. It’s undeniably brilliant, with an imaginative scope that is off the charts. It’s also incredibly infuriating, and left me feeling both creeped out and ripped off. Do I recommend it? Yes, because it is a duology that SHOULD be read, dissected, appreciated, and debated.
(In other words: I understand why Ana told me to read these books – because this is the type of thing that needs to be discussed. With spoilers. Below.)
Part 2: Book Discussion with ALL THE SPOILERS
**READER BEWARE! Spoilers follow below. If you have not read the duology and do not wish to be spoiled, LOOK AWAY**
After Thea finished the books, both of us frantically sent a flurry of emails back and forth and have condensed all our feelings into the following few key points. Ready?
1. It is revealed that the Place was created by Lazarus Hame, the future son of Laura and Sandy.
This Future!Lazarus! has a terrible life and so he buries himself alive and accidentally creates a living thing – THE PLACE! – which broadcasts his dreams from the future into the past as an attempt to communicate with other Hames so they can… help him. Survive. Because The Place is a NOWN, and NOWN is required to protect Laura Hame and all those she cares for NO MATTER WHAT. We both loved this (TIME TRAVEL! THE PLACE IS A SAND GOLEM!) and hated this (it is all about Laura and Sandy and their son and Laura’s innate greatness and goodness???!!!!!! WHYYYYYYYYY! What a waste of a perfectly good premise!). (Not to mention, OF COURSE after Laura has sex with Sandy, he supposedly dies and then Laura discovers she is pregnant. This is one of our most irritating pet peeves in literature. NO.)
2. This creates a HUGE worldbuilding problem.
If this is all about the Hame family and very specifically about their ability to create golems and shape clay/sand/dust/ash/food items into living things, HOW AND WHY can other people (non-Hames) become Dreamhunters and Rangers? How can they enter The Place at all? What about the other dreams (the Gate dream comes to mind)? There’s also the problem of paradoxes and fractured timelines. When Lazarus rises from the grave – where he has been buried alive but not dead for years and years – he is alive. And yet, his memories of his past are intrinsically tied to the existence of The Place in his childhood and his upbringing with his single mother (who is no longer a single mother). There’s a “many worlds” explanation that would allow this to work, but it feels a bit like a cheap cop-out.
3. In the end, the two extremely young female protagonists end up the book married and with children.
Laura finds Lazarus and saves him and then learns that he is her son. This happens exactly at the point at which she realises she is pregnant with her supposedly dead boyfriend’s baby. But because she KNOWS Lazarus, she has no choice but to keep the baby. Our feelings about this are complicated: do we accept this as Laura’s CHOICE or do we think this is not a “choice” at all because it was imposed on her by the plot? Laura is also effectively stripped of ANY agency because she acts on things that she is TOLD to do by her father, by her family, and even by fate itself. The whole history of this world and the entire plot hinges on young Laura having baby Lazarus. It is the end-all and the origin of the whole story. (Except for the fact that this Lazarus is from an alternate timeline and might not matter at all if Laura keeps the baby?)
Meanwhile, Rose marries Future!Lazarus! who is her cousin (we can even say that it is almost her nephew if you think how close she and Laura are, like sisters!!!) who is also a MUCH older man. Rose and her husband (Future!Lazarus!) live together with their daughter as well as Laura, Sandy and Baby!Lazarus!, whom Rose helps raise. It’s so fucked up we can’t even, especially considering the next point:
4. In the beginning of book Laura, in the footsteps of her father, creates a Golem, called NOWN. The relationship between Laura and NOWN is SO SO CREEPY.
The creative impulse behind Laura’s creation of NOWN (and then giving him his free will) is undeniably because of her desire for a father figure to take care of her following Tziga – her real father – and his disappearance. She creates NOWN to make decisions for her and to love her like a father tending a child… and more. There is DEFINITELY a sexual vibe between Laura and NOWN, with her need for NOWN to “cherish” her and love her in a very un-fatherly kind of way.
Basically, the duology as a whole has a really weird, really pervasive incestuous vibe going on that is never questioned at all.
5. Finally, a point that we find DEEPLY, INTENSELY problematic: erasing people from history.
The story takes place in an alternate history New Zealand-inspired location. BUT in this world, there are no natives to New Zealand at all. The island was colonized by the five migrating families who arrive to find the island empty…and that’s it. So BASICALLY the Maori – the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, who made their way to the islands in 1250-1300 CE – have been ERASED FROM HISTORY.
*forever weeping*
And that is all we have to say about that.
March 2, 2018
I don’t make a habit of rereading books. And yet I have wanted to reread not one, but two books in the past month almost as soon as I completed my first reading. They were that good.
The first of these two extraordinary books was Dreamhunter by New Zealand author Elizabeth Knox (alternately known as The Rainbow Opera in the UK). The second, and perhaps this isn’t a great surprise, was Dreamquake also by Elizabeth Knox. Together, these titles create The Dreamhunter Duet.
Dreamquake (which I believe is more appropriately called The Dream Quake in England) is the second book of Knox’s Dreamhunter Duet and was a 2008 Printz Award Honor Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults in 2008.
There is a lot I want to say about this book, but first I have to say a bit about how the duet actually works. Some readers feel strongly, and fairly, that the Duet cannot be read in isolation (that is the two books cannot stand alone). Other readers, also fairly, feel that the books can and do work well as individual pieces of prose. I actually agree with both viewpoints.
Personally, I think both books stand alone. Knox is a good enough writer that either book feels like a complete read. The opening of Dreamquake adequately explains the events of the first book so that readers won’t be lost or bored. At the same time, having seen both parts of the Duet in person, I have to say they really are one book. Just looking at the book design–the first book has a prologue while the second includes the epilogue and a glossary–I realized that Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are more like two parts of one story (what I often call companion books in this blog) than two stories directly following each other (what I would call sequel books).
Just a bit about the basic plot of Dreamhunter: I’m not all that familiar with New Zealand but a review from the New Zealand Listener tells me that Knox’s novels are set in “something like the New Zealand of a century ago, but with a twist, in that social life revolves around a traffic in dreams.” The rare people who can catch dreams (dreamhunters) perform them for the social elite at dream palaces like the Rainbow Opera. Dreams are also often used for the public good in hospitals around Southland.
Some dreamhunters also capture nightmares which readers learn in Dreamhunter are used for the public good, but in a much more sinister way. Laura, our protagonist, discovers this fact when she begins investigating the disappearance of her father, one of the greatest dreamhunters Southland has ever seen. Outraged by what she has seen, Laura sets out to inform the public of the governments use of nightmares. Dreamhunter ends with the disastrous results of this attempt.
It is therefore no surprise that Dreamquake opens with the chaos following the execution of Laura’s plan as Southland and Laura’s family are thrown into a state of disarray. Adrift with only her creation Nown and a nightmare, Laura has to find a way to earn back her family’s trust while negotiating an entanglement with a fellow young dreamhunter. All this while continuing to investigate the corruption of the sinister Dream Regulatory Body created to control the Place and its invaluable resources.
I could actually talk for hours about the nuances of this novel’s plot and how Knox ties everything together at the end, but if you read the book you’ll probably see what I mean for yourself.
Dreamquake is every bit as good as Dreamhunter while also being even better because it expands on characters who don’t get as much time to shine in the first novel. Sandy and Rose (and to some extent Nown) are back and much more engaged in the central plot than they were in Dreamhunter to great effect.
Knox’s prose is unique in that it is well-paced while also being high action. Knox takes her time to explain terms like “Soporif” and “Novelists” but never to the detriment of the story. The action here is so intense and gripping that, at several points in the novel, I found myself skimming ahead just to make sure that everything would turn out all right in the end.
The Dreamhunter Duet is a rare thing in contemporary literature. Both books are rich enough that, were the main characters not teenagers, no one would question its place as an adult book–but I’ve made that argument about other books on this site. More to the point, Knox is an amazing writer. Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are populated by a wide variety of characters, each unique and fully realized on the page.
Instead of creating a world and characters and even this story, it feels instead like Knox is introducing readers to old friends, reciting a familiar tale–everything within these novels seems so real, the details are so concrete, that it feels like folly to consider it fantastic or even fiction. And that is why Dreamquake (and Dreamhunter) will surely take their rightful places among the canon of great fantasy novels.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
The first of these two extraordinary books was Dreamhunter by New Zealand author Elizabeth Knox (alternately known as The Rainbow Opera in the UK). The second, and perhaps this isn’t a great surprise, was Dreamquake also by Elizabeth Knox. Together, these titles create The Dreamhunter Duet.
Dreamquake (which I believe is more appropriately called The Dream Quake in England) is the second book of Knox’s Dreamhunter Duet and was a 2008 Printz Award Honor Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults in 2008.
There is a lot I want to say about this book, but first I have to say a bit about how the duet actually works. Some readers feel strongly, and fairly, that the Duet cannot be read in isolation (that is the two books cannot stand alone). Other readers, also fairly, feel that the books can and do work well as individual pieces of prose. I actually agree with both viewpoints.
Personally, I think both books stand alone. Knox is a good enough writer that either book feels like a complete read. The opening of Dreamquake adequately explains the events of the first book so that readers won’t be lost or bored. At the same time, having seen both parts of the Duet in person, I have to say they really are one book. Just looking at the book design–the first book has a prologue while the second includes the epilogue and a glossary–I realized that Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are more like two parts of one story (what I often call companion books in this blog) than two stories directly following each other (what I would call sequel books).
Just a bit about the basic plot of Dreamhunter: I’m not all that familiar with New Zealand but a review from the New Zealand Listener tells me that Knox’s novels are set in “something like the New Zealand of a century ago, but with a twist, in that social life revolves around a traffic in dreams.” The rare people who can catch dreams (dreamhunters) perform them for the social elite at dream palaces like the Rainbow Opera. Dreams are also often used for the public good in hospitals around Southland.
Some dreamhunters also capture nightmares which readers learn in Dreamhunter are used for the public good, but in a much more sinister way. Laura, our protagonist, discovers this fact when she begins investigating the disappearance of her father, one of the greatest dreamhunters Southland has ever seen. Outraged by what she has seen, Laura sets out to inform the public of the governments use of nightmares. Dreamhunter ends with the disastrous results of this attempt.
It is therefore no surprise that Dreamquake opens with the chaos following the execution of Laura’s plan as Southland and Laura’s family are thrown into a state of disarray. Adrift with only her creation Nown and a nightmare, Laura has to find a way to earn back her family’s trust while negotiating an entanglement with a fellow young dreamhunter. All this while continuing to investigate the corruption of the sinister Dream Regulatory Body created to control the Place and its invaluable resources.
I could actually talk for hours about the nuances of this novel’s plot and how Knox ties everything together at the end, but if you read the book you’ll probably see what I mean for yourself.
Dreamquake is every bit as good as Dreamhunter while also being even better because it expands on characters who don’t get as much time to shine in the first novel. Sandy and Rose (and to some extent Nown) are back and much more engaged in the central plot than they were in Dreamhunter to great effect.
Knox’s prose is unique in that it is well-paced while also being high action. Knox takes her time to explain terms like “Soporif” and “Novelists” but never to the detriment of the story. The action here is so intense and gripping that, at several points in the novel, I found myself skimming ahead just to make sure that everything would turn out all right in the end.
The Dreamhunter Duet is a rare thing in contemporary literature. Both books are rich enough that, were the main characters not teenagers, no one would question its place as an adult book–but I’ve made that argument about other books on this site. More to the point, Knox is an amazing writer. Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are populated by a wide variety of characters, each unique and fully realized on the page.
Instead of creating a world and characters and even this story, it feels instead like Knox is introducing readers to old friends, reciting a familiar tale–everything within these novels seems so real, the details are so concrete, that it feels like folly to consider it fantastic or even fiction. And that is why Dreamquake (and Dreamhunter) will surely take their rightful places among the canon of great fantasy novels.
You can find this review and more on my blog Miss Print
March 1, 2010
Wow! This one is raising some great ethical questions as well as keeping me up at night! And it did until the very end! I convinced my bookclub to read this duet because I am excited to talk to someone about it. Anything that involves bridging time and different "worlds" will bring up many "what ifs" and "buts". The story also explores fate vs. free will - one of my favorite themes. There is one scene that will make the chaste squirm (as it did me :o) - but it is not gratuitous - which is another great discussion topic. Is immorality in literature okay if it is essential to the plot?
"Dreamhunter" and "Dreamquake" really need to be read together because it takes the two books to fully develop the themes and resolve the conflicts. I can now understand why so many compare it to the His Dark Materials books which I didn't comprehend until the very end of the duet. Knox includes Christian imagery and allusions, but unlike Philip Pullman's trilogy, she doesn't turn Christianity into something evil.
"Dreamhunter" and "Dreamquake" really need to be read together because it takes the two books to fully develop the themes and resolve the conflicts. I can now understand why so many compare it to the His Dark Materials books which I didn't comprehend until the very end of the duet. Knox includes Christian imagery and allusions, but unlike Philip Pullman's trilogy, she doesn't turn Christianity into something evil.
June 14, 2019
Outstanding! What a beautiful, complex, richly written fantasy! I only found this book and the first (Dreamhunter) because Stephenie Meyer recommended them on her site. Thanks and kudos to her for recommending some great books (that and Hunger Games). Dreamhunter was really well done, but reading this second book in the "duet" was more satisfying since we could start seeing where all of it was going. There were so many questions, so many mysteries. It all finally came together, with little pieces of the puzzle fitting into place. The characters were great, and the storyline a sweet, poignant one of love and family ties and redemption. I can't recommend this book enough.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/dreamquake-you...
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com: https://ratedreads.com/dreamquake-you...
August 30, 2012
The sequel to Dreamhunter, this book lives up to and goes way beyond the depth and excitement level of the first. I loved it! Laura is on a quest to discover what The Place is and why it exists. Her companion is a man made of sand left to her by her missing father. Sounds weird, huh? So many plot twists and character surprises and well, don't want to spoil the fun. Only a two book series, I place these two books on my top YA reading list, along with The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaimon and The Dark Matter series by Philip Pullman. Can YA get any better than this? See for yourself!
February 9, 2011
Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet opens in the chaos that ends the first book. It’s a little hard to understand if you haven’t read the first book, but essentially, Laura Hame’s protest against the government’s exploitation of dreams, in the form of a terrible nightmare, has shocked the patrons of the dream palace. The story follows not just Laura but her cousin Rose and her aunt, renowned dreamhunter Grace Tiebold, in the confusion that follows, as well as the government’s investigation into the protest. I won’t give any more of the plot away, especially if you haven’t read the first one (go read it!!), but there are so many changes ahead for Laura Hame and her family, as they uncover the secrets of the Place and work to expose corrupt politicians. So there’s some politicking, some adventures in the Place (where dreams are captured), some romance, and great family relationships.
It’s hard to really tell you about this book. I don’t want to give away anything and yet at the same time, want to encourage you to read it! Can’t I just say, ‘read this! read this!’ and let that be enough? Probably not. So let’s see here….
Dreamquake was a completely engrossing read, with some rather genius plot developments that unveil intriguing ideas. I love that this series was a two-parter, as sometimes a middle book can get bogged down with explanations and details. Instead, with a duet, Knox was able to plunge the reader back into the scene and fall back in with those familiar characters. As I turned the last page, part of me hated that I had to leave this fascinating world of Laura Hame’s behind, but Dreamquake offered such a satisfying conclusion that it quenched my thirst, but also left me eager to read more by the amazing Elizabeth Knox.
It’s hard to really tell you about this book. I don’t want to give away anything and yet at the same time, want to encourage you to read it! Can’t I just say, ‘read this! read this!’ and let that be enough? Probably not. So let’s see here….
Dreamquake was a completely engrossing read, with some rather genius plot developments that unveil intriguing ideas. I love that this series was a two-parter, as sometimes a middle book can get bogged down with explanations and details. Instead, with a duet, Knox was able to plunge the reader back into the scene and fall back in with those familiar characters. As I turned the last page, part of me hated that I had to leave this fascinating world of Laura Hame’s behind, but Dreamquake offered such a satisfying conclusion that it quenched my thirst, but also left me eager to read more by the amazing Elizabeth Knox.
October 12, 2010
Superbely beautiful, Dreamquake lives up to its predecessor. Continuing off right after the events of Dreamhunter, Dreamquake is an excellent sequel that follows the lives of Laura, Sandy and Rose and gives all the answers to those questions we just have to know.
Characters? Considering this is a sequel, most of the characters remain the same and I still love all of them. Especially Sandy <3
Plot? While Dreamquake does start off slow at first, it picks up speed and races off near the midway point and keeps us wondering and hoping for that happy ending. I was very surprised by most of the plot twists in here and loved all the turns Knox kept throwing at me. Even though I did see parts of the ending coming, some of it I was like "WHAT? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?".
Writing? Even though Knox is a very slow, easy going pace writer, she knows how to pack those punches and slowly build her story around everything that's going on. While I did have to take a break at some points and go back to it, it continued to remain easy to get into.
All in all, Dreamquake is a great sequel to a very short and utterly original series. Read this one if you've read the first one and read the first one if you haven't read either. It's guaranteed to be one of those books that's completely surprising in it's originality and ideas. And the romance isn't half bad either :P 4.5/5
Characters? Considering this is a sequel, most of the characters remain the same and I still love all of them. Especially Sandy <3
Plot? While Dreamquake does start off slow at first, it picks up speed and races off near the midway point and keeps us wondering and hoping for that happy ending. I was very surprised by most of the plot twists in here and loved all the turns Knox kept throwing at me. Even though I did see parts of the ending coming, some of it I was like "WHAT? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?".
Writing? Even though Knox is a very slow, easy going pace writer, she knows how to pack those punches and slowly build her story around everything that's going on. While I did have to take a break at some points and go back to it, it continued to remain easy to get into.
All in all, Dreamquake is a great sequel to a very short and utterly original series. Read this one if you've read the first one and read the first one if you haven't read either. It's guaranteed to be one of those books that's completely surprising in it's originality and ideas. And the romance isn't half bad either :P 4.5/5
May 17, 2011
Excuse me if this is incoherent. The tears are barely drying up on my cheeks just now. This isn't the first time I read this book, the first time being the blessed day a book with the lovely name of "The Rainbow Opera" caught my eye at a used bookstore. I went to the library beside that bookstore, and borrowed the series then and there.
Set in 1902 (most of it), it wasn't always easy to read every word of the book. You know how some YA books are effective in translating the atmosphere and setting simply, but some books, especially those written by adults with no particular wish or inclination to the YA genre (I assume much here), they pay quite a lot of attention to the little details? I tend to skip parts in all books that go on too much about the settings, mostly the settings that I find really hard to picture, but I believe that is just me. I have to admit, the first time I read Dreamhunter, I had a pretty tough time getting through the first part of it with the slightly heavy tone. Eventually, I was sure damn glad I just read through the books.
The second time I read it, though, I finally took the time to slow down and absorb the lovely picture Ms Knox had painted for us. Sometimes, I still couldn't catch up on the description of the places, especially if action was happening -and fast-, but mostly, I began to appreciate the geography, the landscape, that was so important a part of this Southland the entire story took place in.
I'm not going to describe or outline what happens in the books. It would be slightly crazy to do that. But let's just say that the plot was awesomely FANTASTIC. The plot was like no other, it, to me, defined the genre fantasy. Of course, I noticed themes like feminism were touched on, and in what I thought in a most appropriate manner - subtle but definitely clear, with beautiful, fiery, spirited Rose being the face of that theme. Also, the big brother theme was definitely present. It probably was the mold Elizabeth Knox shaped the story around, though definitely not inflexibly. The plot is mindblowing, something I'm not sure anyone sane could have thought of, lol. Even The Hunger Games don't come close to the mindblowing factor of this. Yeah, I know you can't compare books, especially such vastly different books (though they are same that they are both very well-written!) but though I completely LOVE THG, The Dreamhunter Duet is something really different.
The romance factor is wildly different from any other I've seen - a haunting ghost and echo of what you would've experienced and gone through with Laura Hame for the past two books. It's painful, it's beautiful,it's incredible.
I would have loved to write more but I'm being rushed right now, damn.
Whatever, you guys. GO READ THIS. I DON'T CARE IF IT'S HUNDREDS OF PAGES. PERSEVERE AND READ IT!! NOW!!
Set in 1902 (most of it), it wasn't always easy to read every word of the book. You know how some YA books are effective in translating the atmosphere and setting simply, but some books, especially those written by adults with no particular wish or inclination to the YA genre (I assume much here), they pay quite a lot of attention to the little details? I tend to skip parts in all books that go on too much about the settings, mostly the settings that I find really hard to picture, but I believe that is just me. I have to admit, the first time I read Dreamhunter, I had a pretty tough time getting through the first part of it with the slightly heavy tone. Eventually, I was sure damn glad I just read through the books.
The second time I read it, though, I finally took the time to slow down and absorb the lovely picture Ms Knox had painted for us. Sometimes, I still couldn't catch up on the description of the places, especially if action was happening -and fast-, but mostly, I began to appreciate the geography, the landscape, that was so important a part of this Southland the entire story took place in.
I'm not going to describe or outline what happens in the books. It would be slightly crazy to do that. But let's just say that the plot was awesomely FANTASTIC. The plot was like no other, it, to me, defined the genre fantasy. Of course, I noticed themes like feminism were touched on, and in what I thought in a most appropriate manner - subtle but definitely clear, with beautiful, fiery, spirited Rose being the face of that theme. Also, the big brother theme was definitely present. It probably was the mold Elizabeth Knox shaped the story around, though definitely not inflexibly. The plot is mindblowing, something I'm not sure anyone sane could have thought of, lol. Even The Hunger Games don't come close to the mindblowing factor of this. Yeah, I know you can't compare books, especially such vastly different books (though they are same that they are both very well-written!) but though I completely LOVE THG, The Dreamhunter Duet is something really different.
The romance factor is wildly different from any other I've seen - a haunting ghost and echo of what you would've experienced and gone through with Laura Hame for the past two books. It's painful, it's beautiful,it's incredible.
I would have loved to write more but I'm being rushed right now, damn.
Whatever, you guys. GO READ THIS. I DON'T CARE IF IT'S HUNDREDS OF PAGES. PERSEVERE AND READ IT!! NOW!!
January 14, 2008
Whoo Hoo! Today it won a Printz Honor! I honestly forgot by the fall that this was published in 2007, because I read it so early in the year. Both DREAMQUAKE and DREAMHUNTER are books that I gobbled down. I read the first one late in 2006, and waited with bated breath for the 2nd one. It did not disappoint me in any way! Anyone who likes fantasy at all and likes to read for atmosphere needs to read this book! It's a unique and fascinating story with memorable characters, and the titles are very apt, as they FEEL very "dreamy" (they're about dreams, so Knox did a great job conveying that dream sense in writing). I also found the ending to be quite satisfying (as well as somewhat mind-boggling). I liked reading both books, but I think that DREAMQUAKE can stand on its own if you don't have time to read them both. You could also go back later and read the first one second, if you want to get more background. January 2008: Made YALSA's BBYA list!
March 31, 2011
It's funny---it took me about 100 pages to get rolling with Dreamhunter (Book One), but Dreamquake did the opposite and slowed down for me as I went along. There are good things about this book, but I suppose I'll begin with what I found disappointing. Though there are some good characters (Dr. King, whom we meet in this book, is a lot of fun); unfortunately not counted among them are the heroine and her paramour. The romance between them is also pretty lackluster. There's something odd about the narration (pacing, structure, word choices) that I mentioned being bothered by at first but coming to like in Dreamhunter, but it started to rub me wrong again in Dreamquake. I think the problem is that Dreamquake is just longer than it should be, and reading it made me realize that Dreamhunter actually was too. I didn't realize it in the first book because I thought things were relevant, but then I found by the end of the second book, they weren't. For example, the huge climactic ending of Dreamhunter strangely fizzles and doesn't really go anywhere in Dreamquake. So I have complaints, but there are things I like too. Dreamquake's got a lot of creative ideas. It's got some good characters. I think the explanation of The Place (where dreams are harvested) is clever (though I do not understand what the deal was with what happened to Nown in the end). One other thing I meant to mention in my review of Dreamhunter is that I love the descriptions of the dreams---this is a place where the strange writing style really works, and the dreams manage to feel wonderfully dream-like.
October 10, 2023
2.okuma 2023
Yine çok beğendim, çok yaratıcı bir seriydi. 3,92 den çok daha iyi bir puanı hakediyor.
1. Okuma 2019
5 yıldız, böyle farklı orjinal konulu kitaplara bayılıyorum 😍🥳çok beğendim,ilk kitap zor okunan bir kitapti,ikinci kitap daha kolay okunsa da çok akiciydi diyemiyorum...cerezlikten ziyade epik fantastik kitaplar gibiydi,sakin kafayla okunmalı...ayrica haksizlik etmisim kapaklar kitapla ilgiliydi...
Yine çok beğendim, çok yaratıcı bir seriydi. 3,92 den çok daha iyi bir puanı hakediyor.
1. Okuma 2019
5 yıldız, böyle farklı orjinal konulu kitaplara bayılıyorum 😍🥳çok beğendim,ilk kitap zor okunan bir kitapti,ikinci kitap daha kolay okunsa da çok akiciydi diyemiyorum...cerezlikten ziyade epik fantastik kitaplar gibiydi,sakin kafayla okunmalı...ayrica haksizlik etmisim kapaklar kitapla ilgiliydi...
November 24, 2019
Elizabeth Knox returns to the world of Southland (a sort of alternative New Zealand) in this second installment of her Dreamhunter Duet, and the result is a fantasy that is every bit as complex, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying as the first. Picking up a little before the conclusion of the previous book,
Dreamhunter
, and running through the same sequence of events, but from Rose and Grace Tiebold's perspective, rather than Laura's, Dreamquake soon had me as engrossed as the first book - involved with the characters emotionally, eager to know more about The Place, the nature of dream-hunting, and Cas Doran's plot to control the political life of Southland, and curious to see how the relationship between Laura and her sandman, Nown, would progress.
I was incredibly impressed with the way that Knox answered these questions, without really answering them. Yes, the reader discovers what the Place is (well, more how it was made, than what it truly is), and what the dreams that the Dreamhunters mine in it, are meant to be and do. And yes, we see a lot more of Cas Doran, and learn about his sinister plot to seize political control, and be a behind-the-scenes puppet-master. We see more of Nown (and more Nowns, as it happens), and gain a deeper appreciation of his character. But although there is an overt explanation offered for these questions, although we learn more, the answers to the deeper questions remain elusive. What is a Nown, exactly? A sandman? A soul, as Laura claims? Where does the divine come into all of this, and how is it that some characters seems more on the divine end of the humanity-divinity spectrum, than others? These sorts of questions - the questions that make this a series really worth reading - are never really answered, and that's as it should be, because they're not the sort of questions that have answers. I imagine that some readers - particularly Americans, who (in my experience) are used to narratives in which the divine and its role is definitely defined, either for the good or the bad - will find that incredibly uncomfortable. For my part, I loved it!
I read Dreamquake and its predecessor Dreamhunter for the International Children's Book Club to which I belong, in which we choose selections from all over the world. These books are meant to represent New Zealand in our reading schedule, and I have to say, having now finished both of them, that they feel very much like products of that country to me. It's not just the topographical and climatic details (the island nation, Christmas in the summer), but the progressive "feeling" to them. Themes of sexuality (Laura's sexual awakening! sex inside The Place!), and of political and economic injustice, are freely depicted, while religious and theological ideas are explored in an unselfconscious way. I was strongly reminded of another brilliant work of New Zealand children's literature, Margaret Mahy's The Tricksters (admittedly one of my favorite YA novels ever!), in which another young girl is visited by a person/persons from another time/world - persons drawn into the world (like Nown was by Laura) by the girl in question, and intended, in some ways, to give her a warning. These parallels emphasized, for me, that this was a book coming out of a particular tradition, and while I can't say I am fluent with all the themes and subjects of that tradition, that sense of it as part of a larger literary "conversation" gave it great added meaning for me.
In short: Dreamquake, which I feel really must be read together with its predecessor, Dreamhunter , is an immensely engaging, intelligent, thought-provoking work of fantasy, and is one I highly recommend to those readers who enjoy the genre, and are looking for something a little different.
I was incredibly impressed with the way that Knox answered these questions, without really answering them. Yes, the reader discovers what the Place is (well, more how it was made, than what it truly is), and what the dreams that the Dreamhunters mine in it, are meant to be and do. And yes, we see a lot more of Cas Doran, and learn about his sinister plot to seize political control, and be a behind-the-scenes puppet-master. We see more of Nown (and more Nowns, as it happens), and gain a deeper appreciation of his character. But although there is an overt explanation offered for these questions, although we learn more, the answers to the deeper questions remain elusive. What is a Nown, exactly? A sandman? A soul, as Laura claims? Where does the divine come into all of this, and how is it that some characters seems more on the divine end of the humanity-divinity spectrum, than others? These sorts of questions - the questions that make this a series really worth reading - are never really answered, and that's as it should be, because they're not the sort of questions that have answers. I imagine that some readers - particularly Americans, who (in my experience) are used to narratives in which the divine and its role is definitely defined, either for the good or the bad - will find that incredibly uncomfortable. For my part, I loved it!
I read Dreamquake and its predecessor Dreamhunter for the International Children's Book Club to which I belong, in which we choose selections from all over the world. These books are meant to represent New Zealand in our reading schedule, and I have to say, having now finished both of them, that they feel very much like products of that country to me. It's not just the topographical and climatic details (the island nation, Christmas in the summer), but the progressive "feeling" to them. Themes of sexuality (Laura's sexual awakening! sex inside The Place!), and of political and economic injustice, are freely depicted, while religious and theological ideas are explored in an unselfconscious way. I was strongly reminded of another brilliant work of New Zealand children's literature, Margaret Mahy's The Tricksters (admittedly one of my favorite YA novels ever!), in which another young girl is visited by a person/persons from another time/world - persons drawn into the world (like Nown was by Laura) by the girl in question, and intended, in some ways, to give her a warning. These parallels emphasized, for me, that this was a book coming out of a particular tradition, and while I can't say I am fluent with all the themes and subjects of that tradition, that sense of it as part of a larger literary "conversation" gave it great added meaning for me.
In short: Dreamquake, which I feel really must be read together with its predecessor, Dreamhunter , is an immensely engaging, intelligent, thought-provoking work of fantasy, and is one I highly recommend to those readers who enjoy the genre, and are looking for something a little different.
September 6, 2008
I read this book and its companion, Dreamhunter after reading some enthusiastic praise from a librarian friend, and they didn't disappoint. The stories take place in early 20th century New Zealand but with a slight twist to reality: there is an area called the Place, accessible only to a handful of people, where dreams can be "caught" and carried back out to the rest of the public. These dreams can be broadcast by the sleeping dreamhunter to anyone physically nearby. Some are delightful dreams, some are nightmares, and people can earn fortunes by bringing back the best dreams and performing them at "dream palaces." However, the dreams often seem to share common elements or characters, leading to the question - who or what created these dreams, and what message are they trying to send? I found both books wholly engrossing and very well crafted. I would highly recommend doing what I did and getting both books from the library at the same time, as they pretty much read like one very long novel bound into two volumes.
May 7, 2012
First, read my review of the first book, Dreamhunter. *waits for you to read it*
Okay, I know, like, 99 percent of you didn’t actually go and read my other post. But basically, the same things I thought about the first book hold true for the second. There were a lot of really cool concepts, a pitch-perfect writing style, and some awesome characters (Rose! Chorley!), but there were also some characters I never grew to like. And it’s a bit difficult to really like a book when the main character grates on your nerves in every. single. scene she’s in (I’m looking at you, LAURA). And I wasn’t ever convinced by Laura and Sandy’s romance. She had about a million times more chemistry with her sandman, Nown, than she does with poor Sandy.
But that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. Because I did. I also ended up liking it better than the first one—mostly because it was much more exciting and faster paced. The first book is all about setting the scene, and this one is where everything comes together. I would almost say to skip the first book and start with this one, but alas, I feel like you’d miss some important backstory if you did that.
One of the things I loved about this book was the brilliant insight Knox gives you into her characters. You feel like you really know them—what’s in their souls—not just what they do and what they say. I was in awe, quite frankly. I was also amazed by the way all the pieces of the story come together. I wasn’t expecting it to work out like it did, but I was seriously impressed, and by the end I was like, “Oh. Oh. Oooooohhh. Now I get it.” It kinda makes me want to reread both books so I can go back and find all the clues Knox gave us along the way.
Overall, while having the same likes and dislikes with this one as with the first book, I ended up liking this one more because, well, I didn’t get bored like I did with the first. And probably, I would’ve ended up liking this book a lot if only Rose had been the main character instead of Laura. Dang Laura.
Book Light Graveyard
Okay, I know, like, 99 percent of you didn’t actually go and read my other post. But basically, the same things I thought about the first book hold true for the second. There were a lot of really cool concepts, a pitch-perfect writing style, and some awesome characters (Rose! Chorley!), but there were also some characters I never grew to like. And it’s a bit difficult to really like a book when the main character grates on your nerves in every. single. scene she’s in (I’m looking at you, LAURA). And I wasn’t ever convinced by Laura and Sandy’s romance. She had about a million times more chemistry with her sandman, Nown, than she does with poor Sandy.
But that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. Because I did. I also ended up liking it better than the first one—mostly because it was much more exciting and faster paced. The first book is all about setting the scene, and this one is where everything comes together. I would almost say to skip the first book and start with this one, but alas, I feel like you’d miss some important backstory if you did that.
One of the things I loved about this book was the brilliant insight Knox gives you into her characters. You feel like you really know them—what’s in their souls—not just what they do and what they say. I was in awe, quite frankly. I was also amazed by the way all the pieces of the story come together. I wasn’t expecting it to work out like it did, but I was seriously impressed, and by the end I was like, “Oh. Oh. Oooooohhh. Now I get it.” It kinda makes me want to reread both books so I can go back and find all the clues Knox gave us along the way.
Overall, while having the same likes and dislikes with this one as with the first book, I ended up liking this one more because, well, I didn’t get bored like I did with the first. And probably, I would’ve ended up liking this book a lot if only Rose had been the main character instead of Laura. Dang Laura.
Book Light Graveyard
January 27, 2010
My feelings about this book match my feelings about its predecessor, Dreamhunter. I think the idea was great, but I personally did not care for the author's execution of the idea. The pacing was erratic, the main character infuriating, and many of the scenes of the book seemed to have no relevance to the plot. One thing that frustrated me was that the beginning of this book pretty much negates the significance of the climax in the first book, and that's annoying when you've just spent hundreds of pages building up to it. I was surprised by the twist in this one--I didn't see what the Place actually is until Knox meant me to. Oh, and I was completely puzzled by the fate of Nown. How does he end up in an alternate universe? And, if the other Nown can travel back in time to find Laura, why can't he?
October 30, 2011
I found this final of the Duet very satisfying. Knox has a mature and graceful style that lulls you into the world without a hitch. The seamless quality of the dreams within the story and the truth of the Place, the Nowns, everything left me feeling fulfilled though my heart was very much with Nown #9 and I wanted . . . more for him. That's just me and my quirky wish fulfillment with unusual guys :)
What can I say? A beautifully written book and strong conclusion to the
series. A new fav author for me! What Knox shall I read next?
What can I say? A beautifully written book and strong conclusion to the
series. A new fav author for me! What Knox shall I read next?
November 5, 2015
Oh my! I have to admit, I'm usually pretty good at seeing where the twist will come in a book, but I was blindsided by this one, which both impressed me and made me enjoy the book (both of them, really) all the more. A beautiful world with a beautiful story and wonderful characters.
February 23, 2010
I think Elizabeth Knox may have lost a fight with her publishers on the release of Dreamquake. As I read the book, I couldn't get over the feeling that it would have worked so much better if it was published together with Dreamhunter as one, long novel. This is not to say that I enjoyed either volume less for their separation -- but I also read the books back-to-back. I think the cliffhanger ending of Dreamhunter would have had me completely undone if I didn't know the companion novel was waiting patiently on the shelf. But I digress.
In her second novel, Elizabeth Knox continues the story of young dreamhunter Laura Hame and her efforts to find both her missing father and the answers to her family's mysteries. Dreamquake begins immediately after the surprise public performance of the disturbing nightmare Laura caught at her father's request at the end of Dreamhunter. Laura's life is more complicated than ever. She is still trying to unravel the secrets of Nown's existance and to learn the Hame family magic. She's missing her family support system, as Rose continues to board at her finishing school and her aunt and uncle continue to try to keep her safe -- by keeping Laura at a distance. And she's hard at work to reveal the truth of the government's use of "dreams for the public good" and the sinister mind control plans that threaten everyone in the community.
In the midst of all this action, Laura develops into a much more likeable and relatable character than her portrayal in Dreamhunter. She falls in love with fellow dreamhunter Sandy, and their relationship becomes one of the bright spots of the novel. I wish Knox had been able to dedicate even more time to develop their romance, because I really enjoyed those parts of the story.
Overall, fans of Dreamhunter will not be disappointed in Knox's conclusion. I think readers would struggle to understand the book without first reading Dreamhunter, because much of the novel's fantasy is set up in that first volume. Not all of the loose ends are tied up in a neat little bow, but I don't think the story suffers because of it. I was a little uncertain about the ending -- especially the fate of my favorite character, Nown -- but in the end, I had to concede that the epilogue provided a satisfying conclusion to the most pressing questions, at least. And I'm a sucker for a happy ending.
In her second novel, Elizabeth Knox continues the story of young dreamhunter Laura Hame and her efforts to find both her missing father and the answers to her family's mysteries. Dreamquake begins immediately after the surprise public performance of the disturbing nightmare Laura caught at her father's request at the end of Dreamhunter. Laura's life is more complicated than ever. She is still trying to unravel the secrets of Nown's existance and to learn the Hame family magic. She's missing her family support system, as Rose continues to board at her finishing school and her aunt and uncle continue to try to keep her safe -- by keeping Laura at a distance. And she's hard at work to reveal the truth of the government's use of "dreams for the public good" and the sinister mind control plans that threaten everyone in the community.
In the midst of all this action, Laura develops into a much more likeable and relatable character than her portrayal in Dreamhunter. She falls in love with fellow dreamhunter Sandy, and their relationship becomes one of the bright spots of the novel. I wish Knox had been able to dedicate even more time to develop their romance, because I really enjoyed those parts of the story.
Overall, fans of Dreamhunter will not be disappointed in Knox's conclusion. I think readers would struggle to understand the book without first reading Dreamhunter, because much of the novel's fantasy is set up in that first volume. Not all of the loose ends are tied up in a neat little bow, but I don't think the story suffers because of it. I was a little uncertain about the ending -- especially the fate of my favorite character, Nown -- but in the end, I had to concede that the epilogue provided a satisfying conclusion to the most pressing questions, at least. And I'm a sucker for a happy ending.
April 12, 2010
The beginning opens with a recap of the ending of Dreamhunter through the eyes of others involved in the incident at the Rainbow Opera. This was fine, but it made it a little hard to care, as Knox jumped from person to person, not spending enough time with any one character to actually connect with them. Once she was finished giving a full retelling, she then progressed through time so fast it felt like nothing was happening. Something happened, and then two months later something else happened.
After the first hundred pages or so, it finally felt like Knox settled into her story and stopped darting all over the place and she win me back over. There are definitely surprises that come out of no where, and things you think you have figured out turn out to be completely different. The characters are true to book one while still managing to grow, which they do beautifully even though sometimes it makes you want to cry. Knox doesn't answer every last question, leaving you wondering just what happened and hoping for more.
The epilogue was good, but it felt a little rushed. I had to flip back a page or two to double check something because she didn't spell everything out. In fact it made me think of the epilogue in Deathly Hallows, only with more plot and less cheesy.
If it wasn't for the jumpy beginning that made it hard to get into, I would have fallen in love with this book as much as I did its predecessor, Dreamhunter. However, Knox made up for it and won me back over fairly quickly. It was a pleasure to read, and I recommend both novels of the Dreamhunter Duet.
After the first hundred pages or so, it finally felt like Knox settled into her story and stopped darting all over the place and she win me back over. There are definitely surprises that come out of no where, and things you think you have figured out turn out to be completely different. The characters are true to book one while still managing to grow, which they do beautifully even though sometimes it makes you want to cry. Knox doesn't answer every last question, leaving you wondering just what happened and hoping for more.
The epilogue was good, but it felt a little rushed. I had to flip back a page or two to double check something because she didn't spell everything out. In fact it made me think of the epilogue in Deathly Hallows, only with more plot and less cheesy.
If it wasn't for the jumpy beginning that made it hard to get into, I would have fallen in love with this book as much as I did its predecessor, Dreamhunter. However, Knox made up for it and won me back over fairly quickly. It was a pleasure to read, and I recommend both novels of the Dreamhunter Duet.
October 31, 2014
Picking up right where Dreamhunter left off, Dreamquake introduces the story in the middle of Laura hijacking her Aunt Grace's dream at the Rainbow Opera. Although the events are familiar from the last book, the character focus here is different, allowing the reader into the heads of everyone else who was involved in that fateful evening. Laura's act of terrorism doesn't bring about the results she was hoping to see, but Laura persists in her quest. She finds the conspiracy runs much deeper than she suspected, and her actions have deeper consequences than anything she could have imagined.
If you haven't read Dreamhunter (alternatively titled The Rainbow Opera in some versions, but it is the same book), read that first. This book stands alone, but in reality it's the second half of of one long story, and reading this alone is going to take away a lot of the impact. That being said, I think Dreamquake is even better than Dreamhunter; it takes Dreamhunter's intriguing premise, builds on it, then blows it wide open.
Dreamquake is set in the early 1900's, and the language of the book reflects that. Unlike the first book, I didn't find any of the oddly modern turns of phrase that yanked me out of the flow. The style does a great job of setting the scene.
Laura is as unpredictable as ever. By no means perfect, she's nonetheless convinced she's absolutely right. This leads to severe disagreements between her and her cousin Rose, particularly about Nown. Rose is frightened of Nown. Laura is in love with him. Despite giving Nown his free will, Laura still acts like she's in charge.
Nown was my favorite character. The sandman has a very alien outlook on life; he never feels like a human made of sand. I liked him even more when I saw what happened to him near the end of the book. I'd made predictions, and I was delighted to be wrong.
It's hard to summarize much in this book without giving it away. Beg your library to get this if you're not going to buy it yourself, but by all means give it a read. Highly Recommended.
If you haven't read Dreamhunter (alternatively titled The Rainbow Opera in some versions, but it is the same book), read that first. This book stands alone, but in reality it's the second half of of one long story, and reading this alone is going to take away a lot of the impact. That being said, I think Dreamquake is even better than Dreamhunter; it takes Dreamhunter's intriguing premise, builds on it, then blows it wide open.
Dreamquake is set in the early 1900's, and the language of the book reflects that. Unlike the first book, I didn't find any of the oddly modern turns of phrase that yanked me out of the flow. The style does a great job of setting the scene.
Laura is as unpredictable as ever. By no means perfect, she's nonetheless convinced she's absolutely right. This leads to severe disagreements between her and her cousin Rose, particularly about Nown. Rose is frightened of Nown. Laura is in love with him. Despite giving Nown his free will, Laura still acts like she's in charge.
Nown was my favorite character. The sandman has a very alien outlook on life; he never feels like a human made of sand. I liked him even more when I saw what happened to him near the end of the book. I'd made predictions, and I was delighted to be wrong.
It's hard to summarize much in this book without giving it away. Beg your library to get this if you're not going to buy it yourself, but by all means give it a read. Highly Recommended.
December 1, 2014
I loved this book so much; it is one of my favorite YAs hands-down. It is so different, and so unique; it closes up stylistically. I had my reservations about the first book, the first half having been told in quite an awkward way, but it would seem that in the second half of the first book Knox gets a handle on her style, and in Dreamquake, she comes in full force.
It's almost as if Knox successfully told the story that McMann tried to tell in Wake, which was pretty terrible if only because it was written so amaeteurly--this is another instance where you have two of the same books that are on different ends of the spectrum wherein quality is concerned.
When I felt like I was sort of floating in and out of the first book, I was definitely rooted in this one. I read it in one sitting, captivated by the perfectly balanced fantasy, imagery, romance, and humor. Sandy is absolutely adorable and he and Laura together are this kind of weird, awkward, funny teen romance.
I don't think I will read Knox's other books, only because they're all so different from the next I don't see any of them being my thing, but I think I'm the odd one out on this series. Aside from most of the YA world, I love these books.
It's almost as if Knox successfully told the story that McMann tried to tell in Wake, which was pretty terrible if only because it was written so amaeteurly--this is another instance where you have two of the same books that are on different ends of the spectrum wherein quality is concerned.
When I felt like I was sort of floating in and out of the first book, I was definitely rooted in this one. I read it in one sitting, captivated by the perfectly balanced fantasy, imagery, romance, and humor. Sandy is absolutely adorable and he and Laura together are this kind of weird, awkward, funny teen romance.
I don't think I will read Knox's other books, only because they're all so different from the next I don't see any of them being my thing, but I think I'm the odd one out on this series. Aside from most of the YA world, I love these books.
August 31, 2008
For anyone who ever wants to write books, there are always those books that you run into that make you both inspired to go for it and see what comes out and completely and utterly depressed because there is no way that your brain could come up with as fantastic and perfect and intricate and wonder-filled of a story as you have just finished reading.
This is how I feel right now. Elizabeth Knox's story that is technically a young adult story... is simply an amazingly crafted and imagined story. I think assigning it to young adults only though is perhaps downplaying its intensity and ultimately the beauty of it and adults should go into it as well.
This is a lot of gushing that I can't really hold back, so you'll have to bear with me. Basically, if you love a well crafted plot with some awesome ideas and it all is well integrated and movingly told... this is a duet for you. Start with Dreamhunter and make sure you have Dreamquake right by you so you can keep reading.
This is how I feel right now. Elizabeth Knox's story that is technically a young adult story... is simply an amazingly crafted and imagined story. I think assigning it to young adults only though is perhaps downplaying its intensity and ultimately the beauty of it and adults should go into it as well.
This is a lot of gushing that I can't really hold back, so you'll have to bear with me. Basically, if you love a well crafted plot with some awesome ideas and it all is well integrated and movingly told... this is a duet for you. Start with Dreamhunter and make sure you have Dreamquake right by you so you can keep reading.
August 18, 2013
I really enjoyed the first book in this duet, and I was mildly optimistic for the second one. But not only did this book far exceed my expectations, it pretty much blew me away. The depth of what the author set out to do in this work doesn't fully hit you until the end of the duet. Yet the final revelations literally make you gasp out loud. It's hard to explain how profound this work really is, but I can honestly say I've never read anything quite like this before. There are moments in the two books that one, frankly, has to struggle through because they're just a little bit too weird or don't seem to make much sense. But if one just stays with it and pulls on through, the reward is pretty significant. I can't say that I didn't have problems with this duet, but in the end, this turned out to be one of the most unique, unforgettable, and thought-provoking reading experiences that I've ever had. These books are quite brilliant.
December 14, 2009
This is the second book of a two book series. First let me say that Stephenie Meyer's recommendations are not infallible. Oh well. The plot of this duo was actually pretty fascinating and well done. Why only two stars? I didn't gain this opinion until after I'd finished all 800 and something pages, meaning that once I had all the pieces I could reflect that the plot was creative and well done, which is too long to wait. But mainly a low rating because of the characters. Blech. I did NOT like any of them, could not empathize, didn't get caught up with them or really care what happened to them. I didn't get upset when the lover is presumed dead. I figured he'd come back. Lastly, the writing was kind of terrible in parts. Messy. All that said, I did keep reading it, so it obviously has some merit. Maybe.
September 22, 2009
This is the conclusion of an amazing journey for Dreamhunter Laura and company. The book has some very interesting twist and I’m sure will keep the readers eager for more and more... Even though is a great story I found myself bored in some chapters, I guess I was looking for more action and less “drama”. I still love the characters and I loved “Nown” even more than before! And of course Sandy, Rose, Grace, Tziga...pretty much everyone! I love how it pretty much concludes everything…how I got all my answer and more (I don’t want to give to many spoilers!) It really is a great story full of a different kind of magic and even though I prefer the first book I still enjoyed this one very much. For those who liked Phillip Pullman and “His Dark Materials” would enjoy this amazing duet!
July 28, 2014
I'd forgotten the details of how this ended, so I was gripped and delighted and thoroughly satisfied all over again. These books are just beautifully deep - in ideas and in the elegance and details of the prose - in a way that leaves me replete where more quick-march action-slick stories still leave me hungry.
It's a story about the power of dreams, perhaps. Or it's a story about golems. Or it's a story about how, when you pull on a thread, you cannot possibly know how much fabric you might unravel. It's about the destructiveness of desperation, and the casual brutality that causes desperation. It's about the real opiates of the masses. It's about noticing the injustices in the margins.
It's all of that, and it's dressed in lovely 19th-century charm, and I love it to bits.
It's a story about the power of dreams, perhaps. Or it's a story about golems. Or it's a story about how, when you pull on a thread, you cannot possibly know how much fabric you might unravel. It's about the destructiveness of desperation, and the casual brutality that causes desperation. It's about the real opiates of the masses. It's about noticing the injustices in the margins.
It's all of that, and it's dressed in lovely 19th-century charm, and I love it to bits.
August 17, 2014
Awesomely weird. Involved and intricate fantasy world based on New Zealand (no indigenous population which is strange but given the number of Aussie UK and USA books in which you might surmise the same…) involving golems, (sorta) debutantes and a sort of alternative history of film/movies vs dreams (i.e.–what if you could project dreams like films–fabulous because my favourite films are all very dream-like) BUT the main reason it gets five stars is the writing, which is astonishingly good.
This also applies to the first book in the series–I liked the second better but ideally read both together.
This also applies to the first book in the series–I liked the second better but ideally read both together.
January 10, 2010
I really enjoyed this sequel to Dreamhunter. I spent nearly all day today reading it. It picks up right where Dreamhunter ended and it kept my interest through the entire book. If you enjoyed Dreamhunter I think you'll be glad you read the sequel as it answers many questions about dreamhunters and The Place.
Content warning - this book is classified as Young Adult but does contain 2 things I wouldn't want my daughter reading - One totally unneeded reference to a guy liking it when a girl put her hand in his trousers and a couple paragraphs with details of premarital sex.
Content warning - this book is classified as Young Adult but does contain 2 things I wouldn't want my daughter reading - One totally unneeded reference to a guy liking it when a girl put her hand in his trousers and a couple paragraphs with details of premarital sex.
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