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The Dreamhunter Duet #1-2
The Invisible Road
Omnibus edition of Dreamhunter and Dreamquake.
There is a world similar to ours but for one major aberration: the mysterious Place that only a select group of people − the Dreamhunters − can enter. A region where dreams can be caught and relayed to eager audiences in the Rainbow Opera‚ the magnificent purpose−built dream palace.
Laura needs to find out what it is that killed her father − but nothing in her darkest nightmares could prepare her for what she discovers about those who rule the world of the Dreamhunters. And Rose cannot believe secrets can be buried for years‚ yet cry out to be heard ...
There is a world similar to ours but for one major aberration: the mysterious Place that only a select group of people − the Dreamhunters − can enter. A region where dreams can be caught and relayed to eager audiences in the Rainbow Opera‚ the magnificent purpose−built dream palace.
Laura needs to find out what it is that killed her father − but nothing in her darkest nightmares could prepare her for what she discovers about those who rule the world of the Dreamhunters. And Rose cannot believe secrets can be buried for years‚ yet cry out to be heard ...
688 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Knox
42 books970 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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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 28, 2012
I first read the Dream Hunter Duet in about 2008 and adored it. I was curious to see what I made of it four years on, so picked up The Invisible Road (which has both Dream Hunter and Dreeam Quake in it). Still a deep love and admiration. It's a wonderful, strange, vivid story full of compelling people. Elizabeth Knox is one of those writers who makes me feel 'I'd like to be like her when I grow up'. It manages to be deliciously escapist while asking questions about the ethics of talent and ability, politics and class struggles. It's about the relationship of a post Colonial society to a country that is not Australia and is not New Zealand. It's about an unconventional family and their love for each other. It's about golems and the grandfather paradox and earth. It has sensuous writing, to the point where I could taste chocolate and ginger icecream, the arid dust of the Place, and the salt and sand of summer holidays. If this is the kind of thing you like, then I think you'll like this.
May 22, 2011
I loved this book! It's actually two books in one - Dreamhunter and Dreamquake - set in a speculative Edwardian New Zealand, where instead of plays and music-halls, people go to dream theatres for entertainment and experience dreams en-masse. A professional class of dreamhunters go into a Place between the worlds and bring back the dreams for broadcast. The main protagonist is Laura, a budding dreamhunter and daughter of the legendary Tziga Hame, the discoverer of the Place and the original dreamhunter. When her father disappears, she stumbles upon a secret about what political forces have really been using dreams for. The author writes in a deceptively easy style which could be mistaken as catering for a younger audience, but the subject matter is more complicated than in much YA fiction. The characters were very believeable and (mostly) likeable, and I was sad when the book finished and I couldn't spend time with them anymore! I'll definitely be checking out more of Elizabeth Knox's work.
May 23, 2022
I am a little bugged by the fact that I am doing the Goodreads yearly challenge, and yet when I read collected books in one format, they only count as "1 book". (wry smiles aside... onward!)
This is a review that includes , two reviews really. This is a collection of 2 books, published under the titles Dreamhunter, and Dreamquake, (known as the Dreamhunter Dust novels).
CW: convict labor, guns, torture, asphyxiation, burning building, burn scars, violence, pregnancy, hypnotism, drowning
The story is set in the early 1900s in an alternate version of New Zealand where the country is instead called Southland. Teasers of the book say that it varies in one regard, that it contains "The Place" which is an alternate dimensional dreamland that only those with the gift of it can enter. Some of these gifted few can catch special dreams in The Place and bring them out to share with others, similar to full sensory movies, and sometimes with special properties, such as relaxation, healing or idea manipulation .
The teasers are over simplifying it of course. As well as there being other magic traditions and differences in religious faith, Southland was also settled much earlier than New Zealand, and we are told that there were no indigenous people there before those settlers. This leads to all references to the native flora and fauna in the book being under the English names.
It's taken me quite a bit of unpacking to come to grips with my complex feelings about the setting.
I know this is a reimagining, but I am seriously bothered by the names used in the books, because of the way the author has erased the Māori people from this country. All birds and plants are referred to by English names, because in this imagined world, the Māori were never here first. This is a little hard for me, because I deeply value he original indigenous names for these iconic plants and animals and work hard to normalise the usage of those names - names that were beaten out of indigenous tangata whenua o Aotearoa by Colonisation.. by war, "re-education", disease and violence.
In this particular book we see plants such as manuka, mahoe, pikopiko, ponga and birds such as kererū (woodpigeon), tui (parson bird), titipounamu (rifleman), tākapu (Ausralasian gannet) and rūrū (that unnamed owl with a two-note call). I wish I could resonate with the setting more, as I hear of the nor-west wind, chuckle at the Wellingtonian habit of holding hats before stepping around buildings so as to avoid the wind, and summertime Christmases.. but every mention of the native wildlife rubs me the wrong way.
I didn't get as much out of it as I might have if I had been well. I think that much of my impatience with it was because I had a cold. I found myself recapping entire chapters just to get my head straight after my attention had wandered off somewhere. Even with that caveat I found the pace a little frustrating. 'Chekov's gun' was a major feature, in that whenever anything happened or a hint was dropped, I was waiting to find out when the rest of the book characters were going to find out what had just been hinted, or interact with the thing that had just been left in plain sight.
For quite a bit of the book I am torn between what makes a good story, and what makes an immersive world. Much as I would love to believe a building fire where people can see quite a bit of what is going on, and faff about deciding things.. in my, ok, limited experience, fire (especially in a wooden building) is never that slow or predictable. That which should be gripping an exciting leaves me feeling flat and bored because it all feels so fake.
The start of the blaze and the happenings that surrounded it touched me. I think I was overwhelmed a little because I had caught a hint earlier and was waiting for something awful to happen. I could see how the story would flow from there and even that there would be an easy twist incorporated (if I was writing it :P ). Dislodged from my reverie, I was a little disappointed because it took half the book to reveal to the characters the things that I had guessed at so early in the proceedings.
I can see how readers might draw a similarity between this book's Laura, and Philip Pullman's Lyra (from His Dark Materials) - the comparison is made on the front cover image. There is definitely a lot more focus for older readers here, with the romance and intimacy angle not present in Lyra's story. I think Lyra manages to pull herself together more than Laura, who can suck it up in the face of bizarre happenings and trials that require grit (lol), but really just comes off as a swoony girl who wants a daddy figure to look after everything for her.
(Too harsh? Maybe. *blows nose* meh I could go on, but I won't)
This is a review that includes , two reviews really. This is a collection of 2 books, published under the titles Dreamhunter, and Dreamquake, (known as the Dreamhunter Dust novels).
CW: convict labor, guns, torture, asphyxiation, burning building, burn scars, violence, pregnancy, hypnotism, drowning
The story is set in the early 1900s in an alternate version of New Zealand where the country is instead called Southland. Teasers of the book say that it varies in one regard, that it contains "The Place" which is an alternate dimensional dreamland that only those with the gift of it can enter. Some of these gifted few can catch special dreams in The Place and bring them out to share with others, similar to full sensory movies, and sometimes with special properties, such as relaxation, healing or idea manipulation .
The teasers are over simplifying it of course. As well as there being other magic traditions and differences in religious faith, Southland was also settled much earlier than New Zealand, and we are told that there were no indigenous people there before those settlers. This leads to all references to the native flora and fauna in the book being under the English names.
It's taken me quite a bit of unpacking to come to grips with my complex feelings about the setting.
I know this is a reimagining, but I am seriously bothered by the names used in the books, because of the way the author has erased the Māori people from this country. All birds and plants are referred to by English names, because in this imagined world, the Māori were never here first. This is a little hard for me, because I deeply value he original indigenous names for these iconic plants and animals and work hard to normalise the usage of those names - names that were beaten out of indigenous tangata whenua o Aotearoa by Colonisation.. by war, "re-education", disease and violence.
In this particular book we see plants such as manuka, mahoe, pikopiko, ponga and birds such as kererū (woodpigeon), tui (parson bird), titipounamu (rifleman), tākapu (Ausralasian gannet) and rūrū (that unnamed owl with a two-note call). I wish I could resonate with the setting more, as I hear of the nor-west wind, chuckle at the Wellingtonian habit of holding hats before stepping around buildings so as to avoid the wind, and summertime Christmases.. but every mention of the native wildlife rubs me the wrong way.
I didn't get as much out of it as I might have if I had been well. I think that much of my impatience with it was because I had a cold. I found myself recapping entire chapters just to get my head straight after my attention had wandered off somewhere. Even with that caveat I found the pace a little frustrating. 'Chekov's gun' was a major feature, in that whenever anything happened or a hint was dropped, I was waiting to find out when the rest of the book characters were going to find out what had just been hinted, or interact with the thing that had just been left in plain sight.
For quite a bit of the book I am torn between what makes a good story, and what makes an immersive world. Much as I would love to believe a building fire where people can see quite a bit of what is going on, and faff about deciding things.. in my, ok, limited experience, fire (especially in a wooden building) is never that slow or predictable. That which should be gripping an exciting leaves me feeling flat and bored because it all feels so fake.
The start of the blaze and the happenings that surrounded it touched me. I think I was overwhelmed a little because I had caught a hint earlier and was waiting for something awful to happen. I could see how the story would flow from there and even that there would be an easy twist incorporated (if I was writing it :P ). Dislodged from my reverie, I was a little disappointed because it took half the book to reveal to the characters the things that I had guessed at so early in the proceedings.
I can see how readers might draw a similarity between this book's Laura, and Philip Pullman's Lyra (from His Dark Materials) - the comparison is made on the front cover image. There is definitely a lot more focus for older readers here, with the romance and intimacy angle not present in Lyra's story. I think Lyra manages to pull herself together more than Laura, who can suck it up in the face of bizarre happenings and trials that require grit (lol), but really just comes off as a swoony girl who wants a daddy figure to look after everything for her.
(Too harsh? Maybe. *blows nose* meh I could go on, but I won't)
August 1, 2025
Audiobook.
August 23, 2010
This was my second attempt at reading this book, although now I have no idea why I couldn't get into it the first time around! Once it gets going it is fast paced and exciting and carefully written. The chapter on the debutante ball and the fire was absolutely gripping and the relationship between Laura and Nown is strange but beautifully described ( a bit like that of Xas and Sobran in the Vintner's Luck). A clever plot too.
October 9, 2025
'I was finished. I wanted time to stop, and to let me stop with it. And I wanted revenge.
I ... said to the land, 'Bury me, and rise up. Rise up and crush them all.' [loc. 5131]
Rereads, after reading Kings of This World -- which is set in the same alt-Aotearoa-New Zealand, rather later than the Dreamhunter duet, which begins in 1906. My original reviews from (OMG) 2005 and 2007 are here: The Rainbow Opera and The Dream Quake.
The link points to the first of two volumes: the second has only just become available on Amazon.
I remembered much more of the first book than of the second. I was struck this time round by the powerful narrative of Lazarus Hame, a convict, as recited to Laura the dreamhunter: the alternate history that he describes is quite chilling. I also noted the lack of an indigenous population in Southland: this is a version of New Zealand (South Island only) that was not inhabited by the Maori, though there are indications of a relatively amicable entente between the European colonists and the Shackle Islanders.
There is a Place where dreamhunters can go to experience location-specific dreams, and bring them back to be shared at Dream Palaces. In the first novel the origins of the Place are a mystery: in the second, the genesis of the Place is explained -- though it is distinctly non-linear. There is something (several somethings) that might be a golem. There is tragedy, teenage romance, and government corruption; despair and redemption; joy, and the Biblical story of Lazarus and the song he heard in the tomb.
I am still thinking about these books, aided by this spoilery blogpost from the author. (And I am now tempted to reread everything else that Elizabeth Knox has ever written.)
I love the emotional precision and clarity of Knox's writing, and the sense of time being flexible and traversible: and I love the importance of love in many forms and expressions. And I love the complexity of these books.
April 18, 2019
Two novels in one, wasn't expecting that when I picked it up, but what an imagining! Hard to write about this without dropping spoilers everywhere, so I'll be quick and just say 'all kiwis into sci-fi and/or fantasy should read this!' Not to say that others won't appreciate the story too, but that tying this story to a New Zealand setting in the early twentieth century really makes you feel like this is just so different from anything you've ever read. Love the ending!
December 14, 2020
DNF at 78%. Couldn't care less about it
October 31, 2008
This book was absolutely wonderful to read, from start to finish. I picked it up by chance... while traveling I like to read books by authors from the place I'm in. The back of the book seemed like it might be a bit cliched, but when I saw a strong recommendation statement from Garth Nix, my curiosity got the better of me.
To say too much is to give away too much, I think it better to go into this book with no expectations. I will say that it is set in the early 1900s in a sort of alternate version of our world. The area the book takes place in bears a rough resemblance to northern New Zealand, but there the resemblance ends.
There are a few other details I could give without getting into the premise of the book too much, but they scarcely seem worth the trouble. Get this book and read it.
(Side note... oddly I wasn't able to find any other books by this author of even a similar genre. But I did like her writing enough to pick up another totally unrelated novel of hers about vampires.)
To say too much is to give away too much, I think it better to go into this book with no expectations. I will say that it is set in the early 1900s in a sort of alternate version of our world. The area the book takes place in bears a rough resemblance to northern New Zealand, but there the resemblance ends.
There are a few other details I could give without getting into the premise of the book too much, but they scarcely seem worth the trouble. Get this book and read it.
(Side note... oddly I wasn't able to find any other books by this author of even a similar genre. But I did like her writing enough to pick up another totally unrelated novel of hers about vampires.)
October 7, 2014
This book tells a circular tale that captures the reader’s attention, eventually leaving them both with something and nothing. The fantasy is set in early 20th century and is about ‘The Place’. Somewhere that dreams are caught by dreamhunters and transmitted to the citizens of Foundeston as entertainment and convalescence. Over the course of the book the reader along with the protagonist Laura come to know what ‘The Place’ is and watch as Laura tries to reconcile that. There is enough intrigue in the book to keep you enthralled. The book is actually two in one – ‘Dreamhunter’ and ‘Dreamquake’. In reading this book you almost wish for a third to resolve unanswered questions. It is superbly written and I love the rich imagination of the author. She grabs us and pushes us along with time old themes of good versus evil, democracy versus fascism and independence versus mass mindlessness. A book I definitely recommend delving into.
October 9, 2010
I have mixed feelings about this book!
First off it took me until around page 100 to get into the story and for a young adult book it has an extremely complicate writing language..
The story of the book however has a really unique concept!
The first book sets the main character on a mission only to find that that the mission wasnt really a mission but a silly mistake..
It's hard to explain but I mean, honestly half the book is written toward this climax and it just gets dismissed in the end?!
I have not yet finished it (still about 100 pages left) and the second part gets into the politic of things.. but even so, it didnt make it more interesting.. the slight (and i mean slight) romance i think made it a little better but im still waiting for something grand to happen and im afraid that it wont...
First off it took me until around page 100 to get into the story and for a young adult book it has an extremely complicate writing language..
The story of the book however has a really unique concept!
The first book sets the main character on a mission only to find that that the mission wasnt really a mission but a silly mistake..
It's hard to explain but I mean, honestly half the book is written toward this climax and it just gets dismissed in the end?!
I have not yet finished it (still about 100 pages left) and the second part gets into the politic of things.. but even so, it didnt make it more interesting.. the slight (and i mean slight) romance i think made it a little better but im still waiting for something grand to happen and im afraid that it wont...
October 23, 2014
I first read "Dreamhunter" and "Dreamquake" a number of years ago, back in my middle school/high school days. And I don't remember what I thought of it then, but I imagine I liked it well enough. As "The Invisible Road", however, it was a lot more difficult to get through the book. Some parts certainly dragged on, and the logic, such as certain characters knowing things that they perhaps shouldn't have made it more difficult. The ending, while perhaps a little cheesy, did make up for some of the slower parts though, and allowed me to rate this as three stars rather than two. I think the omnibus edition is good to have as a single book, but certainly seemed like the two books smushed together, rather than one large book.
April 28, 2014
The idea behind this book is pretty good. The idea being that there is an invisible border that only some people can cross. If they cross, they enter a different land called The Place. If they fall asleep there, it is possible to pick up a dream that they can then take home with them and "share" with others. An entire industry grows up around the "dreamhunters" who can become rich if they find dreams that people really want. The reader is taken on a long, convoluted journey through the family history/future to find out where The Place came from and why it exists at all. It was a bit long for me, and I didn't really buy into the story all the way. It was just an OK read for me.
Read
September 6, 2013Refreshingly imaginative (compared to a lot of too-similar derivitive fantasy from US & England); aka published in two volumes: DREAMHUNTER and DREAMQUAKE.
Perhaps this New Zealand writer, coming from another environment (like authors of TIGER'S WIFE, LIFE OF PI and VANISHING ACT, and NIGHT CIRCUS--tho American, is from artistic background), helped give a different spin or view of the world, experimenting with how a story might be told.
Perhaps this New Zealand writer, coming from another environment (like authors of TIGER'S WIFE, LIFE OF PI and VANISHING ACT, and NIGHT CIRCUS--tho American, is from artistic background), helped give a different spin or view of the world, experimenting with how a story might be told.
September 30, 2023
Rereading this for the first time since I was like 10. Found a whole bunch of hidden sub plots I missed the first time. I love the way this author leaves you lots of clues to figure things out before the big reveal. 1900’s speculative fiction set in Nelson/Tasman district- cannot recommend enough!
Read
April 9, 2011I have to say I didn't particularly warm to The Vintner's Luck but I found this one quite gripping. Interesting concept and appealing characters.
March 1, 2012
Amazing. Truly beautiful.
October 24, 2013
Supposedly aimed at teens, but this is Elizabeth Knox, so nothing is simple!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews