Albion's Dream

by Roger Norman

When twelve-year-old Edward Yeoman discovers a strange board game in his uncle's house, he and his cousin play the creepy game, with sinister results.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Magic

209 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

I wrote Albion's Dream in six months; Red Die took me 18 years (!), Shadowborne also went through many revisions. These made the dice trilogy, ghost stories in which the present is haunted by the past. Treetime was written for younger children and led to my fruitful relationship with the Istanbul publishers Yapi Kredi, who have published some of my stories directly into Turkish. Treetime is in its 20th edition in Turkey. My new book is a collection of short stories called Borrowed Voices, in which the only ghosts are literary.

I spent the 1980s in Greece and have lived in Turkey for much of the last twenty years. Before all that I was a Dorset lad and there's been an element of exile in these long sojourns abroad. Perhaps writing about the rivers and tracks and woodlands of the Blackmore Vale as they were fifty or a hundred and fifty years ago is my way of keeping in touch with the loveliest of English counties.

For a dozen years during the late nineties and early noughties I worked for the UN as an educational consultant and am deeply grateful to that vast, cumbersome, irritating and irreplaceable organization for the opportunity to work in some of the most astonishingly beautiful places you can imagine - Vietnam by the Chinese border, Uganda under the Mountains of the Moon, Nepal-without-cars and the highlands of Lesotho.

My English books are distributed by the Sundial Press (www.sundialpress.co.uk), a small and friendly publishing house with a list where a handful of living authors are lucky enough to rub shoulders with the likes of Llewelyn Powys and AE Coppard.

Anyone contacting me via the Goodreads website will get a proper reply, even if not at once.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

life is but a game, said the board game to the boy, and to his cousin, and to the wizard who was certainly no friend to either. life is but a game of rolling dice and flipped cards, random draws and twists of fate and luck and unluck and maps that reflect your own reality, if you let them. just let it happen! it's all so exciting if you get into the spirit of things, said the board game. love and death and ruin and fortune doled out with no rhyme or reason, isn't that fun?

life is but the will to power, said the wizard to the board game, and to the boy, and to the boy's cousin, this wizard who was both school physician and Death Incarnate. life is but the power to force my will onto chaos, to create my own rules, to understand the universe's secrets so that they are but tools in my hand. I will make it happen! it's all so exciting to control fate, said the wizard. I shall exercise my mind and so enlarge my dominion, all shall be my puppets, the world itself my stage if I will it, wouldn't that be fun?

life is but a dream, said the boy to himself, secretly. a dream that can be lucid, having its own logic, but understandable, controllable. or it can be a nightmare, lucidity lost, the worst paths taken, threats encountered, villains winning. or it can be a dream where you just follow its flow. what happens will happen! it's all so exciting to barely understand, said the boy. I will project my ideas and see them transformed, my reality becomes dream, I dream then I wake, knowing those dreams will come again - what could be more fun?

[Ken Sweet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before Harry Potter there was Albion's Dream. Not condescending, not at all dumbed down, this short novel is packed with meaning and excitement, and is enjoyable for adults and kids alike.

Albion's Dream is a wonderful journey about a mystical game and the child who finds it. One read will leave you yearning for more. I have read it every year since I first discovered it at the public library, when I was a teenager, and I consistently find some new and deeper meaning in some subtle piece of prose, some new bit that I have never noticed before.

This book helped inspire me to become a writer, to experiment with game-making, and to travel to the UK in search of the inspiration that can be found in the antiquities there. Those decisions have shaped the course of my life. Highly recommended for anyone from the age of 12 to 112.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure nostalgio. I used to check this book out of the library all the time, so I was very happy to track down a copy years later - albeit in English and without the lovely pencil drawings I remembered. I like the magical realism of this book, coupled with the English mythology. I just kinda wish it included more about the game so I could play it myself!

[Denny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although probably considered a juvenile fantasy,There is a mythic struggle between good and evil going on here. The board game
Is complex and chilling. Now I have to find the other books.

[Jacob Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been among the top end of my list of books to read ever since 7th grade when a very unlikely peer of mine recommended I read it. It wasn't a kid I trusted at all, but I decided to give it a try. I'm not sure why this book is rarely found on shelves where I live but I've never seen it in a book store and even online it can be hard to locate at times. It is a truly rare gem.

I can only describe it similarly to how the kid in 7th grade described it. It's like Jumanji in a way but with a distinct British flare and for a young adult audience. It's darker and more sinister, but not so dark a teenager or pre-teen can't read it. In Jumanji and Zathura, the events of the game come to life and the characters must deal with those events. In Albion's Dream, an ancient power is bound up in the game and the events of the game have strange effects on the events of the real world. The characters realize this and begin to attempt to exploit the power to bring about their will in their environment. It has nearly disastrous consequences as more and more characters get pulled into the events.

I'm a fan of high fantasy, board games, and British stories. Roger Norman brings them all together in a way that's easy to read and easy to get caught up in. I'd like to read more of Norman's books but just like Albion's Dream, they are very hard to find here. If you ever stumble onto this one look it over.

[Genaro Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando comencé a adentrarme en la historia que proponía el libro hay cierta "película" que inmediatamente me vino a la mente como referencia de lo que se podría tratar. Sin embargo, hay una clara originalidad en la historia que la hace por demás adictiva al lector.
Sin duda la historia sumerge a sus personajes en una aventura fantástica que equilibra con aprender y crecer de la realidad.
¡Lo disfrute bastante!

[Simon Rawlence]

The young adults book to beat all others for me. Set in a boys prep school in UK and at the boy's home in the Blackmore Vale. It evoked intensely that period in my own life and the pagan echoes still resonating in that landscape. I read it through in one sitting

[gamzereadsbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Akıcı ve fantastik öğeleri olan bir roman, severek okudum, belki 15-20’li yaşlarda olsam daha mı çok severdim diye düşünmedim değil.

[Viki Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

***March 2020 reread***

This little known English fantasy novel is an unexpectedly profound exploration of control, morality, magic, and power, all wrapped up in a highly resonant setting in the England of the past. Set in post-war Dorset, this tale of a strange board game, and how it begins to affect the lives of those surrounding the two boys who play it; reminds me of the fiction of other favourite British authors whose knowledge of, and love for, the landscapes and lore of home suffuses their work. Susan Cooper,and of course, Alan Garner. Much like Garner's classic The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, and the darker The Grey King; Albion's Dream may well be a children's book, but it goes much deeper and darker in its exploration of actions and consequences. I'm also reminded on this reread of Diana Wynne Jones' Tam Lin-inspired Fire and Hemlock, for similar reasons. The magic is largely unseen, but the effects of magic are everywhere. I return to this book every couple of years, and every time I do my wonder increases. I wish it were more widely known, as to read it is to understand England/Albion in all its bleakness and beauty.

[G. İlke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doğan Kardeş İlkgençlik Kitaplığı'ndan ortaokul/lise seviyesindeki çocuklar ve gençler için oldukça güzel bir hikaye: Albion'un Rüyası. Bana biraz Jumanji'yi, biraz da Harry Potter'ı anımsattı. Bütün bütüne benzemiyor elbette ama iyilerin kötülerle mücadelesi H. Potter'a, hikayenin kutu oyunuyla ilgili kısmı da Jumanji'yle benzerlik gösteriyor. Verdiğim iki örnek kadar muhteşem olmasa da gençlerin severek okuyacağını düşünüyorum, tavsiye ederim. =)

[Kafka Tamura · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro a pesar de ser para niños y jóvenes, tiene una trama no tan simple, la historia en si es como la de jumanji (unos chicos encuentran un juego de mesa que empieza a afectar la realidad conforme juegan) pero mas mas oscura (siento yo), los personajes estaban muy bien y el final fue perfecto, ya he leído libros de esta colección y me parecen muy buenos, definitivamente lo recomiendo.

[Mary Skolnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book with likable characters and a sense of mystery of ancient wisdom that will leave you wondering.

[Alan Krauss · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me produjo ganas de leerlo en ningún momento y la historia iba muy lenta, además la sinópsis prometia pero el contenido del libro no lo logró.
Sorry

[Aysegul Ata]

sürükleyici çocuk kitabı. hatta bunu baz alarak yapılmış bir film var ama adını hayıtlayamıyorum netflixte. oynadıkları oyun hayatlarındaki olayları şekillendiriyordu.

[Diana Luna]

Primera vez leído (09/Noviembre/2018): Sin calificación.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read.

[Kanyimbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book as a kid

[Arlet · Rating 2 out of 5]

No me llamó mucho la atención

[Marina Deguine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que es una historia fascinante, pero el final me decepcionó.
La forma en que el juego controlaba aparentemente los sucesos de los personajes, creo que daba pie a más trasfondo.

[Barrita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo estoy leyendo con mis primitas y les esta gustando mucho. Y a mi también, es un muy buen libro juvenil.

Update: Pues a pesar de ser relativamente largo para ellas y el tiempo extra que toma leer en voz alta, lo terminamos rapido porque estaban muy emocionadas. Y con razón, porque es un gran libro que podría atrapar a jóvenes y adultos por igual.

Tiene aventura, misterio, suspenso, momentos sobrenaturales y un muy buen protagonista. El juego de mesa que aparece en el libro es bastante creepy.

[Marnanel · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a game which has been passed down through generations of a family. Playing this game alters reality so that the fate of certain pieces within the game affects the fate of certain pieces within life. This book inspired me hugely about making games when I was a teenager. I'm now rereading it to my daughter.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story about the power and magic of myths set (where else?) in the idyllic English countryside. The writing is perfect for a children's novel - simple and accessible, but without condescension. Unlike so many of the books which populate its genre, Albion's Dream is neither overly simplistic nor grandiose. I'm not exactly sure what to make of the ending.

[Adrian]

reading the spanish version.

[Asael Arroyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

i remember it was great, though im not sure what was it about haha

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

My one regret about this book (which I've read several times over the years) was that it ended exactly as if it would be followed by a sequel, but Norman sadly never wrote anything else.

[Anneleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nederlandse titel: "Het verborgen Spel"