A review by urthwild_darknessbeckons
In Your Dreams by John Swan
5.0
Mr Swan takes us directly into the world building mythos he has created for this series, and it is grand and ambitious.
Authors ask a great deal of readers when they write epic tales, especially serials that are going to go way beyond the traditional trilogy route, and this is one of those serials. You have to give such a series an emotional and time commitment, and yes a huge leap of faith, especially when the author is a newbie.
Filled with well drawn believable and diverse characters, the naive, mysterious, malevolent, unpleasant and the easy to love.
John Swan has an artful way with words, when he writes about fear, dread and evil, you really feel it, when he writes of longing, sadness, friendship and love, you are in no doubt. For an author to have such a skill at this early phase of his career, this is his debut novel, is both encouraging and frightening. Encouraging because this bodes so well for the future of this multi-tombed story. Frightening, because what horrors does Mr Swan harbour up his sleeve to unleash upon us, haunt our adult nightmares and give us the cold sweats.
Despite the dangers I desperately wanted to stay in this world, so it comes as some relief to me to know that there are 10 more publications to come, five novels and five novellas.
Do not be fooled into thinking that you have to be in it for the long haul in order to enjoy this episode, yes, as in stories of this ilk the book ends on a cliffhanger, there is no neat bow for you. However, you do get a few questions answered, more than you would get in an episode of 'Lost', plenty of action, adventure and some great characterizations.
It may have been a long time coming, ahem, but I am very grateful to have been asked to review this book. Without doubt, this is the series I am most looking forward to coming back to. There were some editing issues, but nothing insurmountable.
Received for an honest review.
Urthwild
Authors ask a great deal of readers when they write epic tales, especially serials that are going to go way beyond the traditional trilogy route, and this is one of those serials. You have to give such a series an emotional and time commitment, and yes a huge leap of faith, especially when the author is a newbie.
Filled with well drawn believable and diverse characters, the naive, mysterious, malevolent, unpleasant and the easy to love.
John Swan has an artful way with words, when he writes about fear, dread and evil, you really feel it, when he writes of longing, sadness, friendship and love, you are in no doubt. For an author to have such a skill at this early phase of his career, this is his debut novel, is both encouraging and frightening. Encouraging because this bodes so well for the future of this multi-tombed story. Frightening, because what horrors does Mr Swan harbour up his sleeve to unleash upon us, haunt our adult nightmares and give us the cold sweats.
Despite the dangers I desperately wanted to stay in this world, so it comes as some relief to me to know that there are 10 more publications to come, five novels and five novellas.
Do not be fooled into thinking that you have to be in it for the long haul in order to enjoy this episode, yes, as in stories of this ilk the book ends on a cliffhanger, there is no neat bow for you. However, you do get a few questions answered, more than you would get in an episode of 'Lost', plenty of action, adventure and some great characterizations.
It may have been a long time coming, ahem, but I am very grateful to have been asked to review this book. Without doubt, this is the series I am most looking forward to coming back to. There were some editing issues, but nothing insurmountable.
Received for an honest review.
Urthwild