Review: Not as well-rounded as it could be
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 22, 2012
This review was originally posted on Red Adept Reviews on 02/01/2012.Description (from Amazon.com):Phobetor, the God of Nightmare, musters power. From his kingdom of terror, he sends forth his incubi--beasts of fang, claw, and fire.The pristine lands of Dream crumble. Phobetor's nightmares wilt Dream's forests, poison her lakes, and twist her gods into demons. Darkness falls. Hope fades. The God of Nightmare prepares for victory... the Gods of Dream for death.On Earth, sleepers toss and scream. Good dreams shatter. Terrors fill the night. Cade and Tasha, twins with a haunted past, take a stand. They will leave Earth. They will enter the mythical sleeprealms. They will march into the heart of Nightmare... and face Phobetor himself.Discover a world of light and darkness, of hope and fear, of dreams and nightmares. Discover The Gods of Dream.Overall Rating: 3 starsPlot:  3 starsThe basic premise of the story is the timeless struggle of good versus evil.  In this case, the war is being fought in the land of dreams - the hosts of Eloria (Dream) versus the hordes of Nightmare, and the spoils are the souls of sleeping humans on Earth. The dreamscape is beautifully conceived and magically portrayed.  Nightmare is truly nightmarish.  Dream is lovely and most readers would probably delight in wandering there in their sleep.Twins Cade and Tasha have discovered the land of Dream and wander it nightly, free from the physical and mental hurt that they live with in the waking world.  But Nightmare intends to conquer Dream, and only Cade and Tasha can possibly save their literal dream world.  They travel the length and breadth of Dream, gathering - and losing - allies as they go, and eventually sneak into Nightmare to face the Lord of Nightmare himself, in his castle.  What struck me the most about the plot development was that, at the beginning of the quest, it was emphasized to Cade that speed was of the essence; yet he entered Dream at the farthest end from where it abutted Nightmare, and spent about a year travelling.  As a device to showcase world-building, a year's journey through the land is unparalleled, but in this case, it seemed counterproductive as though it was only to showcase the world, rather than advance the story. While I enjoyed this book, for the most part, I feel that it would have been much stronger if the author had ruthlessly pared it down to about 2/3 the length.  There were many episodes that, while interesting in themselves, really did not advance the action or even tie in with what was happening.Characters:  3 starsThe two main characters in the story are Cade and Tasha, human twins who are scarred mentally and physically from civil war.  They escape to the land of Dream nightly, where they are whole again, and think of themselves as the Prince and Princess of Dream.  At first, I was prepared to not particularly like either Cade or Tasha, but once they became fully vested in Dream's protection and future, it became easy to relate to them.  Cade is Everyman, and Tasha (in the form of a mouse) his helper and morale support.  The trials they go through together reinforce their twin bond, and allow them to grow emotionally and morally.Moonmist, a true Princess of Dream, is another primary character who starts out trite and grows into her role.  She is not as fully developed as Cade and Tasha, and even though she does show growth, she remains a fairly stock 'princess' figure.There are various gods and demi-gods of Dream that play greater or lesser roles in the story, and all are well-drawn, but not quite 3-dimensional.  This is possibly due to the fact that the majority of them do not have much active time in the story - they are referred to and talked about, but only appear in person for a few pages.  The exceptions are Starlight and Harmony, and they rather defy description, alternating between thoughtful and wise or cute and childish.The gods of Nightmare are somewhat more strongly-developed than the gods of Dream, but still fail to be fully 3-dimensional as well.  I personally tend to feel that the 'bad guys' in books have more character and individuality than the 'good guys' do, and this holds true here.  Phobetor is the Lord of Nightmare, and is portrayed as the stereotypical evil lord.  Loor is his second-in-command, and Eliven is Queen of Nightmare - both are portrayed as very interesting creatures/characters, but they remain relatively 2-dimensional.Writing Style: 3 starsThe author's style was clear and concise and did not stumble into the pitfalls of being overly modern in language or expression.  Fortunately, no attempt was made to differentiate characters by modes of speech.  One thing that really stood out for me in terms of the writing style - and not in a good way - was that I got a feeling of déjà vu during some of the battle scenes.  The language and word usage changed and became quite reminiscent of Tolkien, but lacked the linguistic continuity of the Lord of the Rings, which meant that it was jarring and appeared contrived (if not actually derivative), and out of place when it occurred.Other than that, the narrative flowed smoothly and had internal consistency.  There were a few small details that seemed just a little inconsistent; although they were so minor as to be almost inconsequential, they did make me stop and take notice.  The ending was the weakest point - I felt that it was somewhat facile and saccharine (and possibly a bit rushed), but it did flow logically from what came before. I got the impression that the author felt that a happy ending was very important to his story, and manipulated the ending to ensure that all was 'happily ever after'. Overall the story was a fairly fresh look at an age-old theme, and the author handled his world-building well, creating a beautiful and believable world, albeit one that was occasionally not as well-rounded as it could be.