Customer Reviews

The Daemon in Our Dreams

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On the Global Quest, a cruise ship bound for India, three strangers have discovered they have something in common. Fran Carr, Paul Rowan, and Dr. Lee Ably were the recipients of some very ominous nightmares before they embarked on their journey. In their dreams, they were all visited by the same dark man. He looks at them disapprovingly as they experience horrific skeletal visions of the man they have come to know as Ramesh.

During their travels, Ramesh begins to make appearances at different locations to each of the three passengers, every visit more menacing than the last. Fran and Paul are perhaps the most disturbed by their experiences. Much to the chagrin of their significant others, they team up and exchange notes in their frantic attempt to uncover the intentions of their mutual "daemon." Dr. Ably, the ship's lecturer, is more resigned to the fact that there is nothing he can do to control what he does not understand. He is determined to let events unfold as they will.

The fate of Fran, Paul, and Lee is revealed in the first chapter of The Daemon in Our Dreams by John F. Rooney. The rest of the story is spent sequentially reliving the details of their hauntings, ultimately arriving at the destiny foretold at the beginning.

The book serves as an introduction to Eastern culture, with lengthy explanations of local economies and historical events at each place the tour group visits. The reader learns a great deal from the tour guides along with the characters as they travel. There are frequent references to the travelers being afforded the "luck of the draw" in their privileged lives while the people of the lands they visit toil away in poverty. Sharp distinctions are drawn between the two clashing cultures in the tour group's fear and disdain for many of the natives they encounter.

Perhaps most interesting, however, is how the author has created a mixed group of incredibly unlikable characters. Secondary characters are pretentious rich retirees, obsessed with vanity and youth. Fran is a self-absorbed meddler, Lee is a crotchety recluse, and Paul is perhaps the most amiable of the trio as an internally troubled playwright.

Disappointingly, there are no surprises. The author adds some interrelations that don't serve to explain the plot any further, but perhaps elude to some underlying message about happenstance or fate. The book's intention is not very clear.

Rooney exhibits excellent writing skills and can effectively tell a story. The characters are multidimensional and realistic, despite their disagreeable personalities. The mechanics of the plot could use some improvement, however, to make the undertone of the story more evident to the audience. This is Rooney's second novel, as previous releases have been predominately nonfiction, and future releases should reveal unyielding literary potential.

The Daemon in our Dreams opens with an assassination that is methodically carried out in a London hotel bar by a dark Indian man who is recognized by the victims.

Basically, the story is about three strangers who are preparing for a cruise bound for India. Each has experienced frightening dreams prior to leaving on their trip. Unsure of what the dreams mean, they find common ground once they are on the cruise.

As they travel throughout the various regions and cities of India, the apparition appears to grow stronger and more frightening. All three have a sense of dread and doom about the future.

Before they began their journey, they enjoyed life, traveled much, and had a good relationship with their partners and friends. During the trip they each began to take on the fatalistic views of those who live in India.

The three began to realize their own growing fatalistic views because of their recent experiences with the daemon they now call Ramesh. The fate of the three is not a surprise due to the opening scene. The real surprise comes in the last few pages of the novel, after the assassination.

There is a great deal to learn about Eastern culture and how that affects what ultimately happens to the three travelers. Why these three were chosen may become clear to discerning readers during the course of their travels.

As a fan of Last Passage to Santiago, I was a little disappointed in this book. It will be interesting to some readers due to the spiritual overtones that appear more strongly as the novel progresses. The author does provide his best writing as he makes the scenes of inner India come alive with atmosphere.

All-in-all, an interesting story but not Rooney's best, in my opinion.

The Daemon in Our Dreams is a grim suspense novel about ominous, impending doom. Three strangers in different parts of the world endure terrible nightmares in which a young Indian man glares menacingly at them. Ill omens of funeral pyres, skulls, and feral beasts stalk their nighttime sleep. Then during the course of a land and sea tour from Singapore to the Taj Mahal, each person begins to see the daemon threatening their dreams in real life and real time. His name is understood as Ramesh, but why does he pursue them so implacably? And how does he travel from place to place to materialize before them? Darkness and threats thicken into a shocking climax, in this haunting read.

Opening with the cold-blooded assassination of three people in a London hotel bar by a clean-shaven Indian man, the novel outlines the prequel to this seemingly senseless triple killing. Three travelers, strangers connected only by a shared Asian itinerary, have each begun to have eerie, frightening dreams involving a clean-shaven Indian man. As it becomes apparent to each of these individuals that the others are also haunted by the same man, each begins to see the figure from their dreams manifest in broad daylight. As they make their way from one port of call to another, this man, whom they have come to call "Ramesh," is somehow able to keep pace with them. His appearances grow stranger and more frightening, and the mounting fears of those being haunted begin to wear on their traveling companions. Of course, it is not a spoiler to acknowledge that this "daemon," this Ramesh, is in fact the same clean-shaven Indian assassin who guns them down in the beginning and at the end of the novel. And in the end, I was still just as clueless in regard to why he did it as I was in the first chapter.

That is probably the books biggest drawback. Other reviewers have noted it, and I can only concur: the novel's plot is not what it could be, given such an interesting premise. This is not to say that the book is a loss. On the contrary, the novel succeeds in two ways. The book works as an updated 19th-century ghost story, with successive manifestations of the apparition (and the concomitant suggestion that those being visited are just going mad) serving to slowly build an atmosphere of creepiness. The novel is also successful travel fiction, with humorous dialogues interspersed with knowing descriptions of different sites in South and Souteast Asia. Reading the book really brought back memories of traveling in Bhutan and Thailand.

I wouldn't normally have read this book, because ghost stories and travel novels aren't usually on my reading list. Having done so at the request of the author, I am glad I did. Although the plot could have been more fully fleshed out (along with the motivations of the ghostly assassin), the author showed a talent for writing engaging and creepy material, and this book definitely held my attention for most of its 285 pages.

I received an offer via email to read and review a copy of The Daemon In Our Dreams by John F. Rooney. It's not a book I'd normally run across in my regular reading genres, but the premise sounded interesting. And while the writing style showed promise, the story line left a bit to be desired.

The story starts off with an assassination in a London pub. An unidentified killer stands in the doorway of the pub, singles out three different people, and proceeds to kill each of them with three shots. He then disappears into the crowd, and the media starts to go wild with the story. After that quick and deadly start, the story goes back to three people who are having strange dreams. The dreams involve a man, apparently of Indian origin, who appears and glares at each of them. The imagery involves melting skulls and demonic transformations, and they seem like something more than just a bad nightmare. These three people, none of whom know each other, all meet on a cruise that ends up, of course, in India. They discover that they've been haunted by the same visions, and attempt to figure out what it all means. The tension escalates as they start seeing the actual dream man in the different ports, and the appearances seem to be more threatening. The relationships deteriorate as the pressure mounts, and none of them know how this will all culminate in the end. The guess is, not well...

From a straight writing perspective, the book is pretty good. Quite a bit of the material revolves around the culture and sights of the ports. I found that pretty interesting, actually. But the story plot involving the dreams was thin. Even as the story ended, I still didn't know why these three had been singled out. Nor did I understand what the killings accomplished. I'll be the first to admit that I don't always get deep and subtle stories. But I'm not sure there *was* a point here. I'd have been happier if it was just a story about a cruise...

I think Rooney has promise as a novelist, but he definitely needs some work on the plotlines. Couple a solid plot with his writing style, and I'd be looking for his next work...