Customer Reviews

The Dream Hunter

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(36)

 

 

Seriously, Sherrilyn Kenyon needs to cut back on the number of novels she writes in a year. It's still pretty clear that she puts effort in the main novels of the Dark-Hunters series, but these side-story spin-offs are nothing but Kenyon phoning it in to get a paycheck. With only two stories to its name, I can see that the Dream Hunters are going the way of the Were-Hunters in that the series is unabashedly awful.

That brings us to the Dream Hunter. I've given Kenyon's Were-Hunter novels low marks before, but as much as I hated the books, I never took more than three days to read them cover to cover. I bought this on release day and it sat on my night stand for three weeks before I finished it.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this book is another one of the ones that is trying to build suspense to Acheron's book. As far as I am concerned, I never care if that much promised book is ever published at this point because it is about two years too late. Sure, at first everyone was in love with that character and wanted to know what his deal was. I don't think many people still care, because after many books of teasing and still never getting any real answers, Acheron has turned into the Dues Ex Machina plot device from Hell and a character that almost rivals Anita Blake as most annoying reoccurring character in a series.

Dream Hunter features Arikos, an incubus god of sleep, and Dr. Megeara Kiferi, global trotting PHD in search of Atlantis. Arikos is infatuated with Megeara after giving her naughty, naughty dreams at night. He gets high off sucking emotions out of wet dreams, and decides he wants to experience the real thing. He cuts a deal with the god Hades to make him human for two weeks, but forgot to read the fine print at the end of the contract that stipulates he will have to bring Megeara's soul to Hades in return. Wonderful, a junkie who uses and endangers other people to get his fix is just what every girl should want.

Megeara is an ugly duckling with a PHD. Despite supposedly being smart and focused enough to get a doctorate before she turned thirty, she talks and acts like a dumb valley girl. She's supposed to be an expert in ancient Greek culture but she seems to be totally ignorant of basic points of their mythology. Oh, and Ms. Kenyon and all the other romance authors, being an academic or smart doesn't already automatically translate to being unsociable, a loser, unsexy, and frumpy like you guys seem to think. I spent most of the book wanting to give both these characters a giant slice of clue cake.

There is a plot in here somewhere about excavating the Lost City of Atlantis and the gods fearing a possible resurrection of Apollymi the Destroyer who is sealed up in the ruins. Honestly, it kind of gets lost in between introducing about five new characters to the Dark/Were/Dream Hunter world that ultimately don't serve any purpose.

Kenyon just needs to cut back on books like these. They aren't any good, and they are making the otherwise fine main series seem stale before its time.

Well, this is the last book I'm reading from Sherrilyn Kenyon. When Ms. Kenyon started her dark-hunter series several years back, the books were the best thing going in the world of romantic/fantasy fiction. Each book was new, exciting and the romance between the featured couple was tremendous. As time has gone by, this series has invented more and more different species, all with different powers, reporting to different gods with different powers, featuring different story lines, all of course, with different agendas. What is left is a hodgepodge of 10 million storylines & characters all trying to pull together at some point in each book. The series is now confusing, watered down, and a real disappointment. And the romance? It has taken a back seat. There is just too much going on in each book to spare the word count for serious romance. With this particular book, there were 3 or 4 chapters when the old Kenyon magic shown through, but overall, it didn't hold my interest, it took me 4 days to get through it (why I bothered I don't know), and I basically just didn't care. As this is the pattern I have seen with the last 3 books of Kenyon's, I think it is safe to say that this series has ran its course and should die a natural death. At today's publishing prices and the number of books I read a month, I can't afford books that confuse and/or bore me. This series does both.

I have really enjoyed Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, but Mother of Pearl, what's with these boring spin-offs? I had to yawn my way through pages of repetitive text making me feel as though I was on a circular read to nowhere. I laid it down, I picked it up, and finally finished it two weeks after purchase (I usually finish one of her books in an afternoon). I found the characters unappealing (Arik, the "Dream-Hunter," was nothing more than a voyeur) and I fail to understand why SK's mythological deities always use American slang and colloquialisms. It's not as bothersome when her novels are set in the States, but in Greece and Atlantis? The Dream Hunter series was aptly named since it is guaranteed to put you to sleep.

Is it my wild imagination or this book is an extended version of one of Mrs Kenyon's short stories? (sorry, can't remember in which anthology I read it but it's the same plot nevertheless).

Anyway, my main objections lay on another, probably small, subject. The use of the Greek language in general in Mrs. Kenyon's books. Ok, I understand that for 99,9% of the readers "it's all Greek to them" but I'm Greek and it's not just Greek to me. To me it's my native language and please, PLEASE dear author, don't use it just to add some "exotic" flavor to the story. Or, since you're doing it, DO IT RIGHT.

First of all some of the names are so wrong to the point of becoming laughable. Arikos, what kind of Greek name is that? It's not ancient and it's not modern. It's just ridiculous (if you're Greek at least). And the Greek phrases? Oh God! At one point the author translates the writings on a T-shirt. The English text goes s/thing like this: "I'm watching you, be afraid". The Greek translations goes: "I see you, I'm scared". Totally different meaning. HAVE MERCY. Plus childish mistakes in the use of capital letters, misspellings in the greek text in general and so on.

An english-greek dictionary is not all an author needs in order to use a language. How many times we read the phrase "my gios" (my son) in the books? And how many people know that the grammatical term is totally wrong? When you call s/body "my son" in greek it goes like "gie mou" (or "my gie" if we want to follow the authors way of putting it)and any other way of writing it is wrong.

So, Mrs. Kennyon, you want to use the Greek language in your books? Fine by me. But find a Greek to help you do it right. I know that your Greek readers are probably ... well ... one (me, myself and I) but Greek is still the language some of the greatest works of literature have been written and, if I may say so, commands a little more respect. As any other language would, come to think of it.

P.S.: As I said at the beginning of my review, this book is an extended version of an older short story by Mrs. Kenyon and (yeaaa!) I finally found which one. It's from the anthology "Midnight Pleasures" and the title of the story is "Phantom Lover" (the story of V'Aidan, a Skotos). I have to admit that there are some small changes (the heroin in the short story starts from nightmares and progresses to erotic dreams) but the whole concept is a repetition nevertheless.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's books are a guilty pleasure for me and they are auto-buys, but I was disappointed by this one. The secondary characters and semi-subplots were much more interesting than the main characters were, and it was readable, so that's why I gave it three stars. The whole "pantheon" of Kenyon's characters were present: Dream Hunters, Dark Hunters, gods, goddesses, demi-gods, Atlanteans, etc. The heroine, Geary, wasn't bad, though her motivations were generic romantic heroine ones (rebelling against the parental unit, deathbed promises, family obligations, ugly-duckling syndrome, etc.). Arik, the hero, just wasn't that interesting because he was too much of a, excuse the pun, dream lover. There was some good repartee between him and his "brother", but I thought that he was written as adapting to the mortal world just too easily.

After finishing this book, I realized that the whole point of it was to set up a foretelling of what may happen in future books and of what has already happened in previously published books, specifically involving Zarek the Dark Hunter up in Alaska, and the current conflict involving Nick Gautier. It merely in-fills bits and pieces that weren't missed by the readers to begin with. My problem with the book was that I felt that the secondary characters in the book would have been better used as the primary characters, and the main love interest relegated to the subplot. I think that would have worked better.

I'm not going to say don't buy it, because it's not a bad book. But if you're a Kenyon reader, just know that this one isn't on par with her better ones. My rating was based on the fact that I am a Kenyon reader and I know that she can do better than this.

While this was not the best book by SK I really did enjoy it. I actually enjoy having all these different characters involved in the series. I love reading about the were-hunters and now the dream-hunters make a appearance. To fully understand this world I think it needs to be more diversified than just the dark-hunters. I am really looking forward to Devil May Cry with Katra as the heroine, and I know the series will be invigorated when Ash's 2 part book comes out by the end of summer 08. I am actually emotionally invested in this series and while there may be some books that are not a wonderful as others it is not a good reason to give up on the series. I thought the characters were funny and I liked the insites into the greek pantheon. I would definetly recommend this book as a great read and especially as a precursor to the entire dark-hunter series.

I liked it, but it is not a keeper. Sherrilyn Kenyon writes with her usual humor, and I do like an author who is funny.

I LOVED all the Greek Pantheon of Gods characters, and the tie-in with her Atlantean god characters. Fascinating stuff there, if you've read other parts of the extended story. Some of the material here is not to be missed. I found myself loving the humorous contemporary language employed by the ancient beings.

However, thought I like Kenyon's heros, this protagonist is the least likeable of them all. He is a seriously selfish little git, though he grows as the story unfolds. The secondary characters are the ones I found most interesting. Also, Kenyon seems to write everything in the same 'voice.' Sometimes you wonder if it is just the names that are different from story to story.

Nonetheless, the overall voice is a wise-cracking one. The story has a certain charm. I'm very interested in these characters overall, and this is a nice interlude along the way to the rest of the story. I recommend it. I give it a 'B.'

I love the dark hunter books but I also like the other species Kenyon has created to build different story lines. This book intrigued me because of the "finding Atlantis" storyline, the return of Kat (and I suspect she'll be back again), and the huge obstacle between the two main characters (Arik barters Megeara's life to be with her for a few weeks as a human). Honestly, I didn't know if I would buy any final resolution between the two main characters, regardless of their chemistry, but I was pleased with the way the story was resolved. As always, looking forward to the next book.

This author's last few novels have done a great job of advancing her massive Dark-Hunter world. However, the hero and heroine's of her stories have not stood out and have taken a back seat to the side stories which in my humble .02 shouldn't have been the case. After the last two anthologies and the last full length novel I decided to stop running to the store and buying her novels and utilize my great library system. So, I was pleasently surprised when I read The Dream-Hunter and realized that I actually liked this book. The hero and heroine were the main focus of the novel and while the side story advanced her world, it didn't overshadow the h/h main story. I thought it was well done.

Megeara Kafieri watched her father ruin himself and their family with his unusual obsession with proving Atlantis. Before he dies, Megeara makes a deathbed promise that she will do all she can to salvage his reputation and return to Greece in search of the fabled lost Atlantis. When she arrives in Greece she begins to be plagued by the most sensual dreams with a dream man that is just that--to perfect to exist outside of her dreams. Then one day she finds a man floating in the sea and she saves him. Can you imagine her surprise when she realizes she saved her dream man? Who is Arik and what power does he wield? But more importantly...can they find a happy ending and will Megeara be able to keep her promise to her father?

Arikos is a dream-hunter and he has been stealing the dreams of Megeara for weeks now. He can't get enough of the little mortal so he makes a deal with Hades in order to take the form of a mortal if only for a little while. The price is high but he agrees. He will do all he can in order to help Megeara before he must pay the price Hades has put on the table. Megeara's life. Can this dream god make her life perfect and can they find a loophole in his deal and have a happy ending?

I have no idea what to say or where to start. I confess I purchased this title the day it came out. I'm only now reviewing it how many months later? Yes...I started to read it and had to put it down. I had a very difficult time connecting with either of these characters. This was really a stiff read and although this was a set-up for Acheron's story (hopefully in the near future) it really lacked any punch. Hopefully her next effort will be what fans expect when they purchase her books. In the meantime don't come to this title with high expectations and you won't be disappointed.