Customer Reviews

Dreamer: A Novel Of the Silent Empire

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kendi Weaver and his former teacher Ara Rymar are both members of the Children of Irfan. They seek out Silent--telepathic--slaves and buy or steal them free. Now they've learned about Sejal Vajhur, a teenaged boy with a mutated form of Silence that lets him possess other telepaths against their will. They need to find Sejal before the Empire of Human Unity does, or the entire galaxy could go to war over him. Unfortunately, Sejal is a street kid living deep within the Empire itself.

DREAMER is great read. Ara and Kendi are both compelling, interesting characters I'd love to invite over for dinner. The plot twists and turns, and the character interactions are just wonderful. I hated putting the book down, and stayed up way too late to finish the last 100 pages. Kendi's romance is tender and realistic. And I loved the Vajhur family.

Read it. You'll be glad.

Thanks to the author's posting in Amazon's forums I discovered Dreamer and I'm glad I did. Great sci-fi story with action and a unique, engrossing world. I loved the characters and can't wait to read more about them as I understand the other books are coming to Kindle also. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

Plot/Storyline: 4 3/4 Stars

Most scenes forward the storyline quite nicely.

Some of the scenes involving The Dream were a bit drawn out. It just seemed as though a few of them were a bit redundant and unnecessary.

There is some political intrigue in this novel. However, I enjoyed the fact that the author did not harp on it or go into too much detail. That the author chose to focus on the human aspect of it was a refreshing surprise.

While it moved a bit slowly at times, overall, this was a fascinating novel of huge scope. The universe created in the pages of this novel is vast and immensely interesting.

The ending is edge-of-your seat action. I love the way the author tied up all of the loose ends. It was a very satisfying conclusion.

Character Development: 5 Stars

The characters in this novel are extremely well imagined and written. The powerful young man, Senjal, is depicted as a flawed, emotional, gullible teenager. You love him and wish him well, but at the same time you feel that he needs a good spanking (or some discipline, for the anti-corporal punishment crowd).

Kendi, another major character, evokes similar feelings in that he needs to become more mature. For a different twist, he is in love with another man who recently rebuffed him.

Writing Style: 4 3/4 Stars

The writing style of this author is terrific. The sentences are well structured with no choppiness. The dialogue is interesting and realistic. He speaks well in the voices of many types of characters from female to male to child.

The descriptions are somewhat overdone in unnecessary places. The action, however, is portrayed succinctly, something I especially enjoy.

Editing/Formatting: 2 Stars

There were many editing type errors throughout this work. Mostly they were typographical type things, such as missing words. Having a verb missing from a sentence can be a bit distracting. One error that really stood out was a misspelling of the word `kidnapping'. This word appeared quite frequently throughout the novel, but was spelled `kidnaping' every time.

The Kindle formatting was also a big issue. At odd moments, a capital letter would replace a space and another letter. The letter `J' was the most common and it replaced 'space a' often.

Rating: R for some language, violence, and prostitution references

This is the first book I read by this author, and new authors always kinda scare me. Are they good? Will I enjoy them? Will I get into their world, and care about their characters?

The answer to all those questions is YES. The premise of this book is interesting, that some people can communicate telepathically through the "dream". That they are rare and special. Scary, but realistic: that they can be bought and sold in some cultures. And an interesting zen-like religion has grown up around it for some of the dreamers.

The characters in the book each have distinct personalities, and they are likeable, or not... like real people. Some you instantly like, others you have to think about. I enjoyed the mix of cultures, something you would expect in a spacefaring future. I also enjoyed the acceptance of different cultures and lifestyles.

I gave this book 4 stars (rather than 5) just because it started a little slow. However, after the first few chapters, I was totally hooked and had trouble putting it down.

One warning: if you are rabidly homophobic, this book is not for you. Two of the characters who are romantically linked are both male. That said, all the romantic relationships are handled tastefully, as this book is about story. There are no graphic sex scenes, which I like.

When I finished this book, I immediately bought the sequel - one of the joys of Kindle reading. I would recommend this book to other sci-fi readers.

A great start for a great series of novels.

Mr. Harper does an amazing job of building a future universe filled with flaws and wonders. In this book we meet many characters who extend through the series and, like the universe they inhabit, are very real and interesting people.

If you are a fan of future worlds, SF, Fantasy or just like a good story do yourself a favor and get a copy of Dreamer.

Excellent SF and worth far more than .99. Harper has a talent for world building and fast-paced narrative and creates wonderful, memorable characters throughout the series. (NIGHTMARE, TRICKSTER, and OFFSPRING are the others.) One of my favorite authors, and I've reread these books several times.

With the publishing pipeline stuffed to bursting with vampire and werewolf tales, it's not that easy to find old school, space-based science fiction anymore. Dreamer takes us to other worlds and explores a abilities of a special breed of people who can alter reality through dreaming. This is a fun, solid, well-written book, and a quick, satisfying read.

I read Dreamer when it was originally published as a paperback, so I'm delighted to see it available electronically and to a new audience. Dreamer hits all the right hallmarks of a science-fiction book to me; interesting characters, gripping plot, a realistic setting. My only regret is that I've only read two of the Silent Empire books. Now that they're on Kindle, well, clearly it's time for me to pick up the others.

(Heck, I think I'll buy a Kindle edition of Dreamer and Nightmare while I'm at it and just re-read them. These are fun enough that I don't mind revisiting this world one bit.)

I loved these books when they came out in paperback, and I'm excited that they are coming out on Kindle.

The Dream is a place in the collective subconsciousness of The Empire, an uncountable number of souls strewn across a universe. It is how interplantary governments and corporations communicate.

The Silent are a small percentage of beings who can interact with the Dream. They are the messengers in this vast network, the ones who send and receive the information from planet to planet. Some regard them as a commodity, others as gods.

Kendi Weaver is one of The Silent. He has been a commodity, and now he wants to rescue other Silent from the same life. The only way to find them is through the Dream, but something is destroying the Dream.

Sejal is Silent. He is neither Commodity nor God, but a free citizen, and he wants to stay that way. Fortunately, Nature provided a way for him to keep his talent hidden. Unfortunately, he may be part of the key to what is destroying the Dream.

I bought this novel some time ago and it's been sitting in my kindle gathering edust ever since. When I buy the next book, I won't make that same mistake. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read and some really fun spaceopera.

The universe designed for this story involves evil galactic empires, aliens, seedy starports, FTL and talented heroes. To that degree, it's no different than the rest of the novels in this sub-genre. The hook is Harper's creation of the Silent who are able to enter a dreamscape and use it to talk across intra-galactic distances.

If you're looking for science fiction that makes great socio-political statements, this is not the place for you. But, if you want to kick back with a fun story and let the author entertain you, then by all means, read this book.