Dreamer: A Novel Of the Silent Empire (Kindle Edition)

by Steven Harper (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It is through first contact with an alien species that humanity learns of the Dream. It is a plane of mental existence where people are able to communicate by their thoughts alone--over distances of thousands of light-years. To ensure that future generations will have this ability, human genetic engineering produces newborns capable of finding and navigating the Dream.

They become known as the Silent.

Rust is just one planet among many in the Empire of Human Unity. It's nothing special, nothing unusual...except for the fact that it is home to an unknown boy who may be the most powerful Silent telepath ever born--a Silent with the ability to possess the bodies of others against their will. This mysterious child may be causing tremors within the Dream itself.

For now, only the Children of Irfan know about him. A monastic-like order of the Silent, the Children protect their members even as they barter their services with the governments and corporations that control known space. But power like that cannot be hidden, and soon every Silent in the universe will know about the boy--and every government will be willing to go to war to control him.

And if the Children of Irfan cannot find him first, the Dream itself may be shattered...

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 484 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Penguin/Putnam/NAL (October 1, 2001)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002DML10G
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,923 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read--Highly Recommended, June 24, 2009

By	Carol G - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, June 20, 2009

By	C. Cole (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Start to a Series, September 2, 2009

By	Red Adept "redadept.wordpress.com" (Carolinas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

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