I just... really loved this. I loved in it a way that I am pretty sure means that it has somehow seeped into my soul and become part of me.
This book is a fairy tale. Not in the sense that it is a traditional story with familiar elements. If a fantasy world somehow had its own myths and legends and somehow those stories were published into a book that book would be Strange the Dreamer.
This book is the story of a shy young orphan boy who grows into a young junior librarian. The name of a strange city that was cut off from the rest of the world 200 years ago is suddenly lost. From one minute to the next and for no reason that anyone can name the whole world forgot it and so it comes to be known as Weep. Lazlo becomes obsessed with the city, and its fate. It is also about a young blue girl goddess who is growing up in hiding with her siblings.
Lazlo is an interesting character. He is an introverted, even shy, male. Many of his qualities are traditionally feminine. He isn't powerful, rich, or handsome. He can't fight and sometimes is a victim. While reading this book made me very aware that there are still certain things that we expect from different genders especially in fantasy. Lazlo isn't dangerous. He never holds a sword. He is the dreamer of the title. His strength is internal and hidden away from the world. He doesn't have to be the big man to be the hero. He is content with being the hero of his own life rather than the hero of the world. I loved that Liani Taylor let that happen.
There is a love story. It is central to the story but doesn't take over the story. You know how sometimes in romance there is a secondary couple? I usually like that couple more than the main couple because their love doesn't have to have the predictability of the main couple. The love story in Strange the Dreamer feels like that except it is also satisfactorily filled out.
Fantasy is all about world building. Adult fantasy can get bogged down with this and sometimes YA fantasy hardly bothers with it. This book hits the perfect balance. The world is understandable and real, but the focus on the story is still on the characters and not in the world. I loved the writing. There are authors that you want to just get on with the story and writers that you want to describe every sounds, sight, and emotion. Liani Taylor is definitely the latter for me. She paints with words. There is some amazingly beautiful, disturbing, and powerful imagery in this book. For example, there is a statue floating a hundred feet off the ground the size of a mountain, the shadow of which covers an entire city.
Strange the Dreamer is the first book of a duology. That is both the bad news and the good news. The good news is that we are going to be able to visit this world and these characters again. This prospect warms my heart and fills me with glee. The bad news is the wait. I don't have it in my hands at this moment, and that means that I have had to wait too long to start reading it. Unacceptable. Highly recommended.
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Intriguing characters and world
Man oh man! It's a whole new world here. A Strange world and I finally see the appeal. This book sucked me right in. The world building was interesting and the characters were intriguing. I definitely enjoyed this one!Lazlo Strange is an orphaned librarian in Zosma. No one has seen the city of Weep for over 200 years and yet it calls to Lazlo. He feels a connection to a place he's never even seen. He reads everything he can about it and dreams of seeing the Unseen City. His dreams finally come true when a group of Weep warriors show up at the library looking for great minds to help them with a problem their city is having. Lazlo begs to go and is granted passage on the long journey. He's dreamt of this day his entire life and now that he's in Weep, he realizes that it's exactly how he's always pictured it. The problem in Weep is Mesarthim. A group of awful Gods that had taken up residency in a citadel in their skies until a single human fought and killed them all. Or so everyone thought. Lazlo sees one of these Gods in his dreams at night. She warns him to stay away from the citadel. What lives in the citadel is amazing! I could picture everything in this book so vividly and can't wait for more adventures in Weep!Fave Quote"Love that sets forth the soul like springtime and ripens it like summer. Love as rarely exists in reality, as if a master alchemist has taken it and distilled out all the impurities, every petty disenchantment, every unworthy those, into a perfect elixir, sweet and deep and all-consuming."
Top reviews from other countries
- Prachi AgarwalReviewed in India on May 27, 2021
Magically fascinating
This is a 2 part series. It is one of the most beautiful reads I have had in a very long time. Every word, every expression, every detail is filled with magic. You enter into a completely different realm altogether so much so that you start wishing you were in it. If you want an escape from the daily life and dive into something extraordinary outwardly then definitely go for it. It won't have realistic issues of the world but it is full of intense emotions and feelings which we all go through at some point in our life.Magically fascinatingPrachi Agarwal
Reviewed in India on May 27, 2021
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- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on December 19, 2019
Great Story, Wonderfully Delivered
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WortmagieReviewed in Germany on December 23, 2020
Eine Liebesgeschichte zwischen Autorin und Leserin
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Tereh RosasReviewed in Mexico on February 10, 2018
¡FE EN LA LITERATURA JUVENIL RESTAURADA!
