Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
I am a hard-core science fiction fan. I am not a fan of fantasy. I am often
frustrated that bookstores lump the two together, forcing me to wade through
shelves of dragons, fairies, and unicorns to find a good sf book. But books like
Dreamhunter make hard for me to keep looking down my nose at fantasy. Knox has
created an original and compulsively readable storey, the first in a duet. Like
Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy this book takes us to world very similar to
our own but with significant differences. And, just as in Pullman's great series,
some characters move between worlds.
Laura Hame and Rose Tiebold are cousins and the best of friends. Classmates at an
exclusive girls school, they do everything together. They live a life of privilege
and ease in society that resembles an early 20th century, English-speaking society,
loosely based on the author's native New Zealand. The only real difference is The
Place. The Place is timeless, dead land discovered by Laura's father Tziga Hame.
A select few, 1 in 500 people, can enter The Place by walking over an invisible
border. They appear to vanish into thin air and can spend days or weeks in there.
There are no animals or insects, no water, no clouds and no sun in The Place.
There are only desiccated plants and trees and a featureless white sky that never
darkens. And dreams.
A few of the people able to enter The Place have the power to capture dreams and
then transmit them to others. They are the Dreamhunters. Laura's father and
Rose's mother are the greatest and most famous of the Dreamhunters and are the
stars of a burgeoning industry that uses the dreams to heal and to entertain.
Becoming a Dreamhunter is guarantee of financial success, akin to becoming a singer
or professional athlete in our society. As with most successful industries, a
government bureaucracy evolves to regulate Dreamhunting and to test, monitor, and
license its practitioners. You must be 15 years-old to attempt to enter The Place
and test your Dreamhunting ability. As Laura and Rose are now of age they are ready
for their Try and to follow in the footsteps of their famous parents.
As the time approaches for the Try though it becomes apparent that something is
amiss in the government body that regulates the Dreamhunters and Laura's father,
who may be deeply involved the plot, disappears after exhibiting some odd behavior.
Laura's aunt and uncle try unravel the puzzle of Tziga's disappearance without
arousing the government's suspicions but it is only Laura who can trace her
father's steps and decipher his cryptic messages.
This remarkable story is so absorbing that readers will get lost in it for hours at
a time. Knox's descriptions of The Place are excellent. The relationships between
the main characters, particularly the two teens are very well drawn and the sense
of time and place make it read in places almost like a nineteenth century English
novel (and I mean that in a good way). The only negative in the story is the
abrupt ending. It felt as if there were some pages missing. Fantasy fans (and
non-fantasy fans) will be clamoring for the sequel as soon as they finish the last
paragraph.
Highly recommended for 6th-12th grade.
This review is also available on the LHS Reading Blog:
http://lhsblog.edublogs.org <http://lhsblog.edublogs.org>
Anthony Doyle, Librarian
Livingston High School
Livingston, CA
tdoyle@MUHSD.K12.CA.US
Http://www.lhswolves.org/library/index.htm
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture; you just have to get people to
stop reading them."
Ray Bradbury
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