Saturday, June 11, 2011

Book Shelf: The Dream Crystal (The Dream War Series, #1) by Mark O'Bannon




All of the world's dreams are about to die. The Shadow People have come. Always near, they linger in the darkness, ready to devour dreams, hopes, aspirations and desires. . .

Aisling, having lost her dream of becoming a fashion designer, learns that she's a Faerie changeling. Disquieted by the fact that her faerie parents are kidnappers, she has decided to rescue the human child she was exchanged for, but her "sister" is no longer among the faeries, having been taken by the Shadow People. Ith, the Lord of Shadows, is trying to control the dreams of mankind, which are under the protection of the faeries, so they're at war.

Aisling, who doesn't believe in dreams any longer, is falling in love with a handsome, mysterious stranger - one of the Shadow People.

Blurb from Goodreads.....


Review: (Warning, contains mild spoilers)

*Before I begin I must first thank Mark O'Bannon, the author, who sent me this for review.*

This was a very long book. Sometimes it seemed like nothing was really happening and other times it seemed like there were everything going on at once. There were times the story seemed to drag on and times when it was perfect. It took a while to really get into the storyline at times and sometimes I did wonder what the point of certain things were, but for the most part I enjoyed the tale.
The story itself is well written and filled with detail and I could tell that the author has put a lot of thought into creating his world. I admit that sometimes it felt like he put too much effort into describing the never ending different array of clothing all the characters wore, but I guess considering this was a world of beauty and fine things it made sense. However at times it was too much. It seemed like the characters constantly changed clothing and everyone seemed to be wearing this and that, this colour dress, those coloured tights, these kind of styled accessories and it seemed to detract from the story on occasion.

I liked all the different characters and I did like Aisling, although again at times I had my issues with her. I would have liked more from her at times, but for the majority of the story she was an alright heroine to follow. She made too many mistakes and she seemed to take things for granted as well as accepting this too easily.
I liked a lot of the other characters though. Genevieve and Eileen were probably my favourite characters and I really enjoyed the banter the two of them shared. I found it entertaining and endearing how they bickered and acted and yet they still cared about each other at the very end.
I found myself to be a little bit disappointed at the lack of romance in this book. from the description, I was expected a lot more, but Keir (the Shadow Man) really wasn’t in it all too much, and he and Aisling, didn’t really spend much time together, let alone actually fall in love.

Still all in all this is a good fantasy read. It’s detailed and filled with action and adventure and fans of faerie tales will love it.


Rating: *** stars
Recommend: Yes, if you're a fan of fearie/fantasy tales
Did I Buy, Borrow or is it an ARC: Sent to me by the author
Recommend Buy or Borrow: Borrow
Ebook or Actual Book: Ebook
Cover: I'm sorry, but this cover is horrible. I just don't like it.
Read sequel/continue with series: Undecided.

2 comments:

  1. Hhhmmm. Well, I can see why you wouldn't like the cover. It's a bit too much... um, provocativeness or something.

    The book sounds interesting, though. I think I'd expect more romance (or something) with that cover.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha. Yep. I mean, I understand that most self published authors can only do so much with their covers, but still. I'm sorry, this one is a bit...too much.

    It was an okay book. Worth reading I think if you're a faerie or fantasy fan. Right, as I mentioned in my review I did expect more romance from the description, but it wasn't really there in the book.

    ReplyDelete

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