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Book: “Nightstrider” by Sophia Slade
Publishing Info: Orbit, September 2024
Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Wren is a a deadly manifestation of the frightening dreams of humans. She is forever bound to the insidious Para Warwick, the only night creature who can cross the boundary between the dream and waking realms. When she fails to retrieve information on a weapon that could finally end Warwick’s reign and is severely punished, she makes a snap decision to aid the growing rebellion in finding it. Here, she meets Alaric, another nightmare hell-bent on atoning for his sins. Though wildly suspicious of one another, they form a tentative pact to take down Warwick once and for all.
The waking world is no better off. Prince Caine Fallon, Warwick’s ignorant human son, prepares to wed Ila Enevoldson, the young queen from a neighboring kingdom. But Ila is more than she She is a weaver, a protector of the ancient Boundary that separates the realms, and she has lost a precious weapon entrusted to her. She will do anything to retrieve it, including agreeing to an engagement with the son of her sworn enemy.
When Caine catches Ila opening a portal to the dream realm and follows her through, he finds himself in a universe stranger than he could have imagined, where his father is more monstrous than he could have fathomed. Their destinies collide with those of the two lethal nightmares, and they are forced to band together to stop the vicious dictator—and prevent the very fabric of reality from unravelling.
Review: I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since I saw that it was picked up by Orbit. The premise sounded incredibly creative, and while I could see the potential for “too many POVs” syndrome, there are also plenty of examples of books where that’s not a failing but instead a bonus. So, ever hopeful, I picked this one up right away when I received my copy!
And, for the most part, there was a lot to like in this one! The first thing that stood out was the unique world-building. I feel like I’ve read similar fantasy stories that play around with the concept of dream worlds populated by living personifications of dreams, but this one more fully fleshed that idea out. In many ways, it operates similarly to the human world, full of social hierarchies based on power structures (in this case, power mostly comes in the form of physical strength and violence). And within this struggling world, there are those who are fighting against the tyrant that rules over them and the powerful nightmares he has created and surrounds himself with.
Then, in a truly interesting contrast, the book switches to the human world where that exact same tyrant rules as well. However, in this world, he is seen as a human man who has human children, who, similarly to the nightmares of the other realm, he rules over with an iron fist. It’s such an interesting concept, to have two so completely different worlds, but both not only facing similar oppression, but plagued with the same powerful man in both. I also enjoyed the change in dynamics between the worlds. In the human world, we have the POV of Para Warwick’s human son, Caine, so the book explores that family dynamic. In the nightmare world, Wren is Warwick’s right-hand nightmare, the doom he sends out to do his bidding. Both have similar close ties to this powerful, dangerous man, but there were also notable differences that the book explores.
And these are only two of the for POVs we get. While I did struggle to enjoy all four equally, I think the author made a wise decision of essentially pairing them up early in the book. Two of them are introduced in the human world and quickly fall within each other’s orbit (through the oldie-but-goodies arranged marriage trope) while the other two are nightmares in the fantasy world who come together in their joint mission to take down Warwick. All four had their own strengths, though I will say that I felt like Caine had the least to do in this book. Much of his story is simply being the “naïve one” who is first learning about the details of these different worlds. Similarly, Alaric didn’t have much as far as a true plot line. He is introduced as a resistance fighter, but the moment he meets Wren, she essentially takes over this role. However, both Wren and Ila are given more chapters as well, so this probably affected this feeling of imbalance.
The pacing is fairly steady throughout, with action scenes coming hot and heavy pretty much from start to finish. This did lead to a bit of clunkiness in the writing itself, with some scenes and character left with little description, leaving me feeling a bit stranded in an ill-defined setting. A bit more editing and fleshing out in the descriptive aspects would have elevated this one to a higher level. However, the dialogue was snappy and clearly a strength of this author’s. Fans of multi-POV fantasy novels with a focus on adventure as well as romance should give this one a shot!
Rating 8: With snappy dialogue, swoon-worthy romance, and a creative new fantasy world, this is a debut well-worth checking out!
The Library Ladies 