Book Review: The Dreamer by Linda Patricia Cleary

The Dreamer by Linda Patricia Cleary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great start to a new YA space adventure series about young misfits fighting a secret organization intent on taking over the universe.

Sixteen-year-old Ash Bennett has grown up traveling around the solar system with her parents in a space vessel of her engineer father’s design. But as she’s gotten older, she’s come to realize the secretive nature of their existence and is starting to believe her parents are keeping secrets from her. When she returns to tragedy at their ship docked on the surface of Phobos after a routine supply run, she becomes tragically certain that they had been holding out on her. Now she’s on the run from killers – Mind Squad Agents – with three new companions she’s not at all sure she can trust.

The Dreamer is a marvelous beginning to this exciting new young adult science fiction space-adventure series by Linda Patricia Cleary, and the story hits the ground running, even as the author undertakes the heavy lifting of crafting a unique and robust universe for the story. The story unfolds from multiple points of view, Ash’s and those of other major characters, with great effect.

Ash is a typical teenager, full of curiosity, emotions, new feelings, and uncertain about her current life and her future, and that’s before tragedy strikes. The author immediately builds suspense with Ash’s thoughts on her and her parents’ solitary lifestyle and the odd, recurring dreams that leave her waking in a sweat. Now on her own, Ash must grow up quickly while discovering she’s developing strange new abilities like those of the universe’s much-maligned Pathers.

Joining her in the story is Edan Wagner, whose parents lead the notorious space pirates, the Rippers. He’s trying hard to walk away from that life, and his parents aren’t having it. The twins, Isaac and Isabel, are Pathers with strong kinetic and telepathic abilities, and are searching for their own parents, who disappeared from their home on Mars. They, too, are being hunted, as are pathers throughout the solar system, by whom and for what purpose no one seems to know. Each of these characters has a strong, intriguing underlying storyline that I look forward to learning more about as the series progresses.

The plot is vibrant with compelling backstories of first contact and Earth’s demise, leaving it a spoiled, uninhabitable rock in space. Alien races, such as the Kai and Qreegs, freely mingle with humans throughout the solar system, which advances in technology had opened to exploration and settlement for quite some time by the time of the events in the book. There are plenty of bad guys to escape from as the new friends learn to trust each other and seek answers about their parents. Their group of misfit young adults slowly expands as they rescue others in need along the way. As this is the start of a new series, not all questions are answered, leaving ample territory for future books.

I recommend THE DREAMER to readers of young adult science fiction and space adventures.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.

View all my reviews

Book Tour: Dissonance, Volume 1: Reality by Aaron Ryan

Dissonance

Volume 1: Reality

by

Aaron Ryan

YA Sci-Fi/Dystopian

Publication Date: January 1, 2024

Page Count: 326 pages

SYNOPSIS:

Plug your ears.  And whatever you do, don't look.  The war for humanity has begun.

Cameron “Jet” Shipley was there when they arrived in 2026. He, and everyone else, lived through the next decade and a half, learning to hide. Learning to never make a sound. Learning the most important rule of all:

You just..don’t…look.

The year is now 2042, and humanity is eking out an existence in the shadows.

Cameron and his team are sent out on a recon mission in Clarksville Tennessee, with events and developments that may alter the trajectory of Earth’s fate… and his own.

Joined by newcomers Bassett and Trudy, Cameron and his brother Rut will have to contend with a powerful force that has laid waste to the planet and annihilated over eighty-five percent of Earth’s civilization.

Will Jet’s expeditions lead him on a slippery slope of discovery that demands accountability and answers?

Or will it plunge the earth, and everything in it, into further dissonance? 

“Aliens” meets “A Quiet Place” in this dystopian sci-fi thriller series.

 CLICK TO PURCHASE!

| Amazon | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble |

| Bookshop.org | Kobo | Smashwords |

Review

Coming soon!

About the Author

Aaron Ryan lives in Washington with his wife and two sons, along with Macy the dog, Winston the cat, and Merry & Pippin, the finches.

He is the author of the “Dissonance” series, several business books on multimedia production penned under a pseudonym, as well as a previous fictional novel, “The Omega Room.”

When he was in second grade, he was tasked with writing a creative assignment: a fictional book. And thus, “The Electric Boy” was born: a simple novella full of intrigue, fantasy, and 7-year-old wits that electrified Aaron’s desire to write. From that point forward, Aaron evolved into a creative soul that desired to create.

He enjoys the arts, media, music, performing, poetry, and being a daddy. In his lifetime he has been an author, voiceover artist, wedding videographer, stage performer, musician, producer, rock/pop artist, executive assistant, service manager, paperboy, CSR, poet, tech support, worship leader, and more. The diversity of his life experiences gives him a unique approach to business, life, ministry, faith, and entertainment.

Aaron’s favorite author by far is J.R.R. Tolkien, but he also enjoys Suzanne Collins, James S.A. Corey, Marie Lu, Madeleine L’Engle, C.S. Lewis, and Stephen King.

Aaron has always had a passion for storytelling.

Aaron is the admin of the Authors & Writers Only group on Facebook.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Blog

Goodreads

Pinterest

Instagram

 

Teaser Tuesday: The Cyclopes' Eye by Jeffrey Haskey-Valerius

 

YA Dystopian, Soft Sci-Fi

Date to be Published:

 April 9, 2024

Publisher:

NineStar Press

 

First they came for his sister’s eye. Now they’re coming for his. And what’s even worse is he deserves it.

Henry has never had anything good happen to him, period. Full stop. That’s why, after school, he’s going to put on his big-boy pants and confess his love to his best friend—because the universe owes him one, dammit, and he needs a win.

But maybe doing it on Drill Day wasn't the best idea—the one day a month that healthcare conglomerate Axiom infiltrates schools across America to select a new candidate to give up one of their eyes, for... research? And if this Drill Day is anything like the last, Henry will never get a chance at a good life. Especially if his past keeps threatening to eat him alive, and especially if his old ways of keeping the darkness at bay refuse to work anymore.

 

Excerpt

I hate attention. I hate causing a scene. I hate being noticed. And I’m very, very aware that, right now, that is exactly what’s happening. I’m also noticing how sweaty I am. My face is either ghost white or bile green. Or beet red. All three?

A part of me knows they can’t be looking at me any worse than they usually do, though. Poor Henry with his one-eyed sister. Poor Henry with his drunk of a dad. Poor Henry with his convict of a mother.

I think about reaching down to my thigh to catapult me out of this moment, the tangle of cuts and scars I could squeeze and knead like dough so the jolt of hurt would replace this ache of embarrassment. But I can’t. Not here.

We take the third speed bump slower than the last two, but I still feel touch-and-go. At this point, the best option is to just get out of here as fast as I can. Since I’m already standing when we pull into the parking spot, I don’t wait for all the people in front of me to get off first. I march right on up to the front like I own this bus. And you know what? For right now, I do, fuckers.

“You in a hurry or something?” asks the driver. He removes his shades to reveal two very intact and very brown eyes. His fist is wrapped around the lever to open the door, but he’s not opening it.

I wasn’t expecting this, and with each second, my blood feels thicker and thicker, like sludge. I mumble something about a test I have to study for.

“One day you’ll realize life’s about more than school,” he says, believing, I’m sure, that he’s being very profound at six-thirty.

I just nod and smile, hoping my face doesn’t betray my anguish.

He smirks and finally pulls the lever, and the door squeaks and sighs as it opens. I jump down the stairs, and I must go a little too fast because there’s no way I can hold it in anymore. I’ve got to puke, and I’ve got to puke now.

I race around to the front of the bus, shielded on all sides by other buses that I really hope are empty, and let it go.

It’s so painful coming up, like someone is stabbing me. My eyes flutter open and closed as it comes pouring out, and it’s like I’m watching myself in stop motion. It forms puddles around my feet. Some of it gets on my shoes.

It’s hot and gross, and some of it sprays up into my nose, which might make me puke more. I try to be quiet so nobody will hear me, but the bus engine is so loud that it probably doesn’t matter. Or maybe that’s delirious thinking. Maybe the driver is watching from his window right now. But if anybody does come over to see, they don’t wait around long enough to say anything.

A minute later, when I’m sure it’s all out of me, I feel light, free. Empty. I think this might be the best I’ve ever felt in my life. Maybe I can read this poem today. Maybe Sam will respond the way I want. I should puke more often.

Everything in me goes still and quiet. It’s almost like I’m floating through fog as I wind my way through the maze of buses all parked in a cluster. I’m so light, it feels like a dream. Like I’m not real. Is this what it’s like to get high?

As soon as I round the last bus, I come down.

If getting sick was a dream, reality is not worth waking up for. The nightmare of my life is as bleak as it’s ever been.

Ah, yes, here we are. Drill Day.

Across the parking lot, a few hundred feet away, is the entire student body—two thousand of my peers. They’ve been rounded up like cattle in front of school, their incessant chatter like primal, god-fearing cries for help before being led to slaughter. And just like real cattle, they know there’s no escape.

But at least the cows get to die before their mutilation

 

About the Author

Jeffrey Haskey-Valerius works in healthcare by day and writes weird fiction and poetry by night. His shorter work has been featured in numerous literary journals and has been nominated for prizes, including Best of the Net. He currently lives in the Midwest with his unbelievably handsome and perfect dog, and also a human whom he loves. The Cyclopes’ Eye is his debut novel.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter: @jeffreyhvwrites

Instagram: @jeffreyhvwrites

TikTok: @jeffreyhvwrites