Review: Dreamstone by P. A. Hendrickson

Title: Dreamstone Author: P. A. Hendrickson Format: TP Available Formats: None Page Count: 529 Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy Publisher: BookSurge Pub. Date: March 15, 2009 ISBN-13: 9781439216279

Dreamstone tells the story of Joebin Vassiter's life and his world, Prothia. Prothia never dreamed of violence and was shut from the outside worlds until the inhabitants gain word that slavers plan to come and take the entire population. Joebin forms a motley band for his journey and decides to listen to the dreams that he and his friend have been sharing...

I maintain that most debut novels are a mix. Often an author is still establishing his or her voice, feeling out the new territory... Dreamstone is definitely an example of an author finding his feet. In some cases, Dreamstone is outstanding, but ultimately just seems unpolished. (I don't suppose it would be considered a "low blow" to point out the cover for evidence on "unpolished"?) On every other point, Hendrickson appears to be a blooming author with potential, but one detractor in particular really kept me from enjoying this novel. The one major detractor? The dialogue. Much of the story is told in dialogue, but each character--otherwise distinctive and unique--spoke only in one voice and too often seemed to have to blatantly explain assorted topics to the reader. Because of the dialogue being so cumbersome and awkward, I couldn't truly enjoy the very interesting story.

In the end, I was just sorry that I couldn't bring myself to dive more into this book.

Quick and Dirty: Let’s just be friends.
With such a wealth of good sci-fi/fantasy available, instead check out Elizabeth Moon or Crossover by Shepherd.