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Dream Called Time (2010)

by S.L. Viehl(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0451463463 (ISBN13: 9780451463463)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Roc

series

Stardoc

review 1: I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book and this series. Overall I liked it, but there were some really major issues that ranged from annoyances to big turn offs.First, a review of this book: Tons of action, revelations and several major transformations. A real roller-coaster after the very leisurely build up of the 9 previous books. It was a relief to finally get some answers. But it was strange too because so much happened so quickly. Things changed so much so quickly, over and over again. The revelations hit hard, over and over. It was so different from the rest of the series. I liked the way many of the elements from each book were woven together into the final chapters. It was exciting, but bit exhausting. It was also very heavy handed with the diversity is goo... mored message. Literally. Here's the answer to the entire thing (without spoilers, don't worry), "'Celebrate your diversity,' Reever suggested. 'Seek balance instead of perfection.'" (p354) I love the message, but it was too abrupt and awkwardly handled.So to celebrate some diversity, I'll say that the various aliens were the best part of the series. I enjoyed her Jorenians, Omorians, etc. Unfortunately, the main characters were really lacking. Cherijo is frequently rude, and she makes decisions that are rash and sometimes just bizarre. For example, near the end one of the transformations effects her personally, so she takes 3 hours in the middle of a huge crisis to deal with it. That was her priority? It turned out to be useful, but it felt sloppy, like the author should have found a better way to get to that information instead of having Cherijo make a selfish and stupid decision. There are a lot of "huh" moments in this book and in this series, where the characters' actions don't match with their normal behaviors, or where they just do dumb things. Yes, real people do dumb things too. But it's frequently not in a way that felt right to me as the reader.And Reever was just about the worst leading man I've ever encountered. I've never bought the whole "Reever never learned human emotions" thing. Every other species they encountered had emotions. Most very similar to humans. And this guy is a telepath who's read the minds of people from dozens of species. So why was he a cold bastard, unable to feel emotions? He was unlikable, and frequently awful to Cherijo. Who was pretty awful to him sometimes too. Some of it can be chalked up in the beginning to her being young and inexperienced, and it is refreshing to have a leading character who isn't perfect. And sometimes it was normal soap opera/romance stuff where if the characters would just talk to each other things would be OK, but they're being stubborn or hurt or whatever and mess things up. But... it's tricky. There were so many weird choices here, it makes me wonder about the author's ideas about marriage, respect, honesty, etc. I really wonder about her romance novels too, because these guys were not romantic to me at all.Also, there were so many ideas that were introduced and just dropped, or handled really badly. One is Marel's teleporting. She starts doing it before she's 2, if I remember correctly, back in book 4 or so. Wouldn't normal people be really curious about that and take it extremely seriously? Especially since it caused so chaos when it first happened and continued to influence major events in the stories. But it's never addressed at all, she just does it off and on throughout the series. Sure, her parents were pretty busy being taken hostage over and over again on every planet they landed on, but someone should have been curious. It was a really stupid story element and I don't really see why it was necessary if it wasn't going to be explained. Another annoyance was the cats. I loved Jenner at the beginning and the fact that Cherijo loved him so much made me like her more. Then she kept forgetting about him, and even admitting that she was awful about it. Then Jarn was bizarre with the cats, which made sense as a story element, but was irritating as a pet lover. And then they were never even mentioned in the last book at all, despite being a continuing element throughout the rest of the series. Evidently the author also just forgot about them. Cherijo should have asked about the cats in the last book and been told that they were with the Torins. It seems minor, but it's indicative of many of the elements that were introduced, used when convenient, and then forgotten. Sloppy.Overall, the series was just too long. Five books would have been more than enough. There are way too many stupid coincidences. There is no concept of fate, so the fact the Cherijo traveled to those exact planets and had those exact experiences was total coincidence. If she had never fallen in love with Kao and been adopted by the Jorenians, etc., etc., none of this would have happened. Also, the repetitiveness of the many books where they traveled to a planet and were taken hostage or enslaved is ridiculous. The whole Jarn plot makes no sense to me in retrospect, it just seems like a way of making the series last longer. And what was with the other people who were immortals just like her? Other than Valtas they're never used except at the end and had no place in the big black crystal story at all, so why did they even exist? And the more I write, the more aggravated I get with the series, which must not have been so awful if I read 10 books, right? A summary of how I feel can be found on page 336, "None of it made any sense to me, but the shifter was insane, so probably it never would." That seems to be the author's attitude, it doesn't matter if the pieces don't make sense, just deal with it. So I'm not going to dwell on the shortcomings, but just say (finally) that it was fine and could have been a lot better. And hope that some of the unanswered questions are addressed in her Bio Rescue series, which seems to be about Valtas and his lost love. And I'll probably be curious enough to read it, despite my many hesitations about this series. But the first book had better be good, or I give up!Also, I want to than the publisher, ROC, for creating great original art covers for every book in the series. So many publishers are using barely edited stock photography now. Sure, Cherijo should have a bigger nose, but that's not really relevant compared to detailed covers that accurately represent scenes from the stories and create interest in the books.
review 2: I've loved this series from the start. This is the final book in the series, and as such it answers all the questions about the black crystal that has been plaguing the protagonists since the first or second book. I generally enjoyed this book, although as it got closer to the end, a lot of action was packed into few pages. And I'm still not sure I quite *got* everything (I'll have to go back and reread)The ending? I won't spoil it, but let's just say I'm torn. I like certain aspects of the ending, others seem too...hm, saying anything more would be a spoiler.I do recommend this book. It's a must read if you've been following the series. less

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