Harper, Steven
NIGHTMARE: A NOVEL OF THE SILENT
EMPIRE
Steven Harper
ROC 2002
Pb 357 pages
ISBN#
0-451-45898-2
Evan Weaver and his family left Earth nine
hundred years ago on a sleeper ship bound for the distant colony
planet Pelagosa. They never made it. Instead, they woke up in
slavery shackles and were sold off the block. Evan is lucky that
his mother is sold with him: he never sees his father, brother, or
sister again. Eventually Evan gets used to his new
name--Lizard--and his new life of slavery mucking in some rich
lady's frog ponds. He makes a friend and sees his mother
occasionally. Three years later, however, someone discovers that
Evan/Lizard and his mother have a talent called "Silent". They are
sold again for a profit, and this time separately. Evan/Lizard's
name changes now to Kendi.
Kendi Weaver's family was originally from
Australia. They took Aboriginal Dreamtime very seriously, so Kendi
has had some previous training in the talent. His dreams are as
real to him as life in waking hours. He soon finds out why.
Dreamtime, or "Silent" as it is now called, is a form of telepathy.
Gifted individuals can communicate with each other across
light-years of space without the usual time-lag of technologically
crafted communications. Silents are rare and valuable.
Once settled in his new home on a fascinating
world where people live in trees because dinosaurs roam the ground,
Kendi has to cope not only with the damaging psychological
side-effects of slavery but also a few new problems as well. Love
issues filter gracefully in and out of the story. But the main
thrust of NIGHTMARE is a murder mystery. Female Silents are
dieing. It is obvious they're killed in the Dream, but how then did
this powerful murderer also manage to leave grizzly physical clues
behind? Kendi stumbles into the Dream-world of a murder in
progress, and now he's a target!
I very much enjoyed reading NIGHTMARE because
the focus is on characterization, the plot felt fresh and original
to me, and the writer accomplished his goal of creating a world
where we human readers can identify with the humanity in the story.
Also, the plot moves with good tension, and keeps traveling to new
places. If these are points that you look for in a good read, then
add Steven Harper's NIGHTMARE to your recommended reading list.
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