Subject: REVIEW: Pawn's Dream

From: [email-masked] (Mike Brotherton)
Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 20:21:12 GMT

PAWN'S DREAM
                       	  by Eric Nylund
                    Reviewed by Mike Brotherton

	This impressive first novel bodes well for fans of fast-paced
fantasy adventure with solid plotting and interesting magic -- Nylund may be
this generation's Roger Zelazny.  Definitely a writer to watch.

	The premise of Pawn's Dream is that there exists a family of
"dreamers," who wake up in another world (Meredin) when they fall asleep in
our world.  The dual nature of the dreamers' existence gives them the
ability to manipulate other dualities such as life and death, fire and
water, earth and air, good and evil, etc., in order to produce magical
effects.  Nylund has created a consistent and engaging magic system that
makes the reader sit back and imagine, but not for too long, because this
book is a page-turner.  The plot grabs and pulls and yanks, and doesn't let
up.

	The protagonist, Roland Pritchard, is the last member of the
Pritchard branch of the family and has been been raised by his mother, a
non-dreamer, fearful since her husband's mysterious death.  Roland is a
convenience store clerk, unaware of his powers and of his relatives until he
receives a letter which contains a hundred dollar bill and a note sent out
to all the "Pritchards" in the state in an effort to locate blood relatives
of Clay Pritchard, Roland's father.  Thus he is led to Eugene Rhodes, the
family of dreamers, and his legacy.

	On Meredin, Roland is a monk in a remote abbey where his father hid
him when he was an infant.  He is a translator, not yet fully committed to a
lifetime of scholarship at the Abbey (a rite involving castration), and
longs to depart to explore the world he has read about, but never seen.
Local politics in the form of a vindictive, murdering monk named WaterStone
get in his way and he attempts to escape with visiting strangers, the
DeMarcos: Aesop and Smoking Bear, dreamers and magic users, family that he
is not yet aware of.

	The plot is advanced by Roland's growing knowledge about family
connections and their methods of operation, as well as his own quickly
developing magical talent in the area of life and death magic.  On Earth, he
falls in with Eugene Rhodes and an alluring cousin, Sabrina Bishop, who
teach him about the family and magic.  Someone is also after Roland, and has
tried to kill him, possibly seeking the Pritchard family heirloom, a
treasure hidden by Roland's father with unknown capabilities.  On Meredin,
now a world much decayed from the Golden Age he has read about, Roland and
the DeMarcos are also pursued by evil forces, demons (natives of the planet)
in the employ of Morgan Bishop who seeks the DeMarcos family's lost
treasure.

	Roland is a strong, if initially ignorant character, who, raised
outside of the family politics, hopes to transcend the constant feuding that
threatens the very existence of Meredin.  The novel comes to a satisfactory
conclusion, although the final climactic scene could be more climactic.  The
ending leaves room for a sequel that I hope Nylund will write.  This book
was a fun, fast ride.  I'd rate it an 8 out of 10.

%T      Pawn's Dream
%A      Eric S. Nylund
%C      New York
%D      May 1995
%I      Avon Books
%O      Paperback, US$4.99 
%G      ISBN 0-380-77887-4
%P      345pp

-- 
Mike Brotherton 					[email-masked]
Astronomy Dept., RLM 15.308 				Clarion West 94 Grad	
University of Texas at Austin   7205 Hart Lane #1034, Austin, TX 78731	
Austin, TX 78712 	        (512)471-8433(wk), 471-6016(FAX), 795-9532(hm)

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