But some dreams have become nightmares...
Kendi Weaver doesn't know he's Silent. Hijacked into slavery, he has resigned himself to a life of servitude. Then the discovery of his innate gift for dream communication changes everything. Suddenly Kendi is a very valuable commodity. He is rescued by the Children of Irfan--a society dedicated to freeing enslaved Silent--and taken to their planet, Bellerophon.
But Bellerophon is hardly a safe refuge. A brutal serial killer is murdering Silent in their telepathic dreams, and Kendi is soon embroiled in a world of madness and murder. To catch the killer, he must enter the victims' dreams...
Comment: I've had this book in the pile for years, in this case I had written down in pencil the date and it was 2009. What can I say, better late than never...?
This is a science fiction story set in an alien planet, centuries after a ship left Earth to another planet. The ship had been traveling for a long time and everyone on board was in cryogenic sleep, but the ship was caught by alien slavers and everyone was sold as such. The story is told from the POV of Evan, who was traveling with his family (father, mother and two siblings) for they are of Aboriginal origin and they had decided to travel so they could be part of a group establishing a Real People community in the new planet. Now, here is everyone being sold as slaves and Evan is separated from his family, although his mother is sold with him to the same owner. Some years after this, someone in his owner's house touches him and realizes he is Silent, someone who can travel and communicate with others in dreams if they have same ability. This does changes life for him, although sadly he is separated from his mother once more, and he goes to live in a planet where people are like him and he hopes to learn skills so he can find his similarly Silent family some day in dreams. But there is danger and challenges to overcome everywhere....
What a delightful read this was! Even though the slavery theme isn't an appealing one, the author wrote things in such a way that Evan remains likable and funny and someone we root for even while he is in slavery. This is never something to be considered good, but thankfully seeing things from Evan's POV (in third person, though) diminishes some of the unfairness of his situation and we can concentrate on his adventure and progress.
I suppose I could say there are actually a few moments in which i think the author was a little too loose with the true unfairness of things happening to Evan. He was being separated from his family, hurting and unable to avoid it and I confess I wasn't as emotionally devastated as I'd think. Part of this happens because of how this is written but also because of the tone. I hope the vibe doesn't change, for it makes reading about terrible themes in an easier way, even bearing in mind the seriousness of it. There were also some glitches, in my opinion, about the pace and the jumps in the narrative, which made some chapters a little disorienting.
When the story begins, Evan is 12, then he is discovered as being Silent when he is 15 and most of the action takes place in Bellerophon, the planet where most of the Silent individuals can live and be free, as he is 16 and he then decides to change his name to one of Aboriginal meaning, Kendi. In fact, everyone is free there, as there's this foundation, which goes back to first humans who arrived at the planet centuries ago, which has the goal to offer help to everyone who is Silent, even aliens. There are some references to some of these, but the majority of characters is human.
I really liked reading this novel and it was a bother to have to put it down for real life. The plot is actually very interesting because it's not only a study on what it means to survive slavery or what it means to imagine an alien and extra planetary society, or even what is identity (Kendi is of Australian Aboriginal origin and this is sometimes referenced and some details are actually key for Evan's life as a Silent individual), but we have a lot of Kendi's development as a person, as someone who has a goal - to study and get good at his skills so he can find his family - and as someone trying to get a grasp of what this new life means. Evan also realizes he is gay, which thankfully isn't a big deal, although he does worry about it for a long time, but I've felt this was realistically done.
A huge part of adapting to this new reality is to learn about the Silent, the history of them and of the planet they now live in, how life is in this time in contrast to his memories on Earth, but I've found this to be an easy thing because the author isn't info dumping, he shares things as they become necessary to be done, and reading this style makes it a lot more captivating. Another good part of the story is focused on a murder investigation, someone is killing Silent individuals in dreams, which then has psychosomatic effects on their real bodies. The more the plot advances and we learn new things, this started to become a little predictable, but I was surprised with the workings of the big twist anyway.
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