Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Instead of the other way around, the dream picks the dreamer, and Lazlo Strange, a war orphan and aspiring librarian, has always worried that his dream made a poor decision. He’s been obsessed with the fabled lost city of Weep since he was just five years old, but it would take someone more daring than him to go across the globe in quest of it. Then, in the shape of a hero known as the Godslayer and a group of legendary warriors, an incredible opportunity arises, and he must grasp it or forfeit his dream for all time.
What transpired in Weep 200 years ago to isolate it from the outside world? And who is the goddess with blue skin that shows up in Lazlo’s dreams?
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
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The shadow of the past is as palpable as the ghosts that haunt the citadel of murdered gods in this epic and magnificent novel by National Book Award nominee Laini Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy. Enter a world of folklore where there are fear and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and bloodshed. Weep has the solutions waiting.
Strange the Dreamer is a masterpiece. Lazlo Strange, an orphan raised by monks, is introduced in the story. He is fascinated by stories of the lost city of Weep. It appears to be a myth until a delegation from Weep, led by Eril-Fane, the Godslayer, arrives and asks for assistance to free his city from a massive building known as the Citadel that is anchored above the city and serves as a permanent reminder of the tyrannical Mesarthim, the god-like race that once occupied it and terrorized the residents of the city below. Taylor breaks down her myth as she builds it in Strange; to Lazlo, Weep is a narrative, but it is actually a real location where people actually do dwell in the shadow of their pain.
Laini excels at taking on difficult, complex problems and thoughtfully examining them. One of my all-time favourite fictional characters is Eril-Fane, who is a troubled figure who wants to be nice but does awful things to save his people and who still struggles with the weight of his trauma and the guilt of what he did. Eril-Fane is a triumph of a character. He is a villain to some and a hero to others, but he is incredibly, agonizingly human in between these two roles.
Although Strange the Dreamer is a tragedy, it is also witty, compassionate, and has great world-building. Even before you really see Weep for the first time, it already feels like a real place.
I appreciate that Laini Taylor actively challenges male preconceptions in this book because I’m against discrimination based on gender. The male protagonist is a former secretary who works as a librarian. He is not muscular or physically appealing. He actually has a crooked nose since a book fell on it from a library shelf and shattered it. He is poor and doesn’t seem to have any possibilities for the future because he has been placed into a low socioeconomic class. He knows a lot about fairy tales. His field of expertise is one that today’s academics would believe to be extinct. He is giving and focused on helping others. Even if they don’t appreciate it or return the favour, he can’t help but show compassion for others. He has no ego at all, and he collaborates rather than competes. His imagining and love are his strongest virtues.
He doesn’t attempt to rule over any nearby women or men. He is not a professional murderer, does not work in a field that requires killing or violence, is not motivated to kill, and is not even prone to rare fits of rage. He doesn’t drink, roughhouse, or believe that groping women at bars make for a fun night out. Unlike the Sisyphean alchemist in the book, he is not attempting to amass fortune through some illustrious, high-flying vocation that might not truly contribute anything to the world. In truth, Lazlo works to make another man wealthy without asking anything in return because he is aware of the anguish that the pressure to “succeed” has caused in this friend.
