![]() | |
Author | Laini Taylor |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Strange the Dreamer |
Genre | Fantasy novel |
Publisher | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
Publication date | October 2, 2018 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book |
Pages | 528 |
ISBN | 978-0316341714 |
Preceded by | Strange the Dreamer |
Muse of Nightmares is a 2018 young adult fantasy novel written by American author Laini Taylor, published by Little, Brown Books on October 2, 2018. [1] The novel is a sequel to Strange the Dreamer [2] and follows Lazlo Strange and the ghost of Sarai, a blue-skinned godspawn, discovering the secrets behind the city of Weep as they stabilize relations between the two worlds of humans and gods. The pair must contest with Minya, the oldest of the godspawn, as Sarai explores her dreams and realizes there is greater tragedy inside then she would have ever imagined.
Immediately after the events of the first book, Lazlo meets the other godspawn and discovers he is Minya's brother. Minya holds Sarai's ghost as an ultimatum for Lazlo to help them massacre the city of Weep in revenge for Eril-Fane killing their siblings. The other godspawn tend to the Citadel, which is still tilted and ready to fall onto the city. At some unknown point in time, sisters Kora and Nova live in a fishing village where they depend on each other for everything including survival and ability to stay resolute while the village's elders treat them cruelly and arrange forced marriages. One day, a giant ship floats over their land, and they rejoice in gods arriving to take them away. They are both taken and examined but Kora is held by them, while Nova is dumped out. Skathis, the ship's captain, indentures Kora and uses the metal mesarthium to turn her blue and awaken her tremendous powers. A vengeful Nova is arranged into a forced marriage but escapes the village, moving painstakingly through the ice to find salvation. Over time, Skathis and the gods turn to domination and use mesarthim as a resource to hold them above everybody else. They indenture more children and travel between worlds through portals in the air. Nova follows the trail through worlds over hundreds of years to recover Kora. It is revealed that the gods, once they arrived over Weep in the Citadel, raped men and women to create more gods, leading to the godspawn. Kora was killed in the massacre by Eril-Fane, who is Sarai's biological father, but managed to send her bird spirit and safely transport Lazlo and other children away from the nursery.
Sarai looks into Minya's dream and sees the tremendous tragedy she faces everyday, after witnessing many babies be killed by Eril-Fane while Minya was only able to carry the youngest children away and hide. Sarai, Lazlo, and the godspawn, who have formed a relucatant alliance with Eril-Fane and Azareen, find that hiding space, which houses a portal between worlds. Nova and other godspawn she befriended arrive to confront them but when she finds out Kora is dead, she is pushed into a murderous rage. A dosed Minya wakes up and uses all of her power to send all the ghosts at them, which ends the battle. Nova tortures Eril-Fane and Azareen by killing them over and over again in a time-loop, bitter that Eril-Fane killed her sister. Sarai convinces Nova to stop, but the citizens of the Citadel are kicked out while Nova takes over. Lazlo is taken hostage by Nova and the Citadel vanishes into another world. Sarai and her companions use a flying contraption to follow them, where they rescue Lazlo. Nova kills herself by falling into an ocean full of beasts.
Afterwards, Minya begins to age normally because all the ghosts she was tethered to were let loose. Lazlo, the godspawn, and several of his explorer friends pilot the Citadel away into other worlds, hoping to find the other godspawns, that were sold by Skathis. Sarai hopes to find someone in one of the 100 worlds, who can make her a new body, because her soul is still tied to Minya (a tie-in to "Daughter of Smoke and Bone"). Eril-Fane and Azareen lead a new Weep and have a son, who they name Lazlo.
Thea James of Tor.com praised the way that the "plot hinges upon a legacy of chaos and hatred...the struggle of the children, the younger generation that has survived this evil, to either carry on the legacy of pain and blood and death, or to supplant the agony that their parents wrought and live anew." [3] Kirkus Reviews found the novel superior to Strange the Dreamer with note of the ways Taylor "dances between fantasy and sci-fi, indulging in gods, magic, alchemy, and lost desert civilizations" only to subvert these with "spaceships, interdimensional travel, and alien worlds" but realized that the novel could be seen as "ornate, emotionally charged, and poetic—or florid, overdone, overstuffed, and angst-y" depending on the reader. [4] Author Katherine Webber called the novel "a philosophical fantasy adventure, an epic love story, a daring quest that demands to be read and reread and deserves to be remembered forever." [5]
Nightmare is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Strange Tales #110 and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The character is depicted most commonly as a major enemy of Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider. Nightmare is the ruler of a Dream Dimension and he is one of the Fear Lords. He is also part of the group called The Six Fingered Hand. He can drain the psychic energies from the subconscious minds of dreaming beings.
Son of Dracula is a 1943 American horror film directed by Robert Siodmak with a screenplay based on an original story by his brother Curt Siodmak. The film stars Lon Chaney Jr., Louise Allbritton, Robert Paige, Evelyn Ankers, and Frank Craven. The film is set in the United States, where Count Alucard has just taken up residence. Katherine Caldwell (Allbritton), a student of the occult, becomes fascinated by Alucard and eventually marries him. Katherine begins to look and act strangely, leading her former romantic partner Frank Stanley (Paige) to suspect that something has happened to her. He gets help from Dr. Brewster (Craven) and psychologist Laszlo who come to the conclusion that Alucard is a vampire.
László is a Hungarian male given name and surname after the King-Knight Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary (1077–1095). It derives from Ladislav, a variant of Vladislav. The name has a history of being frequently anglicized as Leslie. It is the most common male name among the whole Hungarian male population since 2003.
Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark is an original novel written by Andrew Hunt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace.
Lost is a 2001 novel by American author Gregory Maguire. Unlike many of Maguire's other adult novels, Lost is set in the real world. The novel's concept is that the protagonist is a distant relative of the man who inspired Charles Dickens' character of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders is a collection of short stories and poetry by English author Neil Gaiman. It was published in the US and UK in 2006 by HarperCollins and Headline Review.
The Urth of the New Sun is a 1987 science fiction novel by Gene Wolfe that serves as a coda to his four-volume Book of the New Sun series. Like Book of the New Sun, it is of the Dying Earth subgenre. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1988.
Blue Is for Nightmares is a young adult mystery novel and subsequent eponymous series by Laurie Faria Stolarz. The first book in the series, Blue is for Nightmares, was made an "ALA’s Young Adult Library Services Association as a Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers in 2005 and as a Popular Paperback for Young Adults in 2007."
Darkside is a 2007 children's novel by Tom Becker, about a boy called Jonathan Starling who discovers a world hidden in London; a world run by Jack the Ripper's family. Only the worst of the worst live here, and all too quickly Jonathan gets mixed up in a world full of murders, thieves, a werewolf and a vampire. Not to mention the cunning servant Raquella, she helps Jonathan get to his dad on time. They go on the ghost train on the Dark Line on Savage Row. Jonathon promises Raquella that one day, he’ll help Raquella run away from her master, as her master is the vampire. It was Published in 2007 by Scholastic. It won the 2007 Waterstone's Children's Book Prize and was longlisted for the 2008 Manchester Book Award. Darkside also won the Calderdale Children's Book of the year Award.
Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon is a 2013 point-and-click adventure video game developed by Koalabs Studio for Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android. It was published on all systems by Anuman under their Microïds brand. In 2013 the game was released on GOG.com, and in 2014 was bundled with its sequel, Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy. Later in 2014, the bundle was released on Steam.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a fantasy novel written by Laini Taylor. Published in September 2011 by Hachette Book Group, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. The story follows Karou, a seventeen-year-old Prague art student. Karou was raised by chimaera, or creatures that have attributes of different animals and humans. The chimaera she lives with demand teeth in exchange for wishes and send Karou to fetch these teeth for them. In the beginning, Karou has yet to discover what the teeth are eventually used for and why there are rules such as "no baby teeth" and "no rotting". While on one of these missions, Karou finds a seraph named Akiva who finds something familiar in her. Daughter of Smoke and Bone received high reviews from critics such as Chelsey Philpot from The New York Times, and Universal Pictures has acquired the rights for a film adaptation.
Days of Blood and Starlight is a young adult fantasy novel written by Laini Taylor. It was published in November 2012 by Hachette Book Group, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. The book is the second in a trilogy, preceded by Daughter of Smoke and Bone and followed by Dreams of Gods and Monsters.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a young-adult fantasy book series written by Laini Taylor and published by Hachette Book Group, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. It is a complete trilogy, Daughter of Smoke and Bone being published on 27 September 2011 in the United States; Days of Blood and Starlight on 6 November 2012 in the United States; and the third book Dreams of Gods and Monsters on April 1, 2014. The books have been published in a variety of different languages.
LainiTaylor is an American young adult fantasy author and a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People's Literature, best known for the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, Strange the Dreamer, and Muse of Nightmares.
Dreams of Gods and Monsters is a young adult fantasy novel written by Laini Taylor. It was published on April 1, 2014 by Hachette Book Group, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. The book is the third in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, following Days of Blood and Starlight.
Renegades is a science fiction novel by American author Marissa Meyer and the first book in the Renegades trilogy. It was first published in the United States on November 7, 2017, and was succeeded by Arch Enemies, by Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. It became a no. 2 New York Times bestseller two weeks after its release.
Kendare Blake is a contemporary author of young adult novels. Her works include Anna Dressed in Blood, Antigoddess (2013) and Three Dark Crowns.
The Dragon in the Sword is a novel by Michael Moorcock published in 1986, the last of his Erekosë series following The Eternal Champion and Phoenix in Obsidian. The first published text is slightly abridged; the full text appears in the UK 1987 edition.
Strange the Dreamer is a 2017 young adult fantasy novel written by American author Laini Taylor and the first in the Strange the Dreamer duology, followed by Muse of Nightmares. The story follows Lazlo Strange, a war orphan and librarian in the world of Zosma who undergoes an expedition to the mystic lost city of Weep but discovers it is more than he believed it to be. It was published on March 28, 2017 by Little, Brown Books.