Sunday 10 March 2013

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Dreams and Shadows - C Robert Cargill

Release Date: 28/02/13
Publisher:  

SYNOPSIS:

In the debut novel DREAMS AND SHADOWS, screenwriter and noted film critic C. Robert Cargill takes us beyond the veil, through the lives of Ewan and Colby, young men whose spirits have been enmeshed with the otherworld from a young age. This brilliantly crafted narrative - part Neil Gaiman, part Guillermo Del Torro, part William Burroughs - follows the boys from their star-crossed adolescences to their haunted adulthoods. Cargill's tour-de-force takes us inside the Limestone Kingdom, a parallel universe where whisky-swilling genies and foul-mouthed wizards argue over the state of the metaphysical realm. Having left the spirit world and returned to the human world, Ewan and Colby discover that the creatures from this previous life have not forgotten them, and that fate can never be sidestepped. With sensitivity and hopeful examination, Cargill illuminates a supernatural culture that all too eerily resembles our own. Set in a richly imagined and constructed world, complete with its own richly detailed history and mythology, DREAMS AND SHADOWS is a deeply engaging story about two extraordinary boys becoming men.


REVIEW:

I’ve always been a fan of films that bring Urban Stories into the mix giving the viewer not only a scare but also something to chill them down to their marrow, so when I read about this book by Robert Cargill, I had high hopes for it. What was presented however was something that whilst readable and OK was not exactly something that separated itself from the norm in a way that this should have.

Yes the details within had that wonderfully macabre gory feel to them, yes the author managed intense feelings within the reader but the main thing that really annoyed me was the way in which the characters POV seemed to chop and change which at some points left me feeling disorientated. All round it was OK but for me, it left me feeling sadly disappointed at not getting something a little more.



1 comment:

Tcrosby said...

Fairly said as always. :) Love your reviews.