Strange the Dreamer

"Laini Taylor’s fantasy-duology kickoff seems expressly designed to appeal to book lovers who know what it’s like to fall hard for a fantasy world. Her protagonist, a shy librarian, is obsessed with a missing magical city. Then a delegation from that city visits his library – but another man casually steals his research and his dream of visiting the place. This lyrical novel is full of shifting sympathies and rich description. Its world unfolds slowly, revealing cruel gods, deep loves and hidden traumas. Part adventure novel, part romance, and part exercise in epic myth-building, it’s gorgeously written and full of surprises."

"It’s not all that new— Muse of Nightmares , the sequel, came out in 2018. But I think it’s Laini Taylor’s most recent published work, yes. She’s a writer I’ve always admired for her exquisite prose—I learn new words every time I read one of her books. Strange the Dreamer is a masterwork. It begins with Lazlo Strange, an orphan raised by monks, who is enthralled by tales of the lost city of Weep. It seems like a myth until a delegation arrives from Weep, led by Eril-Fane, the Godslayer, who needs help to liberate his city from an enormous structure called the Citadel, which is anchored above the city—a fixed reminder of the tyrannical Mesarthim, the god-like race who once occupied it and terrorised the people of the city below. In Strange , Taylor deconstructs her myth as she creates it—Weep is a story to Lazlo, but is, in fact, a real place, where people live in the literal shadow of their trauma. Laini is very good at approaching serious, complex issues and examining them with compassion and nuance. Eril-Fane, in particular, is a triumph of a character, one of my absolute favourite men in fiction—a haunted figure who tries to be kind, who did terrible things to save his people, who still lives with the guilt of his actions and the burden of his trauma. He’s a villain to some and a hero to others, but between those two identities, he is wonderfully, agonisingly human. Strange the Dreamer is a tragedy, but it’s also full of wit and aches with tenderness, and the worldbuilding is masterful. Weep feels like a real place, even before you see it for the first time."