What do you think?
Rate this book
Land of Dreams
Set in the same world as Blaylock’s award-winning “Paper Dragons,” Land of Dreams takes place in the magical atmosphere of the 12-year Solstice as it comes to a northern California coastal town. When a boat-sized shoe and giant spectacles wash up on shore, three of the town’s orphans—Jack, Skeezix, and Helen—know there’s something fishy going on; and the old ghost in the orphanage attic is inclined to agree. An evil carnival comes to town, run by a sinister gentleman who can turn himself into a crow. A mouse-sized man hiding in the woodwork leaves Jack an elixir that might, just might, allow him to cross during Solstice to another world, a mysterious land of dreams that holds the key to Jack’s past and all their futures.
Paperback
First published August 1, 1987
9 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
James P. Blaylock
113 books285 followersJames Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author. He is noted for his distinctive style. He writes in a humorous way: His characters never walk, they clump along, or when someone complains (in a flying machine) that flight is impossible, the other characters agree and show him why he's right.
He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed "fabulism" — that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism.
He and his friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter were mentored by Philip K. Dick. Along with Powers he invented the poet William Ashbless. Blaylock and Powers have often collaborated with each other on writing stories, including The Better Boy, On Pirates, and The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook.
Blaylock is also currently director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts, where Powers is Writer in Residence.
He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed "fabulism" — that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism.
He and his friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter were mentored by Philip K. Dick. Along with Powers he invented the poet William Ashbless. Blaylock and Powers have often collaborated with each other on writing stories, including The Better Boy, On Pirates, and The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook.
Blaylock is also currently director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts, where Powers is Writer in Residence.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 27, 2016
Land of Dreams: Strong echoes of Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
James P. Blaylock is a fabulist, a teller of magic realist tales that reframe our everyday world in more colorful, fanciful, sinister, and whimsical ways. His style and themes often overlap with the works of Tim Powers and they have collaborated on several stories and even have shared the character William Ashbless, which is no surprise since they met as students at Cal State Fullerton. There they also befriended author K.W. Jeter (who coined the term “steampunk” and wrote perhaps the earliest full-length example, 1987’s Infernal Devices), and they are sometimes grouped together as “steampunks”. They also became friends with the great Philip K. Dick, and were fictionalized in PKD’s autobiographical VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.
As for Blaylock’s own body of work, he has a number of notable series, including the whimsical BALUMNIA fantasy series (The Elfin Ship, The Disappearing Dwarf, The Stone Giant), the steampunk NARABONDO/LANGDON ST. IVES series (The Digging Leviathan, Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine), and HOLY RELICS series (The Last Coin, The Paper Grail, All the Bells on Earth). However, some of his stand-alone novels are also worthy of mention and Land of Dreams (1987) is probably the most notable.
Land of Dreams is about a small town in coastal California, three adventurous young orphans, a sinister carnival that comes to town on a mysterious train, a giant pair of shoes and spectacles that wash onto the shore, tiny men like mice, grave-diggers, ghosts, skeletons, frightening carnival rides, strange dreams, and other fantastic happenings. It reads like a dream-inspired adventure, at times whimsical but with macabre elements and some genuinely evil characters. It could be viewed as YA since the main characters are that age group, but in tone it works equally well for teens and adults. I’ve had it for a long time on my shelf (almost 30 years to be exact), and finally got around to it since this and many other of Blaylock’s books are now available at Audible. The narrator is Kevin T. Collins, an actor who has done many audiobooks, and I think he was well suited to the young protagonists of the story.
After reading just a few chapters of Land of Dreams, any fan of Ray Bradbury’s classic coming-of-age small town dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), which Bill, Jana and I did a Book Chat on (click here for review), will see the repeated homages to that novel. Bradbury’s book was about a sinister carnival steaming into a small Midwestern town at midnight with a piercing whistle scream, announcing autumn and the approach of Halloween, run by the creepy Mr. Dark (covered in terrifying tattoos), and two 13-year old boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway (notice the dark undertones their names).
Though the locations are different, both carnivals are associated with a dark train and the distinctive notes of a calliope. Blaylock’s protagonists are young teens Jack, Skeezix, and Helen, and they first hear the whistle of a train comes across the broken-down oceanside tracks of their Northern California town of Rio Dell during the Solstice, which comes every 12 years and ushers in various strange phenomenon.
Both Bradbury and Blaylock are accomplished stylists, and though it may be unfair to compare any writer to Bradbury’s poetic and incredibly rich prose, I thought a good way to give readers an idea would be to highlight some passages dealing with the arrival of the train. The parallels are clear, and Blaylock makes no attempt to hide his source of inspiration. Homage, pastiche, tribute — however you describe it, the influence is pervasive.
Something Wicked This Way Comes:
Going away, away, the calliope pipes shimmered with star explosions, but no one sat at the high key-board. The wind, sluicing ice-water air in the pipes, made the music. The boys ran. The train curved away, gonging its undersea funeral bell, sunk, rusted, green-mossed, tolling, tolling. Then the engine whistle blew a great steam whiff and Will broke out in pearls of ice.
Way late at night Will had heard — how often? — train whistles jetting steam along the rim of sleep, forlorn, alone and far, no matter how near they came. Sometimes he woke to find tears on his cheek, asked why, lay back, listened and thought, Yes! they make me cry, going east, going west, the trains of far gone in country deeps they drown in tides of sleep that escape the towns.
Those trains and their grieving sounds were lost forever between stations, not remembering where they had been, not guessing where they might go, exhaling their last pale breaths over the horizon, gone. So it was with all trains, ever.
Yet this train’s whistle! The wails of a lifetime were gathered in it from other nights in other slumbering years; the howl of moon-dreamed dogs, the seep of river-cold winds through January porch screens which stopped the blood, a thousand fire sirens weeping, or worse! The outgoing shreds of breath, the protests of a billion people dead or dying, not wanting to be dead, their groans, their sighs, burst over the earth!
All authors take their cue from the works of those before them — that is the nature of writing. So I didn’t have a problem with it, since Blaylock’s story takes its own direction. Many of Blaylock’s stories are set in his native California, and he excels at descriptions of the ocean, sea winds, and coastline. So below you can see how he adds his own distinctive touch to the arrival of the train:
Land of Dreams:
They were twenty yards from the shoe when the shriek of a train whistle erupted from the hill above…
The train tracks were a ruin, and had been for as long as any of them could remember. They were rust-pitted and twisted, and a good many of the ties had long ago fallen prey to termites and to sliding hillsides. But there was something in the night, in the rain and the wind and the tide, in the dark bulk of the giant shoe that sat like a behemoth on the sand, that made the impossible appearance of the train seem half expected.
There was another whistle blast and the screech of brakes, and from where Jack crouched in the cavern he could see steam roiling from beneath the cars. The train was slowing. It wound around a curve of track, appearing for the moment that it took to clatter across the trestle, then almost at once disappearing beyond the rain and the redwoods that climbed down the hill toward the sea. One by one the hazy cars lurched past, dark and low and open and freighted with strange, angular machinery.
Jack shook his head, realizing suddenly that he was shaking with cold too. Wind off the ocean sailed straight into the cavern, swirled round in back of it, then sailed out again. It was drier than it had been on the open beach, but at least there they’d had their minds on something other than the cold and wet. The chill seemed to have come with the train, carried, perhaps, on the steam that whirled away into the misty night.
The subsequent events of Land of Dreams differ from Something Wicked enough to make them distinctive stories. Blaylock’s protagonists seek to find the origins of the giant shoe and spectacles that washed up on the beach, and since they are also orphans, the story explores their desire to find their parents as well. Their encounters with the sinister master of the carnival are not nearly as terrifying as Jim and Will’s epic battles with Mr. Dark and his creepy minions (particularly the Dust Witch in the library at midnight). Blaylock has a much more playful approach, so when his characters finally discover what the Land of Dreams is and how it ties in with the mysterious events of the Solstice, the story is more fairy-tale like with elements of Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver’s Travels. Overall, fans of Bradbury, Powers, and other fabulists who transform our everyday lives into something magical will enjoy this one.
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
James P. Blaylock is a fabulist, a teller of magic realist tales that reframe our everyday world in more colorful, fanciful, sinister, and whimsical ways. His style and themes often overlap with the works of Tim Powers and they have collaborated on several stories and even have shared the character William Ashbless, which is no surprise since they met as students at Cal State Fullerton. There they also befriended author K.W. Jeter (who coined the term “steampunk” and wrote perhaps the earliest full-length example, 1987’s Infernal Devices), and they are sometimes grouped together as “steampunks”. They also became friends with the great Philip K. Dick, and were fictionalized in PKD’s autobiographical VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.
As for Blaylock’s own body of work, he has a number of notable series, including the whimsical BALUMNIA fantasy series (The Elfin Ship, The Disappearing Dwarf, The Stone Giant), the steampunk NARABONDO/LANGDON ST. IVES series (The Digging Leviathan, Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine), and HOLY RELICS series (The Last Coin, The Paper Grail, All the Bells on Earth). However, some of his stand-alone novels are also worthy of mention and Land of Dreams (1987) is probably the most notable.
Land of Dreams is about a small town in coastal California, three adventurous young orphans, a sinister carnival that comes to town on a mysterious train, a giant pair of shoes and spectacles that wash onto the shore, tiny men like mice, grave-diggers, ghosts, skeletons, frightening carnival rides, strange dreams, and other fantastic happenings. It reads like a dream-inspired adventure, at times whimsical but with macabre elements and some genuinely evil characters. It could be viewed as YA since the main characters are that age group, but in tone it works equally well for teens and adults. I’ve had it for a long time on my shelf (almost 30 years to be exact), and finally got around to it since this and many other of Blaylock’s books are now available at Audible. The narrator is Kevin T. Collins, an actor who has done many audiobooks, and I think he was well suited to the young protagonists of the story.
After reading just a few chapters of Land of Dreams, any fan of Ray Bradbury’s classic coming-of-age small town dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), which Bill, Jana and I did a Book Chat on (click here for review), will see the repeated homages to that novel. Bradbury’s book was about a sinister carnival steaming into a small Midwestern town at midnight with a piercing whistle scream, announcing autumn and the approach of Halloween, run by the creepy Mr. Dark (covered in terrifying tattoos), and two 13-year old boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway (notice the dark undertones their names).
Though the locations are different, both carnivals are associated with a dark train and the distinctive notes of a calliope. Blaylock’s protagonists are young teens Jack, Skeezix, and Helen, and they first hear the whistle of a train comes across the broken-down oceanside tracks of their Northern California town of Rio Dell during the Solstice, which comes every 12 years and ushers in various strange phenomenon.
Both Bradbury and Blaylock are accomplished stylists, and though it may be unfair to compare any writer to Bradbury’s poetic and incredibly rich prose, I thought a good way to give readers an idea would be to highlight some passages dealing with the arrival of the train. The parallels are clear, and Blaylock makes no attempt to hide his source of inspiration. Homage, pastiche, tribute — however you describe it, the influence is pervasive.
Something Wicked This Way Comes:
Going away, away, the calliope pipes shimmered with star explosions, but no one sat at the high key-board. The wind, sluicing ice-water air in the pipes, made the music. The boys ran. The train curved away, gonging its undersea funeral bell, sunk, rusted, green-mossed, tolling, tolling. Then the engine whistle blew a great steam whiff and Will broke out in pearls of ice.
Way late at night Will had heard — how often? — train whistles jetting steam along the rim of sleep, forlorn, alone and far, no matter how near they came. Sometimes he woke to find tears on his cheek, asked why, lay back, listened and thought, Yes! they make me cry, going east, going west, the trains of far gone in country deeps they drown in tides of sleep that escape the towns.
Those trains and their grieving sounds were lost forever between stations, not remembering where they had been, not guessing where they might go, exhaling their last pale breaths over the horizon, gone. So it was with all trains, ever.
Yet this train’s whistle! The wails of a lifetime were gathered in it from other nights in other slumbering years; the howl of moon-dreamed dogs, the seep of river-cold winds through January porch screens which stopped the blood, a thousand fire sirens weeping, or worse! The outgoing shreds of breath, the protests of a billion people dead or dying, not wanting to be dead, their groans, their sighs, burst over the earth!
All authors take their cue from the works of those before them — that is the nature of writing. So I didn’t have a problem with it, since Blaylock’s story takes its own direction. Many of Blaylock’s stories are set in his native California, and he excels at descriptions of the ocean, sea winds, and coastline. So below you can see how he adds his own distinctive touch to the arrival of the train:
Land of Dreams:
They were twenty yards from the shoe when the shriek of a train whistle erupted from the hill above…
The train tracks were a ruin, and had been for as long as any of them could remember. They were rust-pitted and twisted, and a good many of the ties had long ago fallen prey to termites and to sliding hillsides. But there was something in the night, in the rain and the wind and the tide, in the dark bulk of the giant shoe that sat like a behemoth on the sand, that made the impossible appearance of the train seem half expected.
There was another whistle blast and the screech of brakes, and from where Jack crouched in the cavern he could see steam roiling from beneath the cars. The train was slowing. It wound around a curve of track, appearing for the moment that it took to clatter across the trestle, then almost at once disappearing beyond the rain and the redwoods that climbed down the hill toward the sea. One by one the hazy cars lurched past, dark and low and open and freighted with strange, angular machinery.
Jack shook his head, realizing suddenly that he was shaking with cold too. Wind off the ocean sailed straight into the cavern, swirled round in back of it, then sailed out again. It was drier than it had been on the open beach, but at least there they’d had their minds on something other than the cold and wet. The chill seemed to have come with the train, carried, perhaps, on the steam that whirled away into the misty night.
The subsequent events of Land of Dreams differ from Something Wicked enough to make them distinctive stories. Blaylock’s protagonists seek to find the origins of the giant shoe and spectacles that washed up on the beach, and since they are also orphans, the story explores their desire to find their parents as well. Their encounters with the sinister master of the carnival are not nearly as terrifying as Jim and Will’s epic battles with Mr. Dark and his creepy minions (particularly the Dust Witch in the library at midnight). Blaylock has a much more playful approach, so when his characters finally discover what the Land of Dreams is and how it ties in with the mysterious events of the Solstice, the story is more fairy-tale like with elements of Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver’s Travels. Overall, fans of Bradbury, Powers, and other fabulists who transform our everyday lives into something magical will enjoy this one.
May 13, 2014
I always forget how much I like Blaylock between books.
While reading this I couldn't escape making the comparison to Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's not that they are really that much alike but the "evil carnival" motif drives a sort of parallelism. I wonder if it's generational or if people always felt a sort of uncomfortable undercurrent hiding beneath the frivolity at carnivals. I know as a kid I felt it. My parents took me every year to a large carnival that came to a small city near our farm. We also went to the county fair, but even with the rides, games and shows present, the fair didn't have the same "feel" as the carnival. You always went at night and the "carnies" always seemed to regard the "visitors" as outsiders, good enough to pay for what was offered, but not really to be accepted....
Anyway now that I've given you all insight into my own psyche, I'll say that this is a good read. It's view of time and space while far from original is handled well and as the characters and time folds back on itself it comes to a satisfying conclusion. I liked it.
While reading this I couldn't escape making the comparison to Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's not that they are really that much alike but the "evil carnival" motif drives a sort of parallelism. I wonder if it's generational or if people always felt a sort of uncomfortable undercurrent hiding beneath the frivolity at carnivals. I know as a kid I felt it. My parents took me every year to a large carnival that came to a small city near our farm. We also went to the county fair, but even with the rides, games and shows present, the fair didn't have the same "feel" as the carnival. You always went at night and the "carnies" always seemed to regard the "visitors" as outsiders, good enough to pay for what was offered, but not really to be accepted....
Anyway now that I've given you all insight into my own psyche, I'll say that this is a good read. It's view of time and space while far from original is handled well and as the characters and time folds back on itself it comes to a satisfying conclusion. I liked it.
January 15, 2010
Another wonderfully absurdist, eccentric yarn from Blaylock. Much more impressed with this than his recent Knights of the Cornerstone. Land of Dreams, one of his earlier works, is an adventure, a fantasy and a supernatural thriller all in one.
Based on the Solstice, which comes every 12 years and causes the boundaries between the present reality and 'the land of dreams'(or alternate realities) to blur. Blaylock's exquisite imagination allows him to believably use the mundane as incredible-i.e: shoes, spectacles, crabs, crows and so much more.
All in all this book is reminiscent of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, yet it's certainly orginal as Blaylock delves even further into the surreal and being allowed a glimpse behind the gates of his imagination is a wonderful thing. This is a rollicking great adventure in the purest sense of the word. Good Fun!
Based on the Solstice, which comes every 12 years and causes the boundaries between the present reality and 'the land of dreams'(or alternate realities) to blur. Blaylock's exquisite imagination allows him to believably use the mundane as incredible-i.e: shoes, spectacles, crabs, crows and so much more.
All in all this book is reminiscent of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, yet it's certainly orginal as Blaylock delves even further into the surreal and being allowed a glimpse behind the gates of his imagination is a wonderful thing. This is a rollicking great adventure in the purest sense of the word. Good Fun!
November 26, 2009
Land of Dreams is my favorite Blaylock novel and it reads like a collaboration between Ray Bradbury and David Lynch. Lots of small town nostalgia mixed with creepiness and otherworldly menace.
July 23, 2020
Although I'm a Blaylock fan, there are a few of his earliest books that I never got around to reading, and this was one of them. It certainly has the trademark Blaylock writing style, and I enjoyed that aspect of it - no one else uses words in such a quirky yet somehow natural-sounding way. The tone is dreamy, atmospheric, surreal and vaguely menacing throughout, which would have been okay, but it's also a bit unfocused. A couple of quotes from near the end exemplify the feeling I got from this story:
"As he ran, Jack couldn't help but wonder what, exactly, they were doing."
"Journeying through magical lands was adventuresome, surely, but he needed a destination of some sort, a purpose..."
Yeah, I'm afraid I felt the same way at times. It wasn't clear just what was driving Jack or Skeezix through this adventure - they didn't seem to have any clear goals, yet neither were they being helplessly and inextricably caught up in the events the way that, say, a Powers protagonist would be.
I saw similarities to Little, Big or maybe The Night Circus but this was less engaging or purposeful than either of those.
So, not bad, but there are a number of Blaylock books I like better: of the "modern" ones, I prefer The Last Coin or Paper Grail, and I like the classic steampunk ones even more: Homunculus and Lord Kelvin's Machine.
One more thing to note: I read the Kindle edition and it has numerous minor typos of the kind that come from imperfect character scanning, like "c" for "e" and things like that. As I said, just minor stuff, but would it really have taken that much time or money to simply ask someone to read through this version before releasing it?
"As he ran, Jack couldn't help but wonder what, exactly, they were doing."
"Journeying through magical lands was adventuresome, surely, but he needed a destination of some sort, a purpose..."
Yeah, I'm afraid I felt the same way at times. It wasn't clear just what was driving Jack or Skeezix through this adventure - they didn't seem to have any clear goals, yet neither were they being helplessly and inextricably caught up in the events the way that, say, a Powers protagonist would be.
I saw similarities to Little, Big or maybe The Night Circus but this was less engaging or purposeful than either of those.
So, not bad, but there are a number of Blaylock books I like better: of the "modern" ones, I prefer The Last Coin or Paper Grail, and I like the classic steampunk ones even more: Homunculus and Lord Kelvin's Machine.
One more thing to note: I read the Kindle edition and it has numerous minor typos of the kind that come from imperfect character scanning, like "c" for "e" and things like that. As I said, just minor stuff, but would it really have taken that much time or money to simply ask someone to read through this version before releasing it?
August 23, 2020
Though I have been told by several people that they read Something Wicked this Way Comes every October, I still have not read it. I don't need it.
This novel is my Halloween choice.
Blaylock is among the finest writers I have read. He can make me laugh and chill my spine in the same paragraph. He is a storytelling prestidigitator and a word wizard. He makes my soul soar.
This is my favorite of his works so far. I recommend it without reservation. It is magical.
This novel is my Halloween choice.
Blaylock is among the finest writers I have read. He can make me laugh and chill my spine in the same paragraph. He is a storytelling prestidigitator and a word wizard. He makes my soul soar.
This is my favorite of his works so far. I recommend it without reservation. It is magical.
January 15, 2020
The selection of this story came after I won a free audiobook in one of the FB groups I follow. I wasn’t sure what genre I was going to go for. My usual is post-apocalyptic (especially zombies!), historical, supernatural. This story obviously doesn’t fit under those genres because I was in the mood for something different. I wasn’t sure how this story would go; I was a little confused at the beginning – the big shoe – that I thought it might be too fantastical for my taste. But I really liked this story. It was different, interesting, cute, weird, and held my attention. After listening to the audiobook version of this story, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I'd 'read' the book and stopped. The author uses a lot of figurative language, sometimes overdoing, in my opinion. I don’t mind analogies and whatnot, but they tend to scream out to me especially when used one after another. So I could easily see myself having gotten annoyed if I’d attempted to read this story.
I wasn't sure about the narrator in the beginning. He read fine, just fine. There was a monotonous quality to his voice. It wasn't until the story started moving that emotions could be heard in the narrator's voice, like suspense. He was good with that. Pausing when the scene called for it. I was left wondering how those parts were written. If the pauses (ellipses?) were included or if the narrator put them in himself. Either way, overall, he did a great job. I'd listen to him again.
I wasn't sure about the narrator in the beginning. He read fine, just fine. There was a monotonous quality to his voice. It wasn't until the story started moving that emotions could be heard in the narrator's voice, like suspense. He was good with that. Pausing when the scene called for it. I was left wondering how those parts were written. If the pauses (ellipses?) were included or if the narrator put them in himself. Either way, overall, he did a great job. I'd listen to him again.
June 10, 2024
The local library around me has book sales all the time. In fact, they have a small nook dedicated to the old books that are a steal at a dollar or less.
Awhile ago I picked up an interesting looking book called Land of Dreams by James P. Baylock. Old and faded, with torn corners and yellowed paper around the edges, I had to wonder if this was going to be a hidden treasure or one that deserved to be purged.
I struggle to find a more imaginative story set in the in between of reality and fantasy. It blurred the lines between them so well it was hard to keep them separate.
My favorite aspect of the book was how he used the senses to reel me into the setting, with a heavy emphasis on smell. It was effectively used, often to make a transition to the paranormal side of the story.
I also like the characters, how they interacted with each other, and how as children they were hampered by their own weakness. However, they used the strength they had to overcome their challenges and survive from the lessons they learned in the book along their journey.
I recommend this book for new and different experience. If an immersive story involving strange worlds connected by a blurring line of separation, a carnival with a secret, and paranormal touches in an otherwise normal life that leads to a great adventure, you’ll love Land of Dreams by James P. Baylock.
Awhile ago I picked up an interesting looking book called Land of Dreams by James P. Baylock. Old and faded, with torn corners and yellowed paper around the edges, I had to wonder if this was going to be a hidden treasure or one that deserved to be purged.
I struggle to find a more imaginative story set in the in between of reality and fantasy. It blurred the lines between them so well it was hard to keep them separate.
My favorite aspect of the book was how he used the senses to reel me into the setting, with a heavy emphasis on smell. It was effectively used, often to make a transition to the paranormal side of the story.
I also like the characters, how they interacted with each other, and how as children they were hampered by their own weakness. However, they used the strength they had to overcome their challenges and survive from the lessons they learned in the book along their journey.
I recommend this book for new and different experience. If an immersive story involving strange worlds connected by a blurring line of separation, a carnival with a secret, and paranormal touches in an otherwise normal life that leads to a great adventure, you’ll love Land of Dreams by James P. Baylock.
May 1, 2025
My selection for the Reddit Fantasy 2025 'Hidden Gem' Bingo square (hard mode).
Before I added mine, this book had 249 ratings and 26 reviews on Goodreads.
Set in a small town on the coast of Northern California, the magical story follows the adventures of three children at the time known as Solstice (which occurs every 12 years), when the fabric of reality unravels and travel to strange lands becomes a possibility. It involves an evil carnival with evil immortals plus ghosts, time travel, childhood friendship, loss, love, and desire.
This is my second Blaylock book (the first being 'The Last Coin' which I read about thirty two years ago). I read that because, at the time, I was a huge Tim Powers fan, and I'd read that he and Blaylock shared the character of William Ashbless, a fictional 19th-century poet in their fiction. It felt only proper to see what Blaylock was up to. I honestly don't remember that first one, but as I didn't go onto others, I'm guessing it didn't resonate with me.
I did enjoy this one though and it will hopefully stay with me. The "evil carnival" theme will remind you of Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', but that's really where the similarity ends.
(Other 2025 Bingo squares that this would fit: Published in the 80s; Recycle a Bingo Square: ('Stand Alone Fantasy Novel' square from 2018)).
Before I added mine, this book had 249 ratings and 26 reviews on Goodreads.
Set in a small town on the coast of Northern California, the magical story follows the adventures of three children at the time known as Solstice (which occurs every 12 years), when the fabric of reality unravels and travel to strange lands becomes a possibility. It involves an evil carnival with evil immortals plus ghosts, time travel, childhood friendship, loss, love, and desire.
This is my second Blaylock book (the first being 'The Last Coin' which I read about thirty two years ago). I read that because, at the time, I was a huge Tim Powers fan, and I'd read that he and Blaylock shared the character of William Ashbless, a fictional 19th-century poet in their fiction. It felt only proper to see what Blaylock was up to. I honestly don't remember that first one, but as I didn't go onto others, I'm guessing it didn't resonate with me.
I did enjoy this one though and it will hopefully stay with me. The "evil carnival" theme will remind you of Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', but that's really where the similarity ends.
(Other 2025 Bingo squares that this would fit: Published in the 80s; Recycle a Bingo Square: ('Stand Alone Fantasy Novel' square from 2018)).
March 4, 2020
It was only near the end of reading 'Land of Dreams' that I started thinking how much it reminded me of Tim Powers's work - only to discover they were actually friends. There's also a distinct reminiscence of Ray Bradbury in the off-kilter reality of small-town America, but Blaylock's style is more absurd and often tilts into the surreal and nightmarish in a unique way.
'Land of Dreams' panorama of weird time-travel, ghosts, giant crabs and ocean-going shoes is like no other book you'll read, and you'll come away from it wondering what has just happened, because the way you look at your own world has been subtly altered forever.
'Land of Dreams' panorama of weird time-travel, ghosts, giant crabs and ocean-going shoes is like no other book you'll read, and you'll come away from it wondering what has just happened, because the way you look at your own world has been subtly altered forever.
February 8, 2020
This one was a little odd. I may need to read it in print to get a good grip on the story, because it felt like I was always waiting for the plot to get started. I listened to the audiobook, so it was difficult to go back and check things.
The writing, as usual with Blaylock, was very atmospheric, and there were times when I was afraid it was going to slide a little too far into horror for my taste.
I still enjoyed it overall, however.
The writing, as usual with Blaylock, was very atmospheric, and there were times when I was afraid it was going to slide a little too far into horror for my taste.
I still enjoyed it overall, however.
May 12, 2022
This is a very strange and surreal book, but quite beautiful in its way. It takes place in a town in northern California at the time of the 12 Year Solstice -- the time when a very sinister carnival shows up. There is a giant and a tiny man, who might be the same person, weird ripples in time, the ghost of an old woman, four orphans (three good and one evil) and several other colorful and mysterious characters. A very magical novel indeed.
December 6, 2016
Not nearly my favorite Evil Carnival novel. I was surprised to see that this was written (or at least published) a year AFTER Homunculus, which is a much better read (in my humble opinion).
January 8, 2018
Another blast to read by Blaylock.
I can't believe I lost this book, what an idiot I am.
I can't believe I lost this book, what an idiot I am.
March 2, 2021
Read this years ago, loved it. Its often compared to Bradbury's Something Wicked, which I didn't enjoy.
I must find another copy and re-read!
I must find another copy and re-read!
Read
March 26, 2024DNF at 60% boring as fuck
May 14, 2024
Reminds me of The Stranger things. Nice story
August 20, 2024
Мрачно, интересно, но недоработано.
Возможно, были тонкости перевода, но местами мне приходилось перечитывать целые абзацы, потому что ну вообще не понятно было о чем идёт речь.
Мне не хватило информации о «солнцестоянии» да и вообще обо всём. Это как смотреть сериал с середины сезона.. ты видишь всех героев, видишь что они делают, но не понимаешь нафига🤷♀️.
Возможно, были тонкости перевода, но местами мне приходилось перечитывать целые абзацы, потому что ну вообще не понятно было о чем идёт речь.
Мне не хватило информации о «солнцестоянии» да и вообще обо всём. Это как смотреть сериал с середины сезона.. ты видишь всех героев, видишь что они делают, но не понимаешь нафига🤷♀️.
Read
October 30, 20164 stars from Stuart, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
Disclaimer: just so you know, some of the books we review are received free from publishers
James P. Blaylock is a fabulist, a teller of magic realist tales that reframe our everyday world in more colorful, fanciful, sinister, and whimsical ways. His style and themes often overlap with the works of Tim Powers and they have collaborated on several stories and even have shared the character William Ashbless, which is no surprise since they met as students at Cal State Fullerton. There they also befriended author K.W. Jeter (who coined the term “steampunk” and wrote perhaps the earliest full-length example, 1987’s Infernal Devices), and they are sometimes grouped together as “steampunks”. They also became friends with the great Philip K. Dick, and were fictionalized in PKD’s autobiographical VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.
As for Blaylock’s own body of work, he has a number of notable series, including the whimsical BALUMNIA fantasy series (The Elfin Ship, The Disappearing Dwarf, The Stone Giant), the steampunk NARABONDO/LANGDON ST. IVES series (The Digging Leviathan, Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine), and HOLY RELICS series (The Last Coin, The Paper Grail, All the Bells on Earth). However, some of his stand-alone novels are also worthy of mention and Land of Dreams (1987) is probably the most notable....4 stars from Stuart, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
Disclaimer: just so you know, some of the books we review are received free from publishers
James P. Blaylock is a fabulist, a teller of magic realist tales that reframe our everyday world in more colorful, fanciful, sinister, and whimsical ways. His style and themes often overlap with the works of Tim Powers and they have collaborated on several stories and even have shared the character William Ashbless, which is no surprise since they met as students at Cal State Fullerton. There they also befriended author K.W. Jeter (who coined the term “steampunk” and wrote perhaps the earliest full-length example, 1987’s Infernal Devices), and they are sometimes grouped together as “steampunks”. They also became friends with the great Philip K. Dick, and were fictionalized in PKD’s autobiographical VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.
As for Blaylock’s own body of work, he has a number of notable series, including the whimsical BALUMNIA fantasy series (The Elfin Ship, The Disappearing Dwarf, The Stone Giant), the steampunk NARABONDO/LANGDON ST. IVES series (The Digging Leviathan, Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine), and HOLY RELICS series (The Last Coin, The Paper Grail, All the Bells on Earth). However, some of his stand-alone novels are also worthy of mention and Land of Dreams (1987) is probably the most notable....4 stars from Stuart, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
April 18, 2012
Quite often you come across a book, lauded and applauded by fellow authors of that genre, and when you begin to read it, like I did here with Land Of Dreams, you sit and wonder if you're reading the same book that they're all raving about.
Just like some modern day poetry I wonder if reviewers are afraid to say that they don't like it for fear of appearing to be "not with it", or dropping out of the loop.
As I reached page 99 I said enough is enough - slow moving didn't cover it - and continual lilting phrases describing the setting Sun or the rising Moon doesn't quite make up for the lack of substance, to at least give you a fighting chance of staying awake!!
Excuse me whilst I get to some better entertainment - and watch some paint drying!
Just like some modern day poetry I wonder if reviewers are afraid to say that they don't like it for fear of appearing to be "not with it", or dropping out of the loop.
As I reached page 99 I said enough is enough - slow moving didn't cover it - and continual lilting phrases describing the setting Sun or the rising Moon doesn't quite make up for the lack of substance, to at least give you a fighting chance of staying awake!!
Excuse me whilst I get to some better entertainment - and watch some paint drying!
October 6, 2008
I'm sure they don't get much more weird than this. I won't even try to explain the contents of the book, except to say that it'll take you on a great and strange journey.
It's not fantasy in the classic sense, but it certainly is fantastical.
It's not fantasy in the classic sense, but it certainly is fantastical.
July 2, 2012
I hid 'Land of Dreams' under my mattress during my three-month army recruit training and read it in the minutes before lights out/oblivion.
Mostly for that reason, but not only, this book will always be "amazing".
Mostly for that reason, but not only, this book will always be "amazing".
January 18, 2009
A lot of fun.
December 2, 2011
Very well written and interesting concepts.
March 15, 2015
donated to smith family charity march 2015
*note to self. Copy from A. hardcover different dust jacket. scan later. I think I have this somewhere also.
*note to self. Copy from A. hardcover different dust jacket. scan later. I think I have this somewhere also.
January 3, 2012
This a generally fun but unfocused Blaylock tale, like a short story idea stretched too far. Pretty good, though.
September 20, 2014
It wasn't bad. But...I kept waiting for something interesting (to me) to happen.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews