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Shadow Town #2
Republic of Dreams
In the kingdom of Balthasar some children have the power to use dreams to change reality— an activity fraught with danger. Changing the world can have lethal consequences. Meddling with nature can lead to ecological disasters spinning irrevocably out of control. Crown Princess Tamurlaine, about to be crowned queen of Balthasar wants to control dreams and dreamers, but a conspiracy led by power hungry Malladain, a family foe aims to kill her on the day of her coronation. Can her trusted friend Toby from our world save her? Toby, Tamurlaine and their staunchest allies, Anon a half-angel, Burston a school friend and Jinki, an orphan and refugee, must battle against the superior forces of those utterly corrupted by power in a land where no one can be trusted …
The sequel to Shadow Town, a Times Best Book of the year.
The sequel to Shadow Town, a Times Best Book of the year.
320 pages, Paperback
Published October 5, 2023
About the author
Richard Lambert
6 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This is Richard^^Lambert
Richard Lambert was born in London. He has had many different jobs including teaching medieval history and working for the NHS. He currently lives in Norfolk where, when he isn't working, he writes stories and poems. His poetry has featured in the Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator, and The Forward Prize Anthology.
Shadow Town is Richard Lambert's first novel for children and follows his debut YA novel, The Wolf Road.
This is Richard^^Lambert
Richard Lambert was born in London. He has had many different jobs including teaching medieval history and working for the NHS. He currently lives in Norfolk where, when he isn't working, he writes stories and poems. His poetry has featured in the Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator, and The Forward Prize Anthology.
Shadow Town is Richard Lambert's first novel for children and follows his debut YA novel, The Wolf Road.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Did Not Finish
December 25, 2023The Republic of Dreams is a sequel with a promising idea that, I'm afraid, fell through on the execution and led me to DNF it a bit under halfway through after attempting to listen to the audiobook for a month and restarting multiple times, struggling to latch onto the story each time.
Part of the reason for this was the writing. There are a lot of redundant phrases like "think a thought", "smile a smile", "gob filled with a big mouthful of air", "black leather cape made of black leather", "villainous villain" and "thought to himself". I wondered if the copyeditor was rushed or if there wasn't one every time I encountered repetition. That didn't help me stay immersed.
The rest of my difficulty with this book lies with the character development. The characters' emotional backgrounds weren't clear to me. For instance, I didn't know why the main character struggled to be seen as a competent queen. The people in her court insulted her intelligence in such a thinly veiled way that it defied all suspension of disbelief. It was confusing and made it hard for me to engage with the story. A character can run around fantastical environments with a death threat looming over their head for a thousand pages - but until it's clear to me what makes them want to live, I'll struggle to care.
The tone here suggests a middle grade audience, but middle graders need clear emotions in their books as much as any age group. I think a good editor could improve this manuscript dramatically and fix a lot of the things that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.
Laurence Boxhall did a great job narrating the audiobook, and I would check out other titles by him. He made superfluous wording more enjoyable than it would be on paper.
Thanks to the author and Netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Part of the reason for this was the writing. There are a lot of redundant phrases like "think a thought", "smile a smile", "gob filled with a big mouthful of air", "black leather cape made of black leather", "villainous villain" and "thought to himself". I wondered if the copyeditor was rushed or if there wasn't one every time I encountered repetition. That didn't help me stay immersed.
The rest of my difficulty with this book lies with the character development. The characters' emotional backgrounds weren't clear to me. For instance, I didn't know why the main character struggled to be seen as a competent queen. The people in her court insulted her intelligence in such a thinly veiled way that it defied all suspension of disbelief. It was confusing and made it hard for me to engage with the story. A character can run around fantastical environments with a death threat looming over their head for a thousand pages - but until it's clear to me what makes them want to live, I'll struggle to care.
The tone here suggests a middle grade audience, but middle graders need clear emotions in their books as much as any age group. I think a good editor could improve this manuscript dramatically and fix a lot of the things that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.
Laurence Boxhall did a great job narrating the audiobook, and I would check out other titles by him. He made superfluous wording more enjoyable than it would be on paper.
Thanks to the author and Netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 15, 2023
Description from Amazon: "Sixteen-year-old Tamurlaine is approaching her coronation, the day when she will officially assume rule over the Kingdom of Balthasar, a magical land where teenagers have the power to turn dreams into reality. But an assassin is preparing to kill her at the ceremony, and no one can stop him because he is sneaking into Balthasar from another universe – ours.
Tamurlaine must get help from her only friend in our universe, Toby Porter, a 14-year-old boy living in a small town in England. The trouble for Toby is that the coronation is only a week away, and he has no idea where the killer is hiding."
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*Republic of Dreams is book 2 of the Shadow Town series by Richard Lambert.
What happens when the real world and dreams collide? Tamurlaine and her friend Toby are about to find out!
As a rule, I don't generally pick up a book mid series before reading through the books before. With this one, I really had no idea what I was getting into as I didn't realize that it was part of a series. In retrospect, I do believe that I would've benefited from starting from the beginning. I felt that there were a lot of characters and nods to book one that I missed or could have used some additional background on.
Overall, though, I did enjoy the book! It was a fun listen on audio, and the narration was fantastic! The narrator really got into it, and brought the story to life.
🧚🏻A big thanks to NetGalley, Bolinda audio, and author Richard Lambert for providing me with a free audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Tamurlaine must get help from her only friend in our universe, Toby Porter, a 14-year-old boy living in a small town in England. The trouble for Toby is that the coronation is only a week away, and he has no idea where the killer is hiding."
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Republic of Dreams is book 2 of the Shadow Town series by Richard Lambert.
What happens when the real world and dreams collide? Tamurlaine and her friend Toby are about to find out!
As a rule, I don't generally pick up a book mid series before reading through the books before. With this one, I really had no idea what I was getting into as I didn't realize that it was part of a series. In retrospect, I do believe that I would've benefited from starting from the beginning. I felt that there were a lot of characters and nods to book one that I missed or could have used some additional background on.
Overall, though, I did enjoy the book! It was a fun listen on audio, and the narration was fantastic! The narrator really got into it, and brought the story to life.
🧚🏻A big thanks to NetGalley, Bolinda audio, and author Richard Lambert for providing me with a free audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
July 3, 2024
I’ve given this a five, not because it’s perfect, but because I love it when a sequel is even better than the first book, which I also really enjoyed!
I have ‘read’ them both through Audible and I have to say the narration is fantastic, bringing humour and excitement to Richard Lambert’s imaginative tale. It’s like listening to a play!
This could be a stand alone story, but you would get so much more by reading, or even better, listening to, Shadow Town first. The development of the minor characters from the first book coming to the fore in the second, is clever writing and makes for an exciting read. It’s also lovely to hear well written words well read.
Thoroughly recommend.
I have ‘read’ them both through Audible and I have to say the narration is fantastic, bringing humour and excitement to Richard Lambert’s imaginative tale. It’s like listening to a play!
This could be a stand alone story, but you would get so much more by reading, or even better, listening to, Shadow Town first. The development of the minor characters from the first book coming to the fore in the second, is clever writing and makes for an exciting read. It’s also lovely to hear well written words well read.
Thoroughly recommend.
November 5, 2023
I really enjoyed this! It is such a unique concept and really well executed. The main protagonist was quite immature and annoying but went on a great personal journey. Narrator was excellent, too!
Thank you yo NetGalley for my advanced copy.
Thank you yo NetGalley for my advanced copy.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews