The Chains of Sleep

by Fay Sampson

Fantasy on the Scilly Isles, as Sarah and Lew wake an old power.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Fay Sampson graduated in Mathematics, and trained as a teacher. Combining teaching with writing, Fay's children's books were frequently featured in 'Children's Books of the Year'. When she became a full-time writer, she turned to writing novels for adults, based on history and legend. She now lives with her husband in a Tudor cottage in mid-Devon.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a price to be paid for the fulfilling of a dream.
Sarah was no dreamer. Until she came to the Isles of Scilly. . . . There she met Lew, son of an island boatman, who dreamed of restoring life to an uninhabited island. And Mr. Burrows, moving from one unfulfilled dream to another, until he saw the last and most impossible dream of all. And Sarah decided to help him make it come true.
But although the others tried to warn her, she still did not realise how dangerous it would be to awaken that dream.

Jacket design by Richard Kelly
Photograph by Frank Gibson ISBN 0234722509, Dobson, 1981.

Somewhere out there is the ideal reader for this book:
-They are young enough to relate to Sarah Hope, (presumably in her early- to mid-teens) on the Isles of Scilly with her parents for a summer vacation.
-They are well-read in the classics and know much of Celtic and Grecian mythology (bonus if you know who Instantius and Priscillianus were - I didn't).
-They dabble in archaeology, ornithology and cartography (possibly botany, though it's not Sarah's thing).
-And they don't mind a little 'magical realism' seeping into their folk horror novellas.

I'm afraid I'm not skilled enough to write an encapsulating review without utterly spoiling the entire plot. I can say that part of this (not the beginning) reminded me of the first chapters of the final installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy (The Amber Spyglass, though not the bits about the titular amber spyglass (except perhaps the murderous white seabirds, but that's just a funny coincidence!); it's the other Stygian bits... yep, the creepy stuff). Actually, now that I've cast my mind that way, Lew Venn and Sarah Hope have a similar sort of uneasy camraderie to that of Will and Lyra in the early days. This book is only 121 pages long, though, so their relationship doesn't have much time or space to develop either way.

It's an interesting blend of at least two mythologies, which may well be interconnected but seem so spatially and chronologically distant to each other that I had problems melding the two (that might just be me - anaemic in re: classics, I'm afraid). Again, it's a short book, and it's written along the same lines as A Blaze of Summer (which I hated): angsty teenagers (though thankfully less sexual tension and more plot here), ancient and creepy local mythology, summer vacation. This one is just so much stronger, though: archaeology is better (sites, finds - though still lacking sufficient accuracy for this nerd), setting is better (Sampson set it in the real Isles of Scilly, and though I've yet to go, I now have had a helpful introduction to them), mythology is legit (while I did know the basis at least of what was referred to sometimes directly, othertimes obliquely, I still had to think back to Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold for context).

I personally dislike 'magical realism' (it's like fast-food fantasy, where 'artistic license' gets stretched beyond credibility for laziness' sake, to my mind!), and so I'll make sure I reiterate the proviso that this story descends into it during the climax and you should be comfortable with that format (at least, I'm mostly sure it constitutes MR. I wouldn't have minded a clearly framed duality here, post-hoc, but because it was all left open to interpretation, I felt that familiar repulsive unstable feeling I get when I'm forced to endure MR). I'm pretty sure no one but me has this issue, so take my warning with a grain of salt - it fit with the story regardless of how it went down. ;)

A short, fantastical read recommended to anyone who has read and enjoyed The Silmarillion and/or The Amber Spyglass and who is interested in the mythology and ancient history of the Isles of Scilly. (No, this didn't quite make the content cut for the "Arthurian YA" list, if you were wondering. But if you're into all things Arthurian, this might still be of supplementary interest due to setting). There's a place name I'd like to throw out, which may constitute a mild spoiler: Tír na nÓg is topical. So if you're into the mythology of that, this is a good one. ;)

A weak 3.5 (ending is abrupt - reads like a short story in a light horror collection), rounded up because I liked the setting, subject, and the characters.

And the adverts at the end of my copy are:

Fay Sampson

The Watch on Patterick Fell
Set in the very near future, this topical novel is concerned with the increasingly urgent problem of what to do with accumulated nuclear waste.
Elspeth and Roger's father was in charge of Patterick Fell, the centre to which this waste would come. When public opinion turned against the centre, and people demanded that it be closed Elspeth and Roger find themselves in the middle of a terrifying adventure.
ISBN 0 234 72077 8

Landfall On Innis Michael
In this exciting sequel to The Watch on Patterick Fell, an international group of teenagers unite in a race tht becomes more dangerous than they had planned.
ISBN 0 234 72201 0