In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound

by Bradley Blankenship

In lost dreams the four were bound: the ancient friend lulled by comfortable melancholy, the jilted lover bent to sisterly duty, the prideful brother jailed in bloody ambition, all while Virage slept trapped in nightmare...

For over three hundred years, a tribe of elvish Hyunisti talvuo has lingered in somber isolation deep within the giant trees and briar trails of the Lorinian Witchwood. Within their treetop village, the burdens of four outsiders underscore a chain of catastrophes eyed by watchers from afar. These chains weigh upon them, each a strand of past friendship, starcrossed love, resentment, and tragedy.

While the outsiders toil beneath their ambitions, the rites of spring herald cascading changes for the forest folk. With four days remaining, suspense clings to the village. Yet beneath the anticipation, an abominable evil stirs. Its promise of freedom lures the cursed villagers to play to its manic tune. Its insatiable hunger threatens to devour all it touches.

Can the four dreamers weather the coming storm?

Or are they destined to be consumed by the horrific madness welling from the depths of the forest?

Fantasy, mystery, swords, and sorcery await you in In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound, the first book in the "Genean Chronicles" and part of the larger "Remi's Cross Saga" universe.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy

476 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2020

About the author

Bradley R. Blankenship is a first-time author working on multiple manuscripts while taking his big leap into self-publishing. The stories he loves to tell blend elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and thrillers. Though he maintains several wikis of knowledge about worlds and ideas from unpublished short stories and novellas, his ambition is to craft a series of books set in his larger world setting, the Remi's Cross Saga.

At an early age, Brad found his passion for reading while struggling through instruction manuals and onscreen text with his favorite video games Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda. As he grew up, he poured over every fantasy novel he could get while enjoying the self-same attractions that drew him into stories both as a concept and device for expression. In high school, this transitioned into writing small screenplays and dramas to portray during late-night tabletop sessions. These ideas then transformed into his first short stories and novellas in college, culminating in a need to express the worlds and adventures in his mind.

Brad finds much of his inspiration in video games, anime, a broad spectrum of fiction, and mythology. He enjoys trying new writing techniques, telling stories from different perspectives, and worldbuilding.

He currently resides in Seattle, WA, with his girlfriend Ami and two cats, Edgar and Irkalla.

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Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free review copy of In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review - my sincerest thanks to both the author and the publisher. :)

This book sadly fell very flat for me. The writing in terms of its description of people, places, things, etc is well done. The story itself is a bit of a soap opera-esque confusing mess. The really strange practices of the main race to my own societal sensibilities as well.

The biggest thing that stood out to me was very early on in the book one of the main characters is established. This character is a philanderer that uses alcohol to coerce his conquests. Fine, no issues yet in terms of things that bother me literature wise. Then it is quickly established that he plied a young child's care taker with alcohol to have sex with her, in front of the child. Red Flag. Then it is proceeded to be revealed that he invites her over on her own any time. Um...what?!

Young child tells her adoptive mother what happened. The exact words she thinks are:
"But Elis [Child's Adoptive Mother] would have to wait till later to confront and draw lines with Nerin [Adult making advances on child]. She [Adoptive mother] didn't care if he had his way with every woman in the village, but such gestures directed at her ward was trespassing upon sacred ground."

OK HOL' UP. This adult is soliciting a child with alcohol and the thought process is "This can wait." Never mind that but to this reader the part I quoted above from her adoptive mother makes it sound like sex with children is a normal part of their society. That for me personally is not what I want to read about in my free time. I would even understand or not mind from a literature sense if such a thing happened and she immediately marched into Nerin's chambers and string him up by his testicles. But nope, it's something that just isn't that big of a deal to this race/species.

Beyond that there is a ton of mental hand wringing, almost soap opera levels, of inner dialogue which was incredibly annoying as a mechanic for world building or plot progression.

The fight scenes and the end is very well done, just a shame these were weighed down with an incredibly slow start, a real outta left field hit early on with the whole species being cool with bedding children, and pages upon pages of internal dialogue.

[BooksCoffee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bleak dystopian landscape provides an evocative backdrop for characters obsessed with lust, power, duty, and death in Blankenship’s gripping In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound, the first book in the Genean Chronicles and part of the larger Remi's Cross Saga universe.

Nerin Delvori is still struggling to come to terms with his humanoid alien’s race’s gradual disintegration into obliviousness, but an ancient, trapped evil has promised him power in exchange for its freedom. However, the infamous humanoid monster, Virage, though gravely injured and unconscious, stands in Neris’s way. And the darkness has its own plans.

Blankenship has a knack for both plot and character, and readers will easily immerse themselves in Neris, Elis, and Davnian’s world. Under Blankenship's skilled depiction, these characters materialize, revealing their inner turmoil, fears, and apprehensions. Neris with her strength and integrity and her compassion even when the personal cost is high remains an endearing protagonist. Elis with her grit and determination makes for a worthy heroine. Virage is the monster every player fear, and though he remains a likable and almost reluctant hero in the beginning, the lurking evil underneath adds a ominous sense of intrigue and doom to his dark and fascinating personality. Lord Orhan is the very embodiment of mean-spiritedness. GH – 199076492, though doesn’t have much space in the story, is a fully realized character.

Blankenship’s stream of consciousness narrative (in case of Davnian) is particularly effective, and the dream sequences bring his inner turmoil to life with an eerie quality. Blankenship combines science fiction and fantasy against a darkly intriguing backdrop, and his evocative worldbuilding is created with precision and lush details. The shadowy, myth-laden Lorinian Witchwood with it allure and dark intrigue comes out alive in the reader’s mind whereas the gritty, unfriendly futuristic alien world hums with frostiness, evoking a sense of grim desolation.

The descriptions of battle and trauma are graphic, and Blankenship enhances the action with moments of deep emotive introspections, creating a story filled with a rich understanding of human darkness and light. He maintains a steady pace throughout: the swiftly paced story pulls readers in while setting up what promises to be a shocking final confrontation.

This well-crafted novel, with its memorable protagonists and intriguing blend of SF, fantasy, mystery, swords, and sorcery delivers on all levels.

Fantasy lovers with large appetites will be gripped.

[Louis C]

DNF at 37%

In lost dreams, the four were bound by Bradley Blankenship blends genres together, such as fantasy and scifi and a bit of horror and mystery. This is why it caught my attention since I do have a soft spot for stories that do this, and so expand the idea of what defines a genre.

However, I do feel like that was also the downfall of the book. At the start, it very much read like a scifi book, later on it got more fantasy like and the little bit of mystery and horror there was, kept feeling the same. This might be why the story moved so slow. Not that I mind a slower paced story, but in this scenario it didn’t work out, and there might be another reason for it.

The character. There were so many, and it was hard for me to keep them apart. They all felt very much the same to me. Even though I liked the fact that they blended in nicely with the world and so many social things could be explained with them, the characters themselves and their motivation and relationships with each other, felt bland and kept confusing me. I wonder if it would help if there was a page dedicated to the characters and who they are + terms used in the world.

Overall, I’m sad I didn’t like this book since it contained elements I normally like. The world does seem interesting and I would love to read more in depth about it, but in this case I couldn’t enjoy it due the confusion with the characters and the way the story never really felt like it picked up and was going anywhere.

[litandcoffee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blankenship fills his expensive sword-and-sorcery series opener with intrigue, mystery, courageous heroes, and intimidating villains.

Nerin Delvori dreams of united talvuo people, a humanoid alien race, under his proud talvuo lineage. With the help of an ancient, trapped evil, Nerin’s dream can come true, but the infamous humanoid monster Virage has the power to destroy Nerin’s plan. When Virage is suddenly found, severely injured and comatose, Nerin plans to kill him and secure his victory. With nothing else but haunted dreams and muddled memories to go, Virage must reconstruct his past and face the malevolent enemy.

The large cast becomes overwhelming at times and the complex backstories of various characters take time to untangle, but Blankenship’s expert grip on plotting and his ear for dialogue make sure the reader stays invested throughout. Blankenship’s futuristic humanoid alien world is as compelling as the ancient tribe of elvish Hyunisti talvuo that lingers deep within the giant trees and briar trails of the Lorinian Witchwood.

His knack for building characters with pathos and wit, his immersive dystopian world, and stellar prose draw readers along while building up the shocking final showdown.

With its impressive blend of sci-fi and fantasy, this dark tale is sure to impress.

[cathán]

DNF at 13%

I don't have a lot to say about this book, so my apologies for this very short review.

The first chapter already confused me a lot. It was totally not the same energy as I got from the blurb, which was disappointing because it seemed really promising.

After that first chapter, the energy changed to something completely different. I liked that a bit more.

When I read some more of it, I completely lost focus on what the story was even telling me. I had no clue what I was reading. And it sure didn't help that the character pov's changed very often, but all the characters felt the same, and that made it hard to keep them apart.

Maybe I would've liked it more if I kept reading, but since it took so much energy to try to understand what was going on, I decided to stop.

[Iris Marsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book as a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

And, honestly: this book wasn’t for me. It did have some good parts, especially the world-building and the plot, but it was a tad too confusing for me. I think the story just has a bit too many elements to really work (but that’s just my opinion, of course).

I don’t actually really know how even to describe what the story is about. But I’ll give it a try. We start the story in a sort of space-ship, where some virus attacks an AI. The people on board, one of which is Maximillian, captures the being that infiltrated their system. They’re after an entity they call the ‘Virage.’

Then we shift to a people who call themselves the ‘Hyunisti,’ who are suffering under a curse. They live in a place in the forest and live there quite peacefully. Elis is one of the few Talvuo (the Hyunisti race) who is from before the curse and has a longer life. Then two strangers come to their village, a brother and sister called Neris and Nerin (yes, even those names were too confusing in the beginning, because they’re so similar). Not too long after, another stranger arrived, who was wounded and needed care. This stranger was no other than the Virage. Neris and Elis take it upon themselves to heal the Virage, while Nerin is up to some scheming to take over the Hyunisti village. And this plan of his turns out to be quite dangerous and possibly disastrous. But can they actually stop it? And who exactly is this Virage? And will they ever be able to lift the curse from their people?

Those are the main question of the story, I think. But the way it’s told is often quite confusing. There were times where I thought I got it, but then this sort of dream-like chapter came, and it confusing again. While from the title, I understood that dreaming would be a factor; it didn’t seem all that coherent. And then with the added sci-fi element of the AI’s and the ‘other world’ people… it was just too much.

Another thing that wasn’t really my cup of tea was the constant sexual manipulation. It seemed that pretty much every chapter was about sex in some way. I don’t mind sex in books, but I felt it was used too often to get something or to advance the plot.

And the story was quite long, a lot longer than I felt it needed to be. It dragged quite a few times, with added details that I don’t think actually mattered that much to the plot. We saw several people’s background through dreams or visions where it wouldn’t have been necessary (or less of it would’ve sufficed).

Oh, and it’s actually the first book of a series, which I didn’t realize before I started reading. But I won’t be reading the next books.

For this and other reviews, click here.