Literateur: Brian Lumley's Dreamlands

Confession: I don't always love H.P. Lovecraft.

I love him when he's lovable, but let's be honest- his dream cycle stories are rambling messes. A bunch of random stuff happens and then it's over.

So I was skeptical when I heard Brian Lumley wrote a series set in Lovecraft's dreamland. But then I was blown away by Lumley's take on Lovecraft.

So I gave it a shot and read the first book, "Hero of Dreams":

Well...

It's a rambling mess. A bunch of random stuff happens and then it's over.

I felt like Michael Bluth in "Arrested Development" when he sees the bag marked "Dead Dove" and looks inside the bag. He seas a dead dove, then sighs, wondering why he looked.

The central problem with this book, and Lovecraft's dream stories, is that there are no clear rules or boundaries to the milieu, so anything's possible.

Lumley even admits that the story sucks in the text of the book:

David Hero¹ and Eldin the Wanderer, grown closer now than brothers and questing after- what? But questing, anyway.

And thus a lampshade is hung on the fact that our quest is going nowhere, pretty early in the book.

And when these characters are confronted about the fact that their adventures are pointless, what happens?

"We've roved and robbed half across dreamland, always in search of-"

"In search of?" Borak prompted him. "Of what? Wealth, a good woman, a place to settle, adventure, life...death?"

"All of those things," Eldin snarled., suddenly impatient and curiously peeved by Borak's questioning.

That's what happens. When confronted by the fact that your character's actions are fundamentally pointless, Lumley gets angry and defensive.

I was hoping that this was a confession early in the book that the dream stories are normally pointless and we're about to take a ride that will change our whole perspective on them as Lumley does something very different with the concept. And it starts promising- he discusses dreams from a scientific perspective and it seems like he's about to deconstruct the whole dreamland concept, making me cautiously optimistic.²

But nope. They proceed to have a random adventure where nothing makes sense and there are no clear rules. Our Hero is seeking magic wands to fight back Cthulhu's influence in the dreamland. It's a typical sword-and-sorcery McQuest with typical macguffins. The two main characters- Eldin and Hero- are two solutions in search of a problem. That's bad storytelling.³

There's no suspense or interplay between reality and the dreams, either. Except for in the first couple chapters and an abrupt epilogue, we're just in the dreamland here. There's all kinds of missed potential there. Lumley could have had Hero leave his friend hanging in the dreamland by waking up, then maybe finding himself unable to return to the right spot in his dreams and having to perform some ritual or something to dream the right way. Something like that. Anything. Throw us a bone here!

A huge problem in Lovecraft- weak, reactive protagonists- is fixed here. The main character starts as a very dull Lovecraftian introverted artist, but then he comes to life and gets proactive.

However, the main- and arguably only- strength in Lovecraft's dream stuff is lengthy and vivid descriptions. And Lumley comes up pretty bland in that department. There are plenty of fun elements- crazy wizards, night-gaunts, talking trees- but for a fantasy novel about a dream world, it's surprisingly colorless.

Two key principles this story ignores:

-Sanderson's Second Law: if you want to use magic, you put limits on that magic.

-Orson Scott Card's unofficial fantasy principle: if anything is possible, nothing matters.

Now, this was written before those guys gave that advice- 1986- so Lumley should probably be excused. I'll consider it. He's on probation with me.

On the plus side, a character says this at one point:

"You sex-besotted clown!"

So it's not all bad.

If you liked Lovecraft's tedious and rambling dream stories, here's another one. It's better-written and easier to read than Lovecraft's. So there's that. But you'd be better off reading any of Lumley's "Titus Crow" stories instead. Do that now and thank me later.

* * *

1. Yes, the main character's name is "Hero." I know. Don't get me started.

2. Lumley earned my faith on this matter, as he took stale Lovecraftian tropes and gave them a unique and zazzy spin in his "Titus Crow" tales, such as explaining the anti-monster magic in a scientific way. That was good stuff.

3. They're likeable enough rogues in the tradition of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, but they deserve a better story and setting than this.

-Phony McFakename

* * *

Legal disclaimer: Me am on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and even Pinterest if that's your thing. And me books am on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Kobo and probably some other places, too.