The Rainbow Opera by Elizabeth Knox (called Dreamhunter in the American edition) was one of those books I wanted to immediately recommend to everyone I knew -- but I didn't, because it ended on a cliff-hanger. Don't you hate it when books are published that way? I'm fine with trilogies and series, as long as each book ends properly in addition to being part of a larger story. But a book that just stops in the middle of a story is not a novel. It's half a novel.
Now, at last, the other half has been published: The Dream Quake (called Dreamquake in America). And now that we have the entire story (coyly dubbed "The Dreamhunter Duet" by its publishers), it's safe to proclaim that Elizabeth Knox's Young Adult fiction is every bit as good as her adult novels. And considering how good her adult novels are, that's saying something.
Reviewing The Dream Quake in The Independent, James Urquhart notes: "The nearest useful comparison to Knox's conceptual framework is Philip Pullman's Northern Lights, which also explores social power and control in the context of other possible quantum universes. Pullman's Lyra makes a heroically persistent warrior perhaps because, at 11, she is still a child and not constrained by the angst and awareness of a proto-adolescent sophistication. Knox's prose may have sacrificed subtlety for pace (rightly so), but determined, mid-teenage Laura Hame still agonises over her decision-making in the face of hostile social forces, and her travails are in keeping with the stresses and strains of emergent maturity. The Dream Quake is taut with emotional tripwires and, without adding too much didactic freight, nourishes the uplifting idea that you can change your own fate by taking responsibility for your actions and choices -- an idea that roots just as well in adolescent and adult sensibilities." (Read the full article here.)
I love Knox's adult novels, particularly Black Oxen. Glad to hear her novels for children are also good. I had been hesitating to read them, but will give them a try.
Posted by: Jon | April 03, 2007 at 05:40 AM
I have just finished"Dream Hunter" and am going out to buy "Dreamquake"straight away. Knox is a wonderful writer. I have a 10 week old baby and even chronic sleep deprivation could not keep me from staying up and finishing this book!
Posted by: shannon garson | May 13, 2007 at 10:59 PM