Jack London’s cousin writes a heartwarming, young adult story about the glory of life. It is also a heart-pounding adventure to a new and strange world.
Joe Blake is a college football player and has a loving family. He has been living a fantastic life until he has a horrible car accident that puts him in a coma and holds him at the verge of death. As his family sits by his side, pulling for him to make it, they don't realize that he is trapped in a dream world. A world where he must fight with every ounce of strength to survive, a world where there is only one way for him to return to his life on earth. Be prepared to be drawn into the realm of the Dream Wanderer. Dream Wanderer has mind-boggling, unique animals, creatures, swamps, deserts, volcanoes, plants, dinosaurs, castles, robots, a robot city, daring adventures, and very distinct, vivid landscapes as Joe Blake tries to escape the dream world that he is trapped in. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQQPHFP5
Excerpt
I would like to dedicate this novel to all those who have been injured in car accidents caused by someone driving under the influence of alcohol. A DUI accident causes so much pain and suffering, not only to those injured physically, but also to the victim’s family and friends. I urge people to please make the choice to not drive after drinking and to choose a designated driver.
Professional Reviews
To sleep, perchance to dream...
4.0 out of 5 stars To sleep, perchance to dream...
In author Boyd Thomas London's first novel, 'Creeton', he addressed the stresses of the post-9-11 world, and looked for visions of hope in the midst of stress and terror by developing a classic tale of friendship and cooperation with a task of saving the world - that story begins and ends with two friends, John Brown and Dave Miller, two young men who have an adventure of interplanetary dimensions inadvertently thrust upon them while out on a hiking trip. They are transported to a different place, one where many of the lessons of earth, and many of the failings, have not come about, but where some of the experiences of the human race are now needed.
In this second novel, Boyd Thomas London keeps the youth-oriented focus on the people represented in the novel - the main character here is Joe Blake, a college football player with a life that is almost too good to be true, and a very promising future. This would seem to be cut short when he is involved in an automobile accident that leaves him comatose. This would seem to be the end of the story, but in fact is not, for it is in the dream world that is generated by Blake's comatose condition that the real story of this novel is played out.
Boyd Thomas London lives in Idaho; a distant relative of the famous American writer Jack London, the ideas of adventure and the geography of the West are always implicit if not explicit in the younger London's writing as it was in the elder's. The idea of dream wandering and dream journeys holding importance for young people is a significant one among many Native America peoples, which has influenced London's writing style here.
In the narrative, we encounter Joe Blake's real family, and the real-time events occurring after the accident (the trip to the hospital, etc.) as well as the dream-happenings that Blake's subconscious/unconscious mind navigates. It is a vivid and eventful imagination, with creatures live and created, colourful and exotic, often surreal, but always leading Blake forward.
There are some lessons here. The first is of the importance of family and community that transcends lesser concerns in life - one can imagine that Joe Blake's awakening is similar to that of the unconscious Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, having learned much on her imaginative, dream-wandering journey to carry back home, too.
Perhaps the best audience for this tale would be young people - mid-to-late teenagers, to be precise. Like his earlier novel, the language here is easy to read and understand, without too many technical terms. The plot development is for the most part linear, with some bouncing back and forth between hospital/real-world and dream-sequence. Despite the dream-land aspect, it is without too many psychological twists or subtle aspects to confuse the reader. While this might limit its appeal to those looking for a higher mark of literature akin to the elder author Jack London, it does get the younger London's message through rather more clearly about the important things in life.
Dream Wanderer has a strong beginning that immediately creates a yearning within the reader to learn what happens to Joe Blake. Through character description we learn of Joe’s parents (both teachers) and his precocious first grade little sister, who Joe hopes throughout the book he will be reunited with soon.
Dream Wanderer is a small book aimed at the school-aged group starting around third or fourth grade and beyond, truly engages the reader of all ages to become involved. Joe has been in a bad car accident and as he tumbles into a coma, he thinks of his parents and siblings as he asks one of the best questions of the book – “What is this place? Am I dead?” It is shortly thereafter that Joe puts on a sword, belt, and sheath that he finds amongst “the pile of bones.” The rest of the story has Joe trying to awaken and escape many monsters, creatures, and adventures – some jam-packed with adventure.
Joe’s dad, Dave, recalls the sickening outcome that has come to light and searches for a way to come to terms with it. “As Dave gazes at his helpless and hurt son, he wonders why this had to happen. The driver who ran into him was killed. His blood alcohol content was well over the legal driving limit. As he stares at his dying son, he begins to burn with anger.” No accident is a good thing, but when someone is legally responsible based on foolish drinking and driving, the accident is raised to a higher element. One which never should have happened.
Joe has learned that he must find a portal to return home, so he sets out hunting for a portal and in the meantime, he runs into creatures, monsters, and more, such as moving walls and floors, vivid colors and beautiful scenes which include “bubbling ponds of strangely colored waters…” as they look for Robot City. The entire book is full of mystifying and magnificent colors and characters that entertain the mind & memories as you hop from wall to wall while the panels go up and down, similar to a Gameboy game where the walls move around, going up and down. This immediately brought my mind to the floors and walls thereof, with the character jumping from post to post. Joe is in a dream world that he can’t exit and has to continually fight off “things” that want to do him harm, and all he wants is to wake up and come out of this world alive.
Joe thinks how “he never thought the same abilities that let him run and move rapidly in football would be saving his life.” Although I enjoyed the references to football matching something within the storyline, some phrases were somewhat over-used, but they were fun. This is a creative, fun-filled, fantasy, young-at-heart storyline that comes across as very family-oriented.
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