NEW
RELEASE
Dream Caster: Book One of The Dream Cycle
by
Najeev Raj Nadarajah
Description
Life couldn't
possibly get any worse. Or could it?
Haunted by memories
of his massacred settlement, sixteen year old Weaver seeks cover in a hidden
refuge among the remains of a ruined city once known as Toronto. In the midst
of building a new life, Weaver discovers he can do something strange: cast dreams
into reality. Convinced it’s just an anomaly, Weaver ignores it. That is until
he learns of a mysterious man who harnesses the ability to animate nightmares
into existence; the very man who ruined his world. The peaceful life Weaver
hoped for begins to unravel as waves of chaos begin to break loose about him.
In a race against time, Weaver must learn to cast aside his denial of being a
dream caster to master the accursed ability that has befallen him, before his
new home is destroyed and humanity’s pushed to the brink of extinction.
Life couldn’t
possibly get any worse. Or perhaps, it could...
Excerpt
Weaver
woke without rising and lay still with his eyes shut. The warm hay felt soothing to the touch. I could
lie here all day, thought Weaver. How
swell that would be, to enjoy a day without having to put up with Ruben’s
nonsense. He smiled inwardly as the
notion of ridding himself of Ruben delighted his thoughts.
Eyes
closed, he rolled onto his back and flinched as the swelling bruise on his
chest ached where that girl had hit him before tossing him to the ground. Weaver suspected that she’d snuck up from the
side while he was distracted by the doe and swung the shaft of her spear into
his midsection.
Who are you and where did you come from? He
pondered.
Rubbing
his chest to ease the pain, Weaver sighed then inhaled deeply. A burn ripped through his lungs and he rolled
over coughing. His body wracked with coughs
as it tried to clear his lungs. That was
when he heard the panicked whinnying of horses.
Weaver kneeled and looked around to see a dense black fog creep in
through the cracks of the thatched ceiling.
Smoke? He had only heard of smoke in stories told on
hollows eve, but now in its presence, he was almost at a loss for what to
do. Get
out of here you fool, his mind screamed at him as it recalled memories of
the stories he had heard from elders in the past. Where
there’s smoke, there’s sure to be…
Weaver
broke through the rear door and backed away from the stable. Thick clouds of black smoke swirled above and
suffocated the late afternoon sky as a rumbling roar rose above the screams and
whinnying of horses. Weaver raised his
cloak above his mouth and lowered his head as he rushed back into the
stable. The horses danced and kicked in
frightened panic. One by one, he ran
down the aisle and opened the latches to the stalls as he made his way towards
the front door. The horses broke through
the stable door just as Weaver slipped out and into a world thrown into chaos.
Orange
and yellow flames licked the roofs of houses all about as screams of terror
rose and swelled above the roar of the flames.
Thick clouds of smoke suffocated the afternoon light, casting darkness
upon the settlement where the flames had yet to spread.
Fear
gripped Weaver and held his legs rooted where he stood. Fire tore through the dark expanse above and
a deep deafening chorus of howls broke out in the distance.
He
watched as people ran between the narrow streets, blood and ashes painting
their faces. An unrecognizable corpse
lay sprawled on the ground, a burning wooden plank lying above the broken
body. A woman sat resting against a
post, her body burnt beyond recognition.
Weaver began moving in a daze, unable to comprehend the terror that
unravelled around him.
Another
man’s body lay charred and broken, beside him lay a smouldering walking
stick. Ruben…Weaver faltered in his steps.
A pang of loss washed through Weaver, regretting the last thoughts he’d
had of the man who had raised him.
Snapping out of his state, Weaver shook his head in disbelief and ran
into the heart of the settlement, ran from the pain of loss, ran towards the turmoil
to help save the lives of others.
Dead...so many dead! His mind screamed at him as he ran till he
came upon a wounded man kneeling hunched on the ground. “CAPTAIN!”
Weaver yelled as he ran to his aid.
“What — what are you still doing
here?” Captain Sim asked through laboured breaths. “You must get out, now! Go, run!”
“Captain
—”
“Listen
to me,” the captain cut Weaver off before he could begin. “Listen to me, Weaver. Get out of the settlement as fast as you
can,” he drew a deep breath to ease the pain.
“Get out and get as far away as possible...towards the river. Further if you must. Just go!”
“I can
help, believe me Captain, I can help.”
“You
must help yourself, Weaver. Get out and
as far away as you can. It’s
here...Weaver, you have to run!”
“I don’t
understand, what’s here?”
“The
hounds,” Captain Sim choked out as he pointed towards a distant shadow of
growing smoke. “Go, now!”
Weaver
looked towards the smoke and watched as from its depths, out stepped a hound
wreathed in shadow and flames. Spittle
of liquid fire salivated from its mouth, burning the ground beneath it as it
growled low and menacingly deep. Its
flaming eyes locked on the captain as it began prowling forward, gathering
speed as it honed in on its victim.
The big
man stood and shoved Weaver away, drawing his punishing rod. “Good bye, Weaver,” he choked out as he
turned to face his fate.
The last
Weaver saw before he turned and fled was the captain raising his rod and
rushing in to meet his doom. Weaver
turned just in time to see the Hearing Hall crumble as a pack of fiery hounds
tossed their weight in through the stone walls to the frightening screams of
the women and children that hid within.
Tears flowed down Weaver’s face as he turned and sped through a maze of
houses and as far away as he could till he came upon the southern border where
the stable stood smoking.
Weaver
dropped to his knees and panted. What do I do? His mind screamed in fear and agony. He looked up to see black beady eyes with
fluttering long lashes staring back at him.
Hazel, thought Weaver as he
saw the young colt standing by the edge of the stable, afraid to make a mad
dash as she had once done on a fine summer day, five years before.
A growl
made him turn as a hound leaped through the fire and landed in the clearing
leading up to the stable. Another hound
followed, dragging the burning carcass of horse with its powerful jaws. Hazel panicked and reared, turning to flee
just as Weaver ran towards her and climbed onto her unsaddled back.
“RUN GIRL!” Weaver shouted into her ears
as he lay flat and hugged her neck.
With
three powerful strides, Hazel took off south across the grasslands towards the
thickets that stood a distance away by the frozen river. Weaver peeked over his shoulder and saw the
hounds as they took off leaping by the stable, setting the place ablaze with
their passing. “RUN GIRL, RUN!”
Weaver continued to shout, trying to lend Hazel speed to outrun the
accursed beasts.
The
pounding of Hazel’s frantic pace rattled Weaver, adding to the throbbing
headache. He tried to look back over his
shoulders, but a sudden turn in Hazel’s path sent his head spinning. Weaver felt his fingers slip and the
dizziness mixed with the headache overwhelmed his focus. He felt Hazel dart and turn one last time
before emptiness rushed in to take her place.
Weaver
hit the ground hard and tumbled to a stop.
The black sky spun about him, darkening till all light was extinguished
and Weaver saw no more.
Review
By Sinthu
What are the three
most popular genres? Young adult, paranormal/fantasy, and dystopian fiction.
Now, take all three,
commercialize it, add a great story line, several pinches of moments that hint
at a very, very deep back story, a list of great characters, a lot of suspense,
and a great mystery... and there we have it: Dream Caster. A very spectacular young adult dystopian fantasy
novel.
I enjoyed Weaver's
character development from naïve, uncertain, worried, to showing signs of
growing into his strengths.
Toggen is absolutely
bad ass. This guy would be a great character to watch on screen. Secondary
character Dell was hilarious. I really enjoyed the scenes he was a part of.
About the Author
At first, when asked what inspired him to write, Najeev Raj Nadarajah
excitedly spoke of that one faithful winter day when he picked up a copy of
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
and fell in love with the fantasy genre. But upon further reflection, he wound
back the clock to the autumn of 1991 when he was first introduced to Robert
McConnell's classic children's book, Norbert
Nipkin.
With a lack of cable television and video
games, Nadarajah turned to reading books and watching fantastical films as his
pastime. If you are looking for the spark that blossomed into what is now his
love for writing and storytelling, look no further.
At first, Nadarajah failed to find the
confidence and belief in himself to succeed. Fortunately, giving up was also
not in his nature. Nadarajah struggled through high school, often day-dreaming
in class, then went on to stumble about through a number of degrees and
diplomas while attending a few post-secondary institutions. However, through
all his ups and downs, he always dreamt and hoped of one day becoming a world
renowned author.
For four long years, he worked on a manuscript to an epic fantasy novel
called Helmdör which he poured all of
his free time and energy into. Countless rejections later, discouraged, and at
the end of his line, Nadarajah self-published and soon discarded the novel out
of frustration knowing that he could do loads better. Failure after failure,
mixed with years of ill-fortune soon led to many sleepless nights and countless
bad dreams.
It was while struggling to find his way through life, and while
struggling to find an original idea that he found his way to the University of
Toronto, St George Campus in downtown Toronto where he landed a job as a
security guard at the Robarts Library. Two weeks later, awoken by yet another
nightmare, Nadarajah left behind the discomforts of his bed and made his way to
work a few hours ahead of schedule to clear his mind of a post-apocalyptic
vision. It was while walking about the streets of the campus that his original
idea struck him as if it had always been harboring in the back of his mind,
waiting for the right moment to present itself. And that's how Dream Caster came into existence. Within
mere weeks, four novels were planned in the series, and Najeev Raj Nadarajah
has not looked back since.
Nadarajah continues to live in Toronto,
Ontario, and continues to work at the University of Toronto. He still lacks
cable television, prefers books over video games, and still enjoys reading
fantasy classics and watching movies with all forms of fantastical elements.
When not reading and writing, Nadarajah plays hockey, trains and plays with his
cockatiels, and continues to go on random escapades that leaves others
scratching their heads.
Dream Caster: Book One of
The Dream Cycle was officially released on 19 December. It will be followed by Dreamweaver: Book Two of The Dream Cycle
in March 2013.
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