Dreams Made Flesh

A collection of four short(er) stories featuring the characters from Bishop's BLACK JEWELS TRILOGY. "Weaver of Dreams" is the only truly short one among them; it clocks in at eight pages, and deals with the formation of the Blood and their magic. "The Prince of Ebon Rih," which is long enough to be considered a shortish novel in its own right, describes how Marian came into things. "Zuulaman" relates an episode from Saetan's past. "Kaeleer's Heart" takes up soon after the end of QUEEN OF THE DARKNESS.

I love these books to death. I'm sure people think I'm kidding when I describe them as literary crack, but this is yet another chunkster that I knocked back in a single day. Do you know how rarely I do that? They're crack, I tell you. Crack show more with fancy matte covers.

I'll admit, I was a little leery going in. I'd heard some conflicting things about the stories, but I'm pleased to report that I loved them all. I mean, "Weaver of Dreams" was rather brief, but it was still interesting. "Zuulaman" broke my heart. And I really, really, really liked both "The Prince of Ebon Rih" and "Kaeleer's Heart."

I must admit, I love a good romance. I don't read many books marketed as romance, but I'm a total sucker for romantic subplots in other sorts of books. The two longest stories are romances, rife with misunderstandings and dancing aroundness and all that good stuff. (Also, communication, which is nice to see. I know books wouldn't be as tense and interesting if everyone would just communicate, but still. I like it when it happens... provided there's been a misunderstanding or two beforehand, of course). I mean, they've got a few corny romance tropes, too, (a few? Ha!), and I'd normally have rolled my eyes at some of the stuff that goes down, but I love these characters so much that I did not care. I was just happy to spend some more time with them. I teared up, I giggled, I grinned with delight, and I enjoyed myself very, very much.

There's also a fair amount of Surreal in the last story. I love the hell out of Surreal. I was also pleased to see Bishop address a couple of gender issues that I felt were missing from the trilogy. And I really got the feeling that she had fun writing this; that she genuinely enjoys working with these characters. That makes all the difference sometimes.

So yes. I loved this, and I highly recommend it to those of you who've read the trilogy. I'm sorry I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it, and I hope to remedy that error pretty durned soon.

(A slightly longer version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). show less

This is definitely not the book I'd start with if you're new to Anne Bishop or her Dark Jewels series, but if you're a fan of the trilogy, I'd definitely recommend this book. I've heard this book compared to fan fiction, not in a disparaging sense, but because of its function in filling some notable gaps in the trilogy you might be curious about, bits of backstory.

It's a meaty book with two out of the four stories novel-length: "The Prince of Ebon Rih" and "Kaeleer's Heart." The first tells the love story of Lucifar and Marian and how they got together--a fairly standard, fluffy romance. The second is set in the immediate aftermath to the trilogy, and deals with the nature of Twilight's Dawn answering some lingering questions from show more Queen of the Darkness. I found both stories an engaging read. I was less enamored of the opening story, "Weaver of Dreams" but it is very short and is from an interesting point of view. "Zuulaman," of novelette length, is a chilling tale of Saetan's past.

This anthology is akin to fan fiction in another sense; I'd definitely call this book only for those already fans of the Dark Jewels tales, but that's not to put it down--those who enjoyed the other books wouldn't want to miss this one. show less

It feels like these short stories were, at one point, intended to be components of the main trilogy storyline but, because they are self-contained and somewhat independent of the novels' stories, they could easily be pulled out and put into their own book, rather than cluttering up a very nice 3-book storyline.

My only complaint is that when you read the 3rd book of the series, it would have made more sense to have read the 2nd story in this book first. But, of course, you can't read the 3rd story in this book before reading the 3rd book in the trilogy first.... but, other than story number 2, the other 3 flow nicely together...oh, the wild webs Bishop wove!

It's background info anyway, which is interesting enough, if not as timely as I show more would have preferred, but then, I'm a big believer in reading stories in the order in which they occur, not the order in which they were written.

If you care about any of the main characters, you should probably read this book too, especially if you want to find out what happened to Jaenelle after the end of the trilogy. show less

88 points/100 (4.5 stars/5).

Dreams Made Flesh is made of four novellas titled Weaver of Dreams, The Prince of Ebon Rih, Zuulaman, and Kaeleer's Heart. If you're looking for more after the events of the trilogy, you should read The Prince of Ebon Rih, which takes place between books two and three (filling in that huge gap in the narrative), and Kaeleer's Heart, which takes place immediately after Queen of the Darkness. However, I suspect you'll read the entire book. Weaver of Dreams is tiny (more like a short story), it only took me about 10 minutes to read, and Zuulaman is something you'll want to read after reading The Prince of Ebon Rih.

Weaver of Dreams

60 points/100 (3.25 stars/5).

A spider looks to figure out what she can pass her show more powers of dream weaving on to.

This was weird. I was very confused at first. Hell, I'm still confused! Set in the very, very distant past, long before even Saetan was born. It was very, very short. Despite all that, I actually liked it. It doesn’t add much to the world, but it was super interesting to see. It was weird.

The Prince of Ebon Rih

86 points/100 (4.5 stars/5).

Set between books two and three of the trilogy, this novella fills in some of the (noticeably missing) gaps in the trilogy. This is the story of how Lucivar and Marian get together.

This was an amazingly cute novella. I loved it. It is during a downtime in the story, where nothing is important. Everyone is just figuring out their lives, or at least what their lives are going to be like now that Jaenelle is Queen. We get to see sides of Lucivar and Jaenelle that we never really got to see before because everything was so serious. And we got to see Marian at all since she wasn’t really much of a character in the trilogy.

I always like in novellas for author to focus on the daily life of the characters. I can probably count the number of novellas on one hand that actually do this. They tend to try and make a mini novel with the same format as a real one. This is the daily life of the characters novella, and I love Bishop dearly for writing it. I always love to just sit down and relax with the characters I know and love.

Zuulaman

88 points/100 (4.5 stars/5).

Millenia ago, Saetan was starting a family with Hekatah. Read how it all went wrong.

The spiritual successor to The Prince of Ebon Rih, but technically takes place way, way before that novella. The events in this novella are brought up in The Prince of Ebon Rih but weren’t detailed. Well, okay we already know it all goes wrong. We know how much of a Hekatah is. It was still horrifying to see all over again. What a bitch.

I enjoyed this novella, but it felt a bit light. Overall, it was worth the read though. I really enjoyed Saetan playing the politics game. I also really enjoyed seeing him before time has worn him down and all he wants is to be able to serve his Queen. Good novella.

Kaeleer’s Heart

92 points/100 (4.75/5).

After the events in Queen of the Darkness, Jaenelle is left damaged, Daemon is taking care of her, and the process is driving them apart instead of pushing them together. To top it all off, someone is trying to get between them.

I really liked this novella. Just like The Prince of Ebon Rih, it is more slice-of-life than anything big that is happening. I love slice-of-life novellas so much, like I said before. Like Heir to the Shadows, this is a story of healing. Jaenelle is healing from her injuries and from her own flagging self confidence. Daemon is healing from almost losing his reason for living. The rest of her family is healing from nearly losing Jaenelle.

I dislike that Bishop added the jealous other woman trying to but in between them, but I suppose I understand it. I figure she thought most people wouldn't want to read the story without that part because it wouldn't have been interesting? However, I find the opposite to be the case, the jealous woman parts were boring and unnecessary and I wish they hadn't been included. I really just loved the slice-of-life parts.

The best part of this novella was Bishop's playing on the "Dreams Made Flesh" aspect of the story. From the trilogy, we know Jaenelle is the culmination of millions of dreams made into flesh. Bishop plays on this idea in this novella and I.Fucking.Love.It. Holy shit.

(If you're looking for more after this, The Price contained in [b:Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy|659855|Powers of Detection Stories of Mystery & Fantasy|Dana Stabenow|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1310319894s/659855.jpg|645930] follows shortly after the events in Kaeleer's Heart and follows the character Surreal.) show less

Blurb:
Set in the realm of The Black Jewels trilogy, this collection features four brand-new revelatory stories of Jaenelle and her kindred.

My Comments:
Anne Bishop continues to impress. This book contains four short stories from the past and future of the Black Jewels Realms and I love them all, but especially the ones about Lucivar and Marian and about Jaenelle and Daemon.

The first is a very short piece about how the golden spiders gained sentience and power.

The second tells the story of Lucivar and Marian's courtship. Here, Bishop shows she can take a standard romance outline and tell a magical tale. Many a romance author could read this to find out exactly how to write an alpa male and make a success of it. A brilliant success.

The show more third tells of a black moment in Saetan's life and explains why he never tried to keep Lucivar and Daemon when they were taken from them. We learn that he control of his power and temper was hard won and have part of the answer to the question of who would win if Saetan and Daemon ever faced off.

The fourth story takes up where "Queen of the Darkness" left off, telling the tale of how Jaenelle and Daemon reconnect as Jaenelle heals. As these two were my favourites in the main series, this was a total delight. Again, Bishop has taken a romance trope and shown how it should be done in this beautiful fantasy story.

Someone is trying to sew discord between Daemon and Jaenelle and they need all their combined strength as they combat this new enemy and come to terms with the changes in Jaenelle due to her actions in "Queen of the Darkness". As some who reads some romance (and reads about it more) this story is a triumph where the characters, facing misunderstanding and confusion sown by their enemy and their own actions, actually talk to each other and resolve the problem instead of letting it fester for hundreds of pages. Congratulations to Anne Bishop, Jaenelle and Daemon.

This story shows also shows us fundamental differences between Daemon and Jaenelle and how they compliment each other. Jaenelle does all the things she does because she loves and cares about the people around her. She stays in Challiot for Whilemena, she forms the Dark Court to save the Kindred, she does eveything she does to save the Blood. Daemon on the other hand, does the things he does solely for Jaenelle. She is his concern. His to protect and cherish. If he cares about others (and he doese) and what they think of him, it takes a distant backseat to what Jaenelle needs of and from him.

This story also provides the rest of what is needed to answer that question of a confrontation between Daemon and Saetan. Especially if it concerned Jaenelle, it would be Daemon. Saetan rightly fears his power and has a rigid control; Daemon will simply use his without any such consideration.

I have rapidly become and Anne Bishop fangirl and will happily shout her praises to the rooftops. I am not generally a short story reader, but I do love them when the further my knowledge and understanding of people and places I don't want to leave behind yet. That is exactly what "Dreams Made Flesh" does and it was a welcome addition to the tales of the Blood. show less

Dreams Made Flesh is a collection of four short stories/novellas centered around Jaenelle and her court. One of the events takes place immediately after the third in the Black Jewels series, so anyone reading this should keep that in mind. It definitely has spoilers for the previous books.

My favorite story by far, was "The Prince of Ebon Rih." How I grinned as I read it! I've always liked Lucivar, but he really is cast as the older brother in the series. There is definitely more to him than that, so it was great to see him as a powerful ruler in his own right and a sexy-as-hell man. Watching him deal with that bitch Roxie was a pleasure. Seeing his insecurity in dealing with Marian was delightful. He didn't know what hit him. Absolutely show more loved it.

My sister, who shoved this book into my hands saying only, "Read. This. Now." loves "Zuulaman." This is an event from Saetan's younger years that made him a legend. I liked it, but somehow couldn't help comparing it to Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. You probably have to be inside my head to see how that happened. I loved Tigana and this story suffered for the comparison. And probably from my sister's buildup. Still, it was a very cool showcase of Saetan's raw power.

"Kaeleer's Heart" would have been good, but it was a little too much like "The Prince of Ebon Rih." It was nice to see Daemon and Jaenelle together, but I felt like I had pretty much read the story already, just a few pages earlier. It is sexy to see the lengths that Daemon is willing to go to in order to protect Jaenelle though.

"Weaver of Dreams" was just a confusing little legend and that's all I have to say about that.

If you enjoy the Black Jewels books, read this one. It was mostly a very cool addition. show less

After the massive success of the Black Jewels trilogy, Anne Bishop continued to tell stories to fill in more of the in between times and after. Dreams Made Flesh includes a story from the start of the Blood, how Lucivar and Marian got together (and a little more insight into Luthvian), Zuulamann demonstrates what Saetan can be capable of, and Kaeleer's Heart follows the events of Queen of the Darkness and what life is like after Witch has done her work and starts to live a "regular" life.

The original trilogy created a new level of dark fantasy when it came out, and the imagination which fuels it is not one to miss.