Ripped From a Dream: The Nightmare on Elm Street Omnibus [Paperback]

Putting it to you simply, if you enjoyed the movies then you will enjoy reading this book. Freddy is evil as ever, and also enjoys dishing out his sick humor to his victims. This book actually contains 3 different stories. 1. Suffer the Children 2. Dreamspawn and 3. Protoge. Be warned though. Just like the movies there are plenty of gory violence, cursing, and of course lots of sex. On a scale of 1-5 I give Suffer the Children a 4.5, Dreampawn a 4, and Protoge a 4. Enjoy!

This book is a collection of mini Freddy stories. Unfortunately for me I brought this book thinking it was new material based on the title of the book. It is still a good book and the fact I like anything with Freddy, it makes a nice collection in my book case. Next time I read the stories, I will just go to this book instead of the previous paperbacks I brought that are already collected in this hard cover book.

When I first heard about Black Flame's book series based on Nightmare on Elm Street, I immediately began searching for them. And the first one I came across was this omnibus containing the first three books, "Suffer the Children," by David Bishop; "Dreamspawn," by Christa Faust; and "Protege," by Tim Waggoner. And for the most part, the three books are a fun read. But several inconsistencies and other assorted problems bring down the second one.

Lets start with Suffer the Children. The plot is similar to the third film, where teenagers discover they have special powers while they dream but are hunted by dream killer, Freddy Krueger. This is the best of the three books. The author clearly knew what he was doing. Characters were great, and somewhat believable. The nightmares were lacking the surrealism that is present in the films, but are definitely entertaining. On another note, the ending is kind of a downer, and the cliffhanger is never picked up again in the series. Overall, this one gets a 5/5.

My high hopes for the second book, Christa Faust's Dreamspawn, were dashed about halfway through. It starts off strong with a prologue involving Freddy killing the alcoholic father of one of the characters with her watching, then quickly moving on to some interesting character development. I kept waiting for Krueger to show up on any page... and waiting... and waiting... He doesn't even show up until halfway through, and even then it's a botched appearance. Thats when things go down hill. The characters use his glove to control Freddy (?) and use him to take revenge on behalf of one of them, who had been raped by the schools football team. And it is painfully clear that the author did not do her homework. She believes that Springwood is in California (although she can be forgiven for thinking that, since the towns location was ambiguous for the first three films, and palm trees give it as Cali). And the kills are weak, too. In other words, it was almost a total letdown. There was potential here, there really was. But bad research and uncharacteristic actions bog it down. This one gets a 2/5. And thats generous.

Protege, I struggled through initially, because I didnt have high hopes for it. It soon captured my interest, but didnt live up to the standards set by Suffer the Children. Tim Waggoner goes outside the box by using the main character as an apprentice, and it works somewhat. Its a bit too reminiscent of "Freddy's Revenge" at times, but its forgivable. Jerome, the main character, your not sure if you want to root for him, or kill him yourself. Overall, Waggoner crafts a solid story with decent kills, fun characters, and a Freddy that resembles the one from "Freddy vs. Jason": a mix of funny and frightening. This one gets a 4/5.

Overall, Ripped from a Dream is a good addition to the collection of any horror afficionado. Suffer the Children and Protege are good reads and definitely worthy cause to seek out this omnibus. But Dreamspawn still sucks.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars