Silent Empire 01 Dreamer [Mass Market Paperback]

Adult/High School-All sentient minds are connected to a place called The Dream, and without them it would cease to exist. Only a small percentage of genetically gifted beings, called the Silent, can consciously access it. Among the Silent is Kendi, a courageous and compassionate man of Aboriginal descent. Ominous storms have started to appear in The Dream, leaving dead or nearly dead Silents in their wake. At the same time, a brilliant new Silent mind has appeared, who Kendi must track down. The new mind turns out to be a remarkable teenager, Sejal, who has been living with his loving yet hardened mother in a ghetto. His family ultimately provides the key to calming the mysterious storms. Dreamer contains an underlying theme of severed ties longing for reconciliation and healing. Sejal's family is but one of a number of families ripped apart by governmental oppression. Kendi yearns to reconcile with his former beau, Ben. An army of lab-created Silents confined to a hellish existence scream out for the comfort of a mother's mind. However, there is an attitude of hope, and the characters come across as poignant without wallowing in self-pity. This exceptional first novel in a new series is a satisfying and complete work in itself. A diverse array of memorable characters and worlds makes this a book that YAs can relate to and enjoy.
Sheila Shoup, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Like other members of the monklike order of the Children of Irfan, Kendi Weaver dedicates his life to identifying and training telepathically gifted humans, known as the Silent, in order to protect them from the Empire of Human Unity. When he discovers the presence of a powerful Silent on the conquered planet Rust, Kendi risks his life and his freedom to find the young man whose gift may bring an end to a tyrannical empire. This series opener should appeal to lovers of far-future space opera and sf adventure.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Through contact with aliens, humans some time in the future learn of the Dream, which allows interstellar communication; and through genetic engineering, they produce the Silent, humans who can enter the Dream. Subsequently, the Silent are often enslaved or hunted, and only the Children of Irfan, a quasimonastic order of the Silent, can protect its members and enforce their contracts. An unknown boy has the power to possess others' bodies against their will, and the Children are searching for him, either to protect him from government or criminal control or, if he is a criminal, to destroy him. In terms of narrative and world building, this is definitely a well-told tale, and Harper's skill at characterization is significantly above average. Moreover, his extrapolation of aboriginal Australian myth freshens the shopworn theme of telepathy. Even the future slums he imagines are memorably vivid, despite their early-twenty-first-century flavor. Intelligent entertainment. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

THE DREAM
...is a plateau of mental existence where people are able to communicate by the power of their thoughts alone.

The Silent
These people-known as the Silent-find that the Dream is threatened by a powerful Silent capable of seizing control of other people's bodies against their will...and may be causing tremors within the Dream itself.

THE RISK
And if the "normals" learn of this, they will do anything to capture the Silent for use as a weapon - and the Dream itself may be shattered forever...