A surface read, but an enjoyable one

I read Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series last year and didn’t think all that much of it. It read like bad fanfic, despite being more or less original. So I didn’t have the highest of expectations going into Strange the Dreamer, and got to be pleasantly surprised. I’ve even got a future hold on book 2 at the library set up.

If you couldn’t tell by the title and cover, this is another young adult fantasy about a young person discovering their place in the world and also magic. The story is split across two primary characters. Lazlo Strange is a librarian obsessed with the lost city from the stories he was told as a child. Sarai is godspawn, hiding with her last four siblings in a fortress floating above a city that would want them dead if it knew they were alive. There’s really only one direction for the story to go, and it doesn’t much veer off the course.

I sound a lot more down on the book than I was. I enjoyed it, it was a good read for a couple of sunny mornings with nothing else to do. I liked most of the characters, even if they were pretty one note, and didn’t mind predictability because it felt safe. The book was far too long but it benefits by being so much better than Taylor’s last series that I could be persuaded they’re by two different authors. It’s an inoffensive trip and a fun way to kill some time.