In Dreams Wake

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

As the summer of 1923 wanes, Beckham Barclay travels across the Atlantic to continue his studies under the tutelage of his uncle Rowan, said to be one of the best psychologists of the modern age. But when he arrives in America everything is weirder than he thought. Both his uncle and the manor that’s become his new residence are filled with mysteries and none of the answers Beck is looking for. Just when he thinks he’s hit a dead end, Rowan opens Beck’s mind to the Reverie – the space between sleeping and awake – where the inner workings of the mind are made manifest. In this dream realm, his uncle introduces him to worlds and wonders that warp everything he thought he knew about reality.

The Barclays aren’t the only travelers of the Reverie though; Strangers from beyond the walls of sleep have begun haunting their dreams, trying to find a way into their waking world. The more Beck immerses himself in this new life, the more he is pulled into the dangerous gambit his family is playing between worlds, and the shorter the distance between fiction and reality becomes.

This story is currently on indefinite hiatus. Read the latest chapter for more information.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Halflite

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 15
Views: 12,054

What readers say about In Dreams Wake

“In Dreams Wake is unlike any other story I've read on Royal Road, with a captivating first act that sucks the reader in and immerses them in a world of riddles and psychological thriller. If you're looking for an amazing thriller with a unique premise and f…”
BigThinkRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“I'm really happy that I discovered this story thanks to a review swap, and I'll definitely keep reading it. It's a historical fantasy with an amazing concept, based on - without spoiling too much - the ability to travel and exploring dreams. The worldbuildi…”
ChtaeRoyal Road4.5 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(2)

BigThinkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
In Dreams Wake is unlike any other story I've read on Royal Road, with a captivating first act that sucks the reader in and immerses them in a world of riddles and psychological thriller. If you're looking for an amazing thriller with a unique premise and fascinating characters, look no further!
Style
Halflite's writing conjured fascinating, vivid images of grandiose mansions, crowded circuses, and the confused potential of urban 1920s America. The setting is enhanced by the great dialogue - characters' fluent, formal speech is perfect for capturing the feeling of old-money and learned folk that the main character finds himself immersed in. The writing oscillates perfectly between the mysterious, (pleasantly) confusing nature of the real world and the terrifying dream world - the dream sequences read like something straight out of a thriller/eldritch novel with how the entities are presented.
Story
The pacing of the story is perfect for setting the gradual reveal of the unknown and the supernatural. Even before the first instance of the supernatural, I got the feeling that things felt slightly wrong or off with the manor and its atmosphere. When things take a turn for the supernatural, it's terrifying - and rightly so.
With the conclusion of the first Act, I found myself blown away by Halflite's setup - a good deal of the previous oddities around the manor felt like they slotted perfectly into place for a riveting cliffhanger.
My only nitpick with the story is the initial introduction to the manor as the pacing seemed a little bit off - but it's the only break in the fantastic pacing, and can be remedied easily down the line.
Grammar
Perfect. Zero complaints. No major issues with the word choice - every sentence flowed smoothly and never took me out of my immersion as I was consuming In Dreams Wake.
Character
The entire cast are extremely well-written and believable. No moments stood out to me as out-of-character or too unrealistic. I especially like the writing beh
ChtaeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I'm really happy that I discovered this story thanks to a review swap, and I'll definitely keep reading it. It's a historical fantasy with an amazing concept, based on - without spoiling too much - the ability to travel and exploring dreams.
The worldbuilding is unique and interesting, satisfying both sense of wonder and intellectual curiosity, because it's a sweeping cosmology of strange, different worlds, but there are rules to be discovered and investigated. The academic tone - a student learning from his scholar uncle - appeals to me, giving it a hint of a school-of-magic story, except with private tutoring.
I also loved the mystery and slow discovery - I really enjoy the part of piecing together hints, and gradually finding out what is going on. The plot itself seems incredibly promising, involving
that's an amazing setup if I've ever seen any. I was, if anything, disappointed to learn that the story is planned over 4 act - I'd happily have red a verylong serial about exploring dream worlds and gradually piecing together the mysteries.
I loved the details about how the "magic" works, even if it looks like we barely scratched the surface so far, and I won't go into further details to avoid spoilers.
Unfortunately, there are a few poblems with the story, which I think might limit its ability to find the readership it deserves (beside the fact that it's not a very Royal Road friendly genre, but not much can be done about that).
First, the writing is grammatically correct, but it doesn't flow well. I think that's a major hurdle for a new reader, unfortunately: from the very beginning of the story, I found myself having to read slowly and carefully, sometimes re-reading paragraphs, just to understand what was happening. There are a lot of subordinatives and many verbs in the same sentence, plus an overusage of negative and passive forms - it reads more like a textbook than like fiction.
While in principle it coud fit the academic main character, The stiff, overly fo