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"'A dramatic and original fantasy... a story of family affections and tensions - a tale of character and feeling as well as mysterious event'. Margaret Mahy, award - winning children's author"
Book Description
A dazzlingly rich, mind-blowing novel, bursting with beauty, danger, dreams and corruption - from the prize-winning author Elizabeth Knox.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't remember how I found this book; I believe I ran across one of the author's other titles at work, thought it looked interesting, and checked out the rest of her back catalogue. However it happened I'm very glad that it did, because this is the best thing I have read in a long, long time.
Fifteen-year-old Laura and her cousin Rose inhabit a world very much like our own - they have Jesus, 'The Mill on the Floss', demotic Greek, hockey. They also have the Gospel of St Lazarus, and the Place: a pocket of land, a fold in the universe, unmeasurable and inaccessible to all but the very few and most elite - the Dreamhunters. The Place is a world where dreams are marked at map locations; Dreamhunters cross the border at one of two points, sleep in a specific grid reference, catch the dream that has its existence there, and take it back to share with a paying audience. For this is 1906 and, in this world, dreams are what cinema became in ours - more, because each dreamer experiences the dream as their own. There are dreams of healing, dreams of adventure, dreams of peace, dreams of romance - Rose's mother, Grace, specialises in these - and, although Laura is initially unaware of this, there are nightmares, too, and Laura's father, Tziga Hame, the Dreamhunter who first stumbled (literally) upon the Place some twenty years before, has his own dark trade in these. When he vanishes, he leaves Laura this legacy, along with a duty to repair the damage he's done. He also leaves her a strange companion to help her with this burden.
We end on a shocking climax; this is part one of a two-part story, continued in The Dream Quake, which I am impatiently waiting for the postman to bring me any ... day ... now.
Dense, complex, and beautiful: I don't have the words to do justice to this story. I only wish I did.
It isn't just the storyline that sets 'The Rainbow Opera' apart: there's something unique and distinctive about its voice that I can't define. The only thing I can think of is that the author's from New Zealand and that perhaps her background and experience colour the narrative in a way that's slightly alien to my understanding.
This is one of the best and most original fantasies, YA or other, that I've read in years. In a world where the mundane, the run-of-the-mill and the badly written dominate the bestsellers charts, how is it possible that I only stumbled upon this wonderful book by accident?
Fifteen-year-old Laura and her cousin Rose inhabit a world very much like our own - they have Jesus, 'The Mill on the Floss', demotic Greek, hockey. They also have the Gospel of St Lazarus, and the Place: a pocket of land, a fold in the universe, unmeasurable and inaccessible to all but the very few and most elite - the Dreamhunters. The Place is a world where dreams are marked at map locations; Dreamhunters cross the border at one of two points, sleep in a specific grid reference, catch the dream that has its existence there, and take it back to share with a paying audience. For this is 1906 and, in this world, dreams are what cinema became in ours - more, because each dreamer experiences the dream as their own. There are dreams of healing, dreams of adventure, dreams of peace, dreams of romance - Rose's mother, Grace, specialises in these - and, although Laura is initially unaware of this, there are nightmares, too, and Laura's father, Tziga Hame, the Dreamhunter who first stumbled (literally) upon the Place some twenty years before, has his own dark trade in these. When he vanishes, he leaves Laura this legacy, along with a duty to repair the damage he's done. He also leaves her a strange companion to help her with this burden.
We end on a shocking climax; this is part one of a two-part story, continued in The Dream Quake, which I am impatiently waiting for the postman to bring me any ... day ... now.
Dense, complex, and beautiful: I don't have the words to do justice to this story. I only wish I did.
It isn't just the storyline that sets 'The Rainbow Opera' apart: there's something unique and distinctive about its voice that I can't define. The only thing I can think of is that the author's from New Zealand and that perhaps her background and experience colour the narrative in a way that's slightly alien to my understanding.
This is one of the best and most original fantasies, YA or other, that I've read in years. In a world where the mundane, the run-of-the-mill and the badly written dominate the bestsellers charts, how is it possible that I only stumbled upon this wonderful book by accident?
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mm, this seemed slow to start with, developing character and relationships. The concept is clever, and good; people who are able to catch dreams, as if they are residual ghosts of a place, by moving into an area simply known as the Place. Yet things are not as they seem to be.
There are many complications that both enrich and confuse the reader; the golem, sandman, NOWN, has interesting connotations, and I hope the sequel will unpick that more.
If you can move through the slower sections and accept some of the inexplicable actions and events then this book is well worth the read, chilling in a true sense, leaving you feeling cold inside with the message about what we do to ourselves.
One peculiarity - why do I keep thinking of Cornelia Funke's books when I go to pick this one up??
There are many complications that both enrich and confuse the reader; the golem, sandman, NOWN, has interesting connotations, and I hope the sequel will unpick that more.
If you can move through the slower sections and accept some of the inexplicable actions and events then this book is well worth the read, chilling in a true sense, leaving you feeling cold inside with the message about what we do to ourselves.
One peculiarity - why do I keep thinking of Cornelia Funke's books when I go to pick this one up??
Format:Paperback
Quite strange story and universe, but I really liked it. It was a more mature kind of fantasy, I have never really read anything like it, and enjoyed it very much. It's a kinda heavy story though, but good if you give it time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Rainbow Opera
This book took a long time to get started, however as it is part of a duet, that wasn't an issue.
Once you get past the first few chapters, it gets to the heart of what the... Read more
Once you get past the first few chapters, it gets to the heart of what the... Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2008 by Mrs. S. E. Lowe
The Rainbow Opera
For me, this book was good. I thought the idea was very original; something like a mixture of JK Rowling and Cornelia Funke. Read more
Published on 31 May 2006 by Renu Kumar
Brill!
This is a fantastic book that is about the very special few that can enter the place and become dream hunters. Dream hunters catch dreams and perform them inside the rainbow opera. Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2005 by "kittkatt_queen"
A book beyond your wildest Dreams
The Rainbow Opera is an amazing book, one of the best I've read in many years. It is well written, packed with suspense, adventure and intrigue, as well as humour and a splash of... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2005 by "b_tween2evils"
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