I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Steggie Belle & the Dream Warriors by Elias Pell Narrator: Jay Forrester
on June 20, 2020
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Pages: 386
Format: Audiobook
Source: Provided by author for honest review
Goodreads
“What if our understanding of dreams is just a poor reflection of another place…
a real place?”During a storm, a man who calls himself Zoofall has barricaded himself inside an attic. He has only seven candles worth of time to reveal his extraordinary secrets. How, when he was a child, he discovered the existence of a wild other world, where Reality and Mythology meet, beyond the limits of Lucid Dreaming.
As a boy, after a freak accident results in him making a peculiar acquaintance, a lengthy initiation follows, and Zoofall finally finds himself welcomed into a group of other young dreamers—who call themselves the Freedivers. They teach him hidden truths and the long-forgotten, true history of humankind. Of how the dream and waking worlds, although now separated, were once united as one, until the “cross-overs” began. They show him that the stuff of ancient myths and fairy tales, of folklore and urban legends have never been imaginary at all. These beings had simply migrated for their own safety, away from the waking world, and that these “crossings” are by no means one-way.
Within this magical and terrifyingly real realm, Zoofall must figure out if his own unusual powers make him a possible saviour or a dangerous burden. As dark forces rise up, threatening to engulf their group, he must uncover the greatest mystery of all. Who their incredible leader—Steggie Belle—really is, how she became so powerful, and if by any chance she can be saved?
Steggie Belle & the Dream Warriors Audiobook is available!
Published by candlelight—surrounded by chanting Druids—at midnight on Summer Solstice back in 2020, this is Elias Pell’s debut novel. A semi-autobiographical Fantasy which delves behind the world we know, or like to tell ourselves we know.
Now, on the Autumnal Equinox—September 23rd, 2023—the unabridged Audiobook read by Jay Forrester arrives, pulsing through a pair of earphones near you! Listen to Zoofall’s incredible confession as the candlewax melts away and the shadows encroach ever closer upon the fragile, dwindling flame.
Julie’s Review:
I will start this review saying this is not a story to attempt to listen to while doing something else. And it might even be a better book or ebook read, than audiobook, because audiobooks are a multitasking mode of reading. But multitasking with this book doesn’t work well. I am a visual learner but finding downtime to read is difficult, so audiobooks are my first choice, even with the issues of missing something. So that is why I agreed to review the audiobook.
The story is told from the point of view of a man who calls himself Zoofall, due to how he finds out he is a Dreamer. Zoofall tells this story by candlelight, with just enough candles left to tell his tale. I thought that was a great intro, a story within a story, and a fun way to throw us right into the dream world tale. But, I also found the repeated times we hear from Zoofall as he’s “getting back to his story” kind of confusing because it pulls you out of the timeline of the story. Those felt more like interruptions than a way to continue the story. But, he is kind of in a hurry to put his story out there before enacting the next step in his plan.
The Dreamers world is complex and so different from ours, and isn’t easy to completely picture. This is where I realized this story may not the best for audiobook if you’re busy doing other things, like unpacking boxes after a cross country move or working on spreadsheets. I do feel like I missed a lot of good details that I might have caught better in reading.
This book does fall into the trope of the new hero needs to spend so much time training, learning, etc. before actually being allowed to be involved in the adventures and missions, and I felt Zoofall’s annoyance of during all those training nights. This trope of pacing is something I struggle with in fantasy. In fact, our narrator tells us in the middle of the story that perhaps by the end of his story will we finally understand the whole point of it all, but for now he’s only giving us glimpses. And that method of story telling can work very well if everything is exciting and paced well, but I wasn’t feeling very connected with this story.
Then the adventures and excitement pick up, with a full story with bravery, friendship, loss, betrayal, and hope. By the end when the story ends and we are back in the real time of older Zoofall telling the story, I was more interested and curious what he was planning next.
The characters are interesting, and the friendships forged so quickly are fun. I didn’t feel like I really understood the characters too well, but I get the impression from the narration how much both Wolf and Steggie Belle mean to Zoofall. In fact, I also found it interesting the book was titled Steggie Belle, and not Zoofall, since he tells the story.
Whether you believe the dream world is real, or just the very active imagination of a lonely kid recovering from an injury, the friendships and adventures he experienced in the dream world are key for a happy child. The connections between the dreaming world and returning to the real world with scars and refusing to answer questions, the adventures of a 14-year-old boy and his friends, then unexpectedly being a grown up, were quite interesting. Dream Warriors kept up with each other over the years, showing how important these dream journeys were to them.
The audiobook narrator voice isn’t my favorite, which may have caused some of the issues of my mind wandering off, or not being fully focused. Something about that voice-accent combination even on other audiobooks doesn’t work as well for me. I can’t explain it. But this is just a note to devote your attention to the book and don’t get distracted by other work if you want to get the most out of the story.
Author Interview:
Tell us what you enjoy most about writing Fantasy.
For me, there’s something about the spiraling freedom that Fantasy offers – to drift, weightless, through familiar landscapes where anything is possible. A chance to splinter away from the norm while staying within the orbit of what is believable. To pierce the veil of our possibly limited understanding and explore whatever peculiarities might lie beyond the fragile candlelight. As Louis MacNeice beautifully put it: “World is crazier and more of it than we think, incorrigibly plural.”
Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in your jobs/education in your writing?
Not so much from my jobs/education, but definitely, some life experiences have wormed their way into my writing. The abandoned mansion where Zoofall and Puddle make their discovery was, in fact, based on an infamously haunted building in the forests of northern Italy where I, somewhat foolishly, spent the night many years ago …but as to what actually happened in the early hours of that fateful ‘ghost hunt’ – well, that’s another story.
Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?
Zoofall’s opening explanation of Lucid Dreaming and the technique of ‘stretching out’ his dreams from a very young age is based on my own experiences growing up. While I suppose there might be other similarities between our characters, I must admit that Zoofall’s moments of bravery and decisiveness far outweigh my own. To say more here about our shared traits could, I fear, as Zoofall himself warns, run the risk of attracting more serious consequences.
Is there anything you would like people to take away from your book?
Although my former publisher wrestled back and forth with whether the novel should be marketed as an Upper MG or a Lower YA book, the untidy truth is that I wrote it more for adults. I guess I was hoping to create something to potentially resonate with the ‘inner child’ inside the adult reader: a reminder of the importance of not walking away from our dreams.
Do you have any odd (writing) habits?
Other than an excessive amount of walking while plotting out the story (Steggie Belle & the Dream Warriors was the product of a 2,400 km. barefoot daydream), the first draft – when it finally appears – tends to be handwritten in a ridiculously small print. I believe the entire novel was crammed into just 67 pages of an A5 notebook!
About the Author:
Elias Pell is a London-born, previously published poet and self-confessed dreamer. Disguised as an adult (children have somehow always been able to see through this facade) Elias left England in 2016, putting all his savings towards the dream of writing full-time. Since then, he has sat, scribbling away on a rooftop in Barcelona, spurred on by the raucous cries of seagulls circling overhead.
Steggie Belle & the Dream Warriors is Elias’s debut Fantasy novel: a story inspired by his own lifelong Lucid Dreaming experiences. In 2020, it was awarded as a Finalist in the Fantasy category of NIEA’s global annual competition (the only self-published novel to reach that shortlist).
Elias has also published a collection of short stories for adults, entitled Scapegoats & Crowbars, and is currently working on the sequel to Steggie Belle, alongside other new writing projects. He is currently seeking representation, and can be contacted directly at elias.pell75@gmail.com.
For more info and updates, please visit www.eliaspell.com
