The Realt is all about our dreams. But these aren’t the kind of waking daydreams we have where we imagine winning the lottery or finding out we have superpowers. Instead they’re the dreams we have deep in sleep, where everything is twisted and weird. In those moments it’s possible to cross over into a land called Tourmaline, and to do immense damage to that place, bringing nightmarish creations from our subconscious with us. Funnily enough, the people in Tourmaline would like to stop people from crossing over – but it’s not that simple. This really only describes one strand of a complex book, in terms of narrative. There are also political machinations, romantic entanglements, and full-on body horror, but throughout every element there’s a great sense of the plot driving forward. The action sequences are brilliantly done – pacy and filled with clear intent. Plus there are some magnificently awful creations that would make anyone shudder. The Realt is the second book in a trilogy, and I would say that there are few concessions for those, like me, who are picking up the storylines at this point. There is an introduction that is basically a quick recap of Book One, but it’s difficult to hold that information in your head when you’re immediately forging into fresh territory. Having said that, I did pick up the general gist along the way, referring back to the intro as and when I needed to, and maybe that’s a small price to pay when the alternative could have been a book bogged down by recapping. The solution to this? I’d recommend reading Book One first. In retrospect, I wish I had. The Realt was published on May 1, 2015 by Snowbooks, but I’d certainly recommend starting with Tourmaline, which was published on September 1, 2013. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
