Dreamforgers

By: Steven Heumann

Narrated by: Steven Heumann

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Abbie Kinder fights predators in other people's nightmares; too bad she can't remember her enemies when she wakes up.

As an artist stuck in a dead-end design job, Abbie feels life is one unending series of disappointments. When a doctor arrives at her office with detailed sketches of her, alleging they were drawn by a catatonic man in his hospital, Abbie begins to discover there is more to consciousness than what we see and experience physically.

After an attack in her apartment, Abbie is rescued by Vincent, an attractive enigma who claims she is a protector in humanity's shared dream space. Though she can't remember while awake, Abbie has knowledge in the dream that powerful men desperately want, and they'll go so far as to kill for it.

Her conscious and subconscious minds struggle for control between realms of fantasy and depressing reality. Abbie quickly learns there are more dangers than she ever realized, and one of them may be sleeping right next to her.

Dreamforgers is a high-concept sci-fi/fantasy hybrid, merging shared consciousness with the twists of a taut thriller. It's time for you to enter a world of pure creation!

©2022 Steven Heumann (P)2023 Steven Heumann

A Fascinating Universe

This was my first experience with Steven Heumann's work, and it was interesting. Abbie Kinder fought predators in people's nightmares. After Abbie was attacked, she knew she would have to find out why someone would want to hurt her. I liked this unusual story. I liked the blurb, which was what drew me to the story in the first place. I enjoyed the creativity behind the tale. Although Abbie was complex, some of the other characters seemed a little one-sided. There were some twists, but there were times when the story got buried beneath the narrative. On the whole it was an entertaining tale, and I'm looking forward to the next book. Steven Heumann's narration was fine, and his voice was pleasant. I was given a free copy of the audiobook, and I have voluntarily posted this review.

Very original fantasy tale

Recently I was offered a review copy of the Dreamforgers audiobook, and after briefly looking at the book’s description I accepted the offer. At the outset of the story, I felt like I was hearing a familiar story, but couldn’t put my finger on the memory of the story that made it seem so familiar.

Once the story hit the second chapter that familiarity evaporated and Dreamforgers took over as a fresh story with characters who were relatable in one sense and fantastical in another. I must admit that fantasy stories are one of my guilty pleasures – I mean up to now I had limited my fantasy reading to fantasy worlds populated with Tolkienesque characters and animals. Dreamforgers is a fantasy/sci-fi story populated by humans and their alternate selves in a dream realm.

As this story got its hooks into me, I had a very difficult time putting it down. Sure, there were times I could predict where or what came next, but then the author would throw in a curve ball just to keep my attention as if to say, “don’t get too comfortable, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

About mid-way through the story some history is revealed to Abbie that brought my initial feeling of familiarity into focus and suddenly I realized I had seen a movie several years ago that dealt with people going into a nether world populated by their alternate selves. This revelation made the story even more compelling because I wanted to see how Abbie’s story compared to that old movie I had seen. I’m glad to say I enjoyed Abbie’s story a lot more than my memories of the old movie.

Since I listened to the story, I think it is necessary to mention the narrator, in this case the author Steven Heumann did double duty and narrated the story. I’ve listened to several audiobooks narrated by the author, in some cases they are very successful, and in a few not so much. In the case of Dreamforgers I believe having Steven narrating his own work really enhanced the story, not to mention brining the characters to life.

have you ever woke from a dream and wanted to go back?

this story for me was ready player one meets inception. I felt the story had good characters, good motivation, good pacing some twists and excitement.