Review of If Souls Can Sleep by David Michael Williams
One of our local writers has recently published If Souls Can Sleep. From the book description:
First he lost his daughter. His mind may be next.
After years of being haunted by the day his little girl drowned, Vincent faces a new nightmare — one that reaches into the real world and beyond the grave.
If Souls Can Sleep introduces a hidden world where gifted individuals possess the power to invade the dreams of others. Two rival factions have transformed the dreamscape into a war zone where all reality is relative and even the dead can’t rest in peace.
More information on the book is here and here.
From the press release:
The 350-page paperback captures elements of science fiction, fantasy, suspense, and metafiction, covering such disparate topics as Norse mythology and neuroscience.
“After years of focusing exclusively on sword-and-sorcery fantasy, as both a writer and a reader, I made it my goal to write something very different. I wanted to create a book I had never read before, something very unusual and unique,” Williams said.
“It was time to take a risk,” he added.
While categorizing “If Souls Can Sleep” can be tricky, Williams sees the mashup of genres as a strength because the story has something for readers of many backgrounds. He describes the narrative as complex yet accessible, peculiar yet relatable.
“This book has no shortage of paradoxes. I tried to break the rules without ending up with a broken story,” Williams said. “Fortunately, early feedback suggests the experiment was successful.”
“If Souls Can Sleep” will be published through Williams’ indie publishing company, One Million Words, on Jan. 30. The book is currently available for preorder as a paperback at Amazon.com and as an e-book through the Kindle Store. Other e-book formats will follow at various online retailers starting in May.
“If Souls Can Sleep” serves as the first book of The Soul Sleep Cycle. The sequel, “If Sin Dwells Deep,” is scheduled for a fall 2018 release, with a third installment, “If Dreams Can Die,” slated for spring 2019.
Williams is also the author of The Renegade Chronicles, a fantasy trilogy comprised of “Rebels and Fools,” “Heroes and Liars,” and “Martyrs and Monsters.” He is a 1999 graduate of UW-Fond du Lac and a 2001 graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he studied creative writing. He joined the Allied Authors of Wisconsin, one of the state’s oldest writing collectives, in 2005.
His website, https://david-michael-williams.com, features a blog about his fiction and the craft of writing.
Publishers were interested, but couldn’t figure out how to classify the book to sell it, because of the genre-bending. But if that’s so, then the market must have gotten too restrictive over the years: I’d say “sci-fi/fantasy” works fine.
Also, don’t be scared off by its being self-published. This book is professionally done, well-written and well-edited (though it could have used one more run-through). It reads quickly and holds the reader’s attention all the way through. The characters are well-rounded. And the concept–Who hasn’t wanted to explore the dreamscape as if it were more than just visions in our own heads, as if we could go there to visit friends and even departed loved ones?
Reading over some reviews–One person found it hard to get into at first, but I was pulled right in. Maybe it depends on what you’re into.
Details on how to buy the book are here. And yes, there will be more books later: It’s the beginning of a series.