The Dream Merchant

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Title The Dream Merchant
Author Isabel Hoving
Original title De gevleugelde kat
Translator Hester Velmans
Country The Netherlands
Language Dutch
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Walker Books (eng. trans.)
Released 2002
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 640 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-7445-8335-7

The Dream Merchant is a 2002 Dutch fantasy novel by Isabel Hoving.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Twelve year old Joshua Cope is contacted by a corporation called Gippart International. Joshua and his friend Bhasvar (Baz) Patel go to Gippart and meet Max Herbert, a talent scout. Josh is sent into a dreamworld. But dreams also come with nightmares...

Umaya, the collective dream of everyone at that point in time, is caught between dreams and reality. Josh, Baz and fellow associate Teresa cannot get out of the dream-world, where time is running backwards due to a Gippart employee attempting to break into real time rather than dream-time. Along his adventure, Josh meets his dead twin sister Jericho, who has been attempting to get in contact with him for 350 years. But with Jericho comes Lucide, a guardian who makes sure that no-one crosses the borders of life and death.

The members of this troop find themselves with powers that they cannot explain. Baz, the first to find his powers, can control dream time by listening to the rhythm and matching it, causing it to slow, stop, or even rewind. Teresa changes Umaya with words, influencing people and surroundings to her will. Josh can change the very nature of things just by looking at them.

After a harrowing ordeal, Josh, Jericho, Baz, Teresa, and Mervin Spratt manage to find their way to the edge of time itself, where the Tembe people live in a Fortress. The Tembe, descended from Temberi, have been trapped at the edge of time for over 1000 years. Luckily, the Tembe are friendly people, and show the associates how their Fortress is slowly being ripped away into the hurricane whom they have named Satura. Using the powers they gained in the journey the children manage to find their way through the hurricane back into the real world.

Unfortunately in the end, Jericho decides return back with Lucide.

[edit] Chapters

[edit] PART I He is Called

  1. Gadgets
  2. The Associates
  3. The Dawning of the World
  4. The Traders' Trial

[edit] PART II - The Expedition

  1. The Assignment
  2. The Teeth of the Inelesi
  3. A Chink in Time
  4. Jericho

[edit] PART III - Drummers and Thieves

  1. Waves, Wraiths, Wolves
  2. Royal Blue
  3. Deception, Betrayal and Apple Pie
  4. The Thief Who Used His Eyes

[edit] PART IV - The Road to the Tembe

  1. The Dove of Light
  2. Three Pigs in a Rich Lather
  3. Josh Alone
  4. The Deep Valleys of the Night
  5. Higher, Higher, Higher

[edit] PART V - Saturas' Maw

  1. What the Wind Blew In
  2. The Hurricane of the World
  3. Satura's Maw
  4. Final Reckoning
  5. A Seer in the Kitchen

[edit] Characters

The following character descriptions appear at the back of the book:

[edit] Josh's Family (and Baz)

  • Joshua (Josh) Michael Cope, 12 years old, son of Mo and Peter Cope
  • Bhasvar (Baz) Patel, Josh's best friend, 12 years old
  • Edwin - boyfriend of Josh's mother, Mo
  • Liz - Edwin's daughter, 18 years old
  • Mervin Spratt - Liz's Boyfriend
  • Jericho Cope, 'dead' sister of Joshua

[edit] Gippart International

  • Marmeduke Fawcett - Secretary of Youth Affairs, Dispatch Board
  • Max Herbert - Talent Scout, Dispatch Board
  • Garnet Gippart, Tal Sow Fall, Miriane Comptesso and Oublassi - Board members, Disbatch Board, Project Umaya
  • Ouahabi - Senior in employ of the Dispatch Board
  • Moussa - Chief of Associates, 17 years old
  • Teresa Okwoma - Gippart Associate, 14 years old
  • Ida Gippart - Vice President

[edit] Siparti

  • Siparti - (or Kide) born 950, in Zaam
  • Mono - the beloved, is the eldest son, born in 990; his city is Ixilis
  • Brax - the noble one, is the eldest daughter, born in 993; the Takraas highlands are her territory
  • Kauri - the missionary, is the middle daughter, born in 995; her territory is the coastline around Tsumir and its oceans
  • Beez - the lethal one, is the middle son, born in 996; the city of Bat Zavinam has been his since the year 1347
  • Kat - the youngest daughter, born in Arrar on January the first, 1000
  • Gip - the youngest son, born in Arrar on January the first, 1000

[edit] Temberi

  • Temberi - (or Awè) born in 948 in Zaam
  • Bazamène - whose eldest son is Tibid
  • Lim the Singer - whose eldest son is Mim
  • Imen
  • Mersele
  • Pann

[edit] Literary significance & criticism

"There is no doubt about it, this is better then Harry Potter. It is compelling, exciting, wonderfully complicated, realistic, credible, heartwarming en loaded with phantasy and humour. A sensational debut by a born narrator." de Volkskrant[1]

"Out of the blue there appears one of these worldbooks, in which young readers can loose themselves." De Gelderlander[1]

"Generously long-drawn-out epic by a new master narrator... In cinematic scenes Hoving recalls magic and intriguing worlds like Tolkien has done it before... No Harry Potter can beat that!" De Morgen[1]

[edit] Awards and nominations

  • Golden Kiss 2003

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Dutch and Flemish authors. QueridoKind. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.

[edit] References

  • Hoving, Isabel (2005). The Dream Merchant, 1st eng. ed., Walker Books. ISBN 0-7445-8335-7. 
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