Love, love, loved this one. Fascinating characters, a great setting with multiple layers and variants, exciting plot, enough foreshadowing that things made sense when revealed, but without breaking suspense. Just...loved it!

Another year...another re-read. ( )

Entertaining fantasy with a touch of mystery.

This is a world that is used to dealing with 'sensitives' - those who can pick up on others' emotions and also broadcast their own. But Mikael Lee's 'gift' exceeds what anyone is used to. He might even call it more of a curse. He has periodic dreams in which he enters the consciousness of a murder victim, following them all the way to their death. However, his tendency to broadcast these grisly sensations to those around him has not earned him an excess of goodwill.

Meanwhile, a young blind woman, Shironne, has her own special gift. Although her hyper-sensitivity has made her life difficult, she has agreed to work with the military, helping them identify murder victims: she has the ability to sense things about the deceased when she touches a body.

It's nearly immediately clear that Shironne and Mikael, although they've never met, are connected in some psychic manner. Indeed, Shironne is eager to meet the man she senses in her dreams, whom she half-jokingly refers to as the Angel of Death.

Now, it appears that murders related to sinister 'blood magic' rituals are occurring, echoing a bloody massacre that happened some years before, and which lives on in infamy. Mikael and Shironne must both work to uncover the murderers before more are killed horribly.

Recommended for those who have finished reading all about Carol Berg's or Sarah Monette's angsty yet attractive young men, and are looking for more...

I would definitely pick up the sequel to this one! (Don't worry, there's no cliffhanger here, though.)

Many thanks to NetGalley and ROC for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own. ( )

J. Cheney first came on the scene in 2013 with her first novel, The Golden City. Since then she's written many fantasy-based books including Dreaming Death. From the first few chapters I knew this book was going to good. Cheney does an excellent job building up the plot and building the complex world around the characters. Although I enjoyed the first half of the book, it wasn't until the second half when the story pulled me in.

The story is told from two different points of view: Mikael Lee and Shironne Anjir. Both characters have magical abilities. Mikael can dream of someone's death. He's not an onlooker, but sees through the eyes of the victim. Shironne is a sensitive. She can sense other people's emotions and thoughts. Because of her gift, Shironne has gone blind. These two come from different worlds but are thrown together to help solve several murders and the mystery surrounding them.

This is my first novel by Cheney, but after reading it, it made me want to go back and read her short stories and other novels. Even though the build-up in the beginning was a little slow for me, as a whole, the story was really good. I immediately wanted to read the next book in the series. Though I have no idea when it's coming out. Until then I shall have to content myself with reading Cheney's other works.

Read more at http://www.toreadornottoread.net/2016/02/review-dreaming-death.html#wUePrIGjhE9A... ( )

Dreaming Death is essentially a murder mystery set within a complex, nuanced fantasy world. The worldbuilding is a lot to absorb at first, but stick with it - understanding the different cultures, religions, and magic systems at play makes the story that much richer, and the pace does gradually pick up. There's also a great cast of multidimensional characters. I especially like the heroine, Shironne, because she doesn't let her limitations define her. All in all, Dreaming Death is an entertaining series opener with an impressively detailed setting. I look forward to picking up the sequel. ( )

Dreaming Death is the first in a new series by the author of the Golden City trilogy. Instead of historical Portugal, we are now in an entirely new world with its own rules and order. Mikael Lee dreams of murder and death while Shironne lives his visions. They have never met, because others have felt it safer that way. But a series of murders means that this is going to change. And nothing will be the same again. Because in a world where power is shifting, and the balance between ethnic groups is delicate, someone is unleashing chaos and only Mikael and Shironne can stop him.

A very interesting start to a new series, there's a lot of world-making here, and I still think there are bits that need to be resolved. The blind heroine with extreme touch sensitivity is an interesting POV that I haven't encountered before, although Cheney has explored the possibilities of touch sensitivity in some of her short fiction. The next book apparently picks up a month later, and I can't wait to see what has happened in the meantime.

Recommended for fans of Cheney's other works or interesting fantasy in general. ( )