Unfortunately, this book just wasn't my cup of tea. Something about it just put me off, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

This book covers a lot of themes and while it aced some it failed to deliver some, at least to me. Overall, I enjoyed it and would be interested in knowing what happens next.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to go through with this. I might come back someday.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

✨🌟 8.5 out of 10 🌟✨
I like the themes that this book explored, but I don't like many aspects of the book.

Keywords: high fantasy, murder mystery, horror, dream world, mental illness (depression), LGBT, indie game adaptation, self pub
Reps: bisexual man, lesbian side character
Trigger & content warning: suicide, suicide loss survivor, vivid description of depression, rape, murder, gore

REVIEW
Dreams of the Dying is a story about a hired merchenary asked to find a cure for a king trapped in dream world. We follo Jasper dal Varek while he and some people he met along the way trying to find who caused the illness of the king.

I have conflicted feelings about the book. This hover between 3 and 4 goodreads stars. But since it's a self pub, 4 GR stars it is.

The things I like:
- Vivid description, vibrant worldbuilding and its details
I think the worldbuilding is quite rich. The story is set in tropical-like island and the details are written beautifully. The prose is not hard to understand and the descriptions are quite vivid. It's easy to imagine the world of this book.

- Dream magic and dream world
Some of the magic system are pretty basic but some other have little twists here and there that made the magic more interesting. The most interesting of the magic is the dream magic that become the focus of this book. There is a lengthy discussion of dreams and consciousnes related to the magic.

- Incorporating various themes, like capitalism, structural poverty, etc
There are so many themes in this book and I'm surprised because it's a bit rare to find some of these themes in normal high fantasy books. There are discussion about capitalism, structural poverty, morality and seeing it from different perspectives, privilege, and being an enabler. There is a coup in this story and it is related to the themes I mentioned above. The book also include theme about depression. The execution is flawed but I like how the author stated depression is not something that can be magically gone and has to be treated patiently.

- Characters with layered personality and not clear cut morality
The characterization is quite good. Most of the characters are not portrayed with black and white morality. They feels very human. No one is truly good and no one is truly bad. Even the villains. There are some that still holding up to their idealism but even those characters had done questionable things too. My favorite characters are the side protagonists Lysia and Kawu.

- LGBT reps
The main lead of the story is a bisexual man. I think it's also a bit rare seeing bisexual man in fantasy genre so it's a plus point. There is mlm relationship in the story. There is also lesbian (?) character who happened to be middle aged woman.

- Cool illustrations
It's minor bonus point but I saw from social medias the final version will contain illustrations and some of those are quite cool.

What I dislike:
- Cheating tropes
I'm happy there is bisexual representation but I hate that the author include cheating trope in this book. You don't have to make your characters cheat just to show them can go with more than one gender. I know it's related with the main character being an asshole but it feeds into the harmful stereotypes that bi people are cheater.

- I can't sympathize with the main lead, he is asshole
As my point before said, the main lead is an asshole. He is cheater, irresponsible, apathetic, and insensitive. I know some of choices he made are influenced by his traumas, but some of his most questionable ones are conscious choices. This is the same with other vital character, the king. I feel like the author is trying to make grey characters and want readers understand their motives and sympathize with it. Unfortunately I just feel that Jespar is shit and can't connect with him at all. I don't feel he had significant character development either. Perhaps it is deliberately written that way because it's a part of bigger narratives (Enderal game) and there are more stories to come.

- The plot slogging from middle to end of the book
The plot are very detailed but I think from the middle to the end of the book it slogged quite badly. I don't know what is wrong but I feel bored and not emotionally engaged with this story. I spent a whole month trying to finish this while for 600 pages I usually only take 10 days. I don't know whether it is better in final version or not though (I read the digital arc).

- The messages are not subtle and feel like shoving to the readers head
Some of the messages like the one about morality are discussed through characters dialogues. It is not subtle and the discussion of the same things over and over again feels too repetitive. It feels like the book done too much shoving the messages to us reader. It feels preachy at some points.

- Not as scary as the cover suggest
It turned out the story is not as scary as the cover and blurb suggest. Sure it's horror but most of the book focused more on the coup and political intrigues. It's only mild disappointment though.

Final Verdict
I like the book enough to a certain degrees but I can't bring myself to like the main lead. I think this book in on those categories of book that you either love it or hate it, it's not for everyone. If you like fantasy book with economic and politic discussion you probably should give it a try.

Not my cup of tea. It felt long and boring sadly. I really wanted to like it but nothing really kept me interested.

this was such a great mystery, horror novel, the characters were great and I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end.