G116 E-Reading: Book Review of Scapemaker by Steve V. Cypert
Author: Steve V Cypert
ISBN: 9781300427582
Publisher: Createspace
Part of a Series: Scapemwaker
Type of book: Fantasy, YA, dream world, Old-blood, New-blood, dream world school, Harry Potter like atmosphere
Year it was published: 2012
Summary:
Matthew is the son of Mr. Nicholas Namely, a local high school teacher. But unbeknownst to Matthew, his father is a dreamscaper whose classroom is connected to the dream-world. From his classroom, his students enter the halls of Scapemaker, a dream-world high school for young dreamscapers.
Following a couple of heartfelt tragic events, Matthew is compelled to investigate the unbelievable mysteries surrounding those events and is propelled into a whole new world. Matthew and his mother, Mae, are soon coerced into moving across the country for his father's strange medical needs. While attending his new school, Matthew comes to know the secrets that Daedree, an annoying girl from his former high school, has locked away. Matthew also meets Amber, a beautiful enigmatic girl who leads him to Mr. Xoner's classroom. While there, he learns the art of dreamscaping (which has been in the Namely bloodline for thousands of years).
Matthew will come to know of Nox Celare, otherwise known as The Sandman, who is after a special element called Magineum. Neck deep in skinwalkers, sandsleepers, zombies, soul feeders, ghosts, dream-world criminals known as “night terrors” and more, Matthew learns he is in over his head. Matthew must not only solve the mysteries surrounding those tragic events, but he will also have to protect the Magineum with his life and find a way to be with the one girl of his dreams. Filled with secrecy, mystery and a forbidden tangle of young love, this new life will lead Matthew to unbelievable characters with the most extraordinary abilities he could never have imagined.
Scapemaker will keep you grounded in the real world while at the same time make the fantastical world around it that much more possible and enduring. This tale of young adult paranormal fantasy will keep you guessing and wanting more.
Characters:
Okay, let's see if I can do this: Matthew is the main character and protagonist. He is the son of the infamous Nicholas Namely who got imprisoned, and Matthew believes his father is innocent and does anything and everything he can to prove his father's innocence. I think something that did tended to annoy me about his character is the fact that he didn't seem to learn from his mistakes, and I don't recall just once when he allowed some other people to handle whatever is going on. There is Amber, the mysterious Old-blood girl who has extraordinary abilities as well as some other friends that Matthew develops. I also think I would have liked to see more scenes between Matthew and Amber if the author might be planning on taking it to romance route.
Theme:
There is more to dreams than was thought.
Plot:
This is written in third person narrative from Matthew's point of view. I felt that the book tended to rush and although I found it entertaining and well written, it rushed a lot and it was something I couldn't really savor. I would have liked more details about the dream world before the author moved on to the big events which kind of lost me a bit.
Author Information:
(from goodreads.com)
url https://www.goodreads.com/thefictioneer
born in Los Angeles, CA, The United States
gender male
website http://www.thefictioneer.blogspot.com
twitter username myfiction
genre Young Adult Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction
influences I find that I am heavily influenced by anything creative on the big screen, as my writing will reflect in its detail. First and foremost, my influence and reason comes from my wife and child. No writer has been of greater inspiration and influence to me than Tolkien; Amanda Hocking has a place in my mind for her sheer will in moving forward as an independent; One of my best friends, Neal Moore,(less)
member since May 2011
Steve is the second child of seven born in Los Angeles, California to a wonderful mother and father. Born into the LDS faith, Steve served a 2 year full-time LDS mission at the age of nineteen in the northern half of Ohio.
At twenty-four he moved from his parents’ home in Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, Utah to try out life on his own. 2 decades later he still lives in Utah, where he found and married his beautiful wife, Katie.
Today they live in South Jordan, Utah with their bald little 6 month old son, Ozzie and their very hairy son, Duke - a three year old Shih Tzu (see Steve’s blog for a photo).
Before fining his [mostly] sweet wife, Steve graduated from LDS Business College in 2000. He then moved on to the University of Utah where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications three years later.
For as long as he can remember, Steve has loved to come up with creative and far-fetched stories. Sometime in the early 2000's, he decided to put one of his story ideas on paper. He wrote a poem titled "Pirate and Captain". The poem was an adventurous tale. He then decided to write the story as a novel. He wrote "Port of Errors" in just three months. However, it took him nine years to research, edit and put the missing pieces together. Port of Errors will eventually be a trilogy under the name "Born of Tyranny”.
Steve will always love the stereotypical, romanticized version of piracy. But he has more cooking in that oven. Steve has now written a second novel, the first in a series of 4. But this one is a YA paranormal fantasy - out in 2012. The title, at first, was "The Son of Nicholas Namely". But Steve soon changed the name to "Scapemaker", which will be the name of the series. As of January 2013, the second book has a completed, detailed outline and he will begin writing it shortly.
Steve loved photography and is very good at it. He shot weddings for a while, but mainly loves wildlife and landscape. He also loves volleyball and hiking. He has a mountain bike, but never rides it. He loves to write. And finally, he is a sad self-indulgent, fanatic, addict, junkie, freak, and lover - of movies!
(Steve also wrote a children's book called "Biggle and Bee" while waiting for the completion of the first Scapemaker edit.)
Opinion:
In some ways this has an atmosphere of Harry Potter series: at least the intriguing part of the fantasy world, and the atmosphere and the world that you want to explore further, and there is also the whole hero discovering he is someone special. I really enjoyed learning about the sleeping world as well as how it functions and works. However I felt that the book tended to rush a little too quickly for me, and I also think that somewhere in beginning the author should have mentioned there was a glossary of terms in the back of the book because I sort of struggled with the words, not realizing there was a glossary I could have used. Certain things happen a little too quickly for my liking and I still had trouble understanding the nurse's part in the book, and few times the functions of some characters have escaped me. All in all, an admirable work, but I think it does need to be slightly reworked and perhaps certain parts of how the dream world functions does need to be repeated a few times.
This was given to me as a gift by a friend, and I would like to thank her, as well as the author.
3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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