Dreams and Shadows is about a world that exists just out of our reach, a world where fairy-tales are real and they come armed with sharp teeth and pole-arms The novel begins with a couple falling deeply in love, love at first sight, and they have a baby. A creature crawls down the bedroom wall of their love nest and promptly replaces the beautiful gurgling child with a changeling and then, all hell breaks loose. This all happens in the first few pages and the novel then descends into a world of darkness, where fairies hunt humans, the Wild Hunt decimates fairies and a small boy named Colby has his seemingly innocent wishes granted by a genie. Little does Colby know, but his wishes are set to change his life, and the lives of many others (fae and human alike) forever.Love, fear, jealousy, innocence and vengeance permeate the pages of this amazing tale. I will be honest and admit that I was not too certain at the start. The tale seemed disjointed, jumping from one storyline to the next, integrated with fictional scripture on the world of fairies. However, it becomes apparent that this is deliberate as Cargill deftly merges each of these threads as the novel progresses. I found myself exclaiming aloud, "ahhhh I see", as I was leafing through the novels pages in my comfy chair at home. His style becomes addictive, you begin to love the insights of the mysterious Dr. Thaddeus Ray as he explains the pitfalls and nature of this magical world just beyond the grasp of us mere mortals.
The characters are explosive, Colby develops into a fascinating chap, trying so desperately to protect his friends, yet in spite of his wisdom he still has his wild mistakes to answer for. Ewan is a bit dippy, but this is to be expected of a child stolen by fairies, and his finale is suitably epic. Knocks, a disgusting changeling modelled on the form of Ewan, is a terrifying figure, his jealousy and vengeance oozing from the pages of the book. There are many more characters, but if I were to go on this would become a novel in itself. Needless to say, they are all memorable and leave remarkable visuals as an after-burn in the brain.
Moving on from characters, of course there is a host of weird and wonderful grotesques walking through Cargill's world. Most of these are explained by the rather helpful Dr. Thaddeus Ray as the narrative brings more and more weird and wonderful creatures to the fore. I was equally fond of and terrified of the 'red caps' a particularly nasty bunch of small chaps that survive only though keeping their rep hats dripping with the blood of their slain victims, lovely.
Speaking of visuals, the scenes are well written, the right amount of realism mixed with fantasy to create a world easily imagined and equally terrifying. There is a scene set atop a roof with a half cut angel and Colby that is impossible to forget as they pass a bottle of booze between them whilst watching the Wild Hunt from hell career through the streets below. Where would you be in an urban fantasy without some gore? Well there is a balanced amount of no nonsense blood splattering to be had, all of it relevant and none of it gratuitous which suited me just fine. Again Cargill writes enough into the descriptions to conjure up some savage visuals. This would certainly work as a film, crossing my fingers for that eventuality as I would love to see this world come to life again.
Hopefully this is not the last we will see from Cargill as an author, he has gifted to us an urban fantasy filled with action and enough of a social commentary centred on the back streets of America to keep it's feet firmly in the grounds of a good read. In my opinion a great read if you love Neil Gaiman, or like a great many of us, enjoy a journey into the more sinister world of fairies.
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