Dreams Made Flesh - Anne Bishop (10/10)

Title: Dreams Made Flesh
Author: Anne Bishop
Published: 2005
Grade: 10/10

Series: Realms of the Blood, Book 4

Why I Chose this Book:
Because I loved the "Blood" books and needed another fix

Blurb:
Set in the realm of The Black Jewels trilogy, this collection features four brand-new revelatory stories of Jaenelle and her kindred.

My Comments:
Anne Bishop continues to impress. This book contains four short stories from the past and future of the Black Jewels Realms and I love them all, but especially the ones about Lucivar and Marian and about Jaenelle and Daemon.

The first is a very short piece about how the golden spiders gained sentience and power.

The second tells the story of Lucivar and Marian's courtship. Here, Bishop shows she can take a standard romance outline and tell a magical tale. Many a romance author could read this to find out exactly how to write an alpa male and make a success of it. A brilliant success.

The third tells of a black moment in Saetan's life and explains why he never tried to keep Lucivar and Daemon when they were taken from them. We learn that he control of his power and temper was hard won and have part of the answer to the question of who would win if Saetan and Daemon ever faced off.

The fourth story takes up where "Queen of the Darkness" left off, telling the tale of how Jaenelle and Daemon reconnect as Jaenelle heals. As these two were my favourites in the main series, this was a total delight. Again, Bishop has taken a romance trope and shown how it should be done in this beautiful fantasy story.

Someone is trying to sew discord between Daemon and Jaenelle and they need all their combined strength as they combat this new enemy and come to terms with the changes in Jaenelle due to her actions in "Queen of the Darkness". As some who reads some romance (and reads about it more) this story is a triumph where the characters, facing misunderstanding and confusion sown by their enemy and their own actions, actually talk to each other and resolve the problem instead of letting it fester for hundreds of pages. Congratulations to Anne Bishop, Jaenelle and Daemon.

This story shows also shows us fundamental differences between Daemon and Jaenelle and how they compliment each other. Jaenelle does all the things she does because she loves and cares about the people around her. She stays in Challiot for Whilemena, she forms the Dark Court to save the Kindred, she does eveything she does to save the Blood. Daemon on the other hand, does the things he does solely for Jaenelle. She is his concern. His to protect and cherish. If he cares about others (and he doese) and what they think of him, it takes a distant backseat to what Jaenelle needs of and from him.

This story also provides the rest of what is needed to answer that question of a confrontation between Daemon and Saetan. Especially if it concerned Jaenelle, it would be Daemon. Saetan rightly fears his power and has a rigid control; Daemon will simply use his without any such consideration.

I have rapidly become and Anne Bishop fangirl and will happily shout her praises to the rooftops. I am not generally a short story reader, but I do love them when the further my knowledge and understanding of people and places I don't want to leave behind yet. That is exactly what "Dreams Made Flesh" does and it was a welcome addition to the tales of the Blood.