The Eye-Dancers, by newer author Michael S. Fedison turned out to be quite the fun, YA fantasy read.
Mitchell Brant, one of the stories main protagonists, is a loner of sorts – not because he wants to be, but because he just can’t seem to fit in with any of the school’s ‘cool’ crowds. It also doesn’t help that he’s gained schoolyard infamy as a liar. This isn’t the ‘who’ that he wanted to be – he only wanted to be interesting enough to merit the respect of his classmates. Of course, once Mitchell started down that slippery slope of lies, he seemed to be permanently stuck there – simply to maintain his previous untruths.
When the reader meets Mitchell, it’s the middle of the night. He has barely managed to awaken from a dream that seemed more real than imaginary. Now sporting a knee injury, (a result of said dream) Mitchell wonders if ghosts are actually real. It sure seemed to him as if the ghost of a young girl was trying to suck him into a different dimension.
Unfortunately, that’s not even the problem anymore – the real issue is who is going to believe that his weird and crazy dream actually happened? And, unbeknownst to Mitchell, in another part of the neighborhood – two more boys are having his exact same ghost-filled dream.
With that said, I don’t want to give much more of the story away – but what would you do if you went to sleep one evening only to wake up in a different decade? At a point in time that doesn’t match your own? A dimension where every aspect of your town’s history is different than what you know. Where do you go? Whom do you ask for help? More importantly, how do you return to the space and time you originated from? I guess you’ll need to get your own copy of The Eye-Dancers to have those questions answered.
In summary, The Eye-Dancers had quite the unique premise, and will certainly be a fun read for all YA fantasy readers. It’s an interesting book and I appreciate that it was very well-written. Last, but not least, Fedison did a fantastic job of making all characters, scenes, dialogues and locations (both past or present) feel very realistic and believable. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author in future. Five stars.
Review first published: http://blogcritics.org/book-review-the-eye-dancers-a-uniquely-premised-ya-fantasy-by-michael-s-fedison/