Thomcat
5/9/2021
Written 40 years ago, the strong female characters help it feel more recent. One of them may be a representation of the author, both graduate students of history. The first book of a series, with a larger story that is unresolved.
The story starts in the main characters dreams of a fantasy world in trouble. Dreams are reality, on the other side of a portal soon used by the main characters. During the late 70s and early 80s, there were many stories written with this theme. Another trope used often then was that the main characters can't go home again, at least not yet. Here the reason fits with the larger story of an evil Dark - nebulous creatures who can drain their victims mindless.
The characters are key here on both sides of the portal, and their reactions to this world are the story of this first book. Similar to Star Wars and Tolkien, a battle has been won against the enemy, but the war is far from over. The remaining two books in the trilogy were published the following year, so I have confidence the author has a good plan for the larger story.
Two additional books and a few short stories are available, all published more than 10 years after the initial trilogy. Not sure when I will tackle them, but I plan to read books 2 and 3 fairly soon.