Have you ever been in the middle of a dream when you realize that you are aware enough to change what is happening? Sometimes called lucid dreaming? For me, it is usually early in the morning when I don’t really need any more sleep. It’s a unique experience to have a conscious dream. And, it’s this very ability that the main character of the fantasy book Coyote Dreams by C.E. Murphy has, which I found to be very intriguing.

The main character, Joanne Walker, a.k.a. Siobbhan Walkingstick, is a shaman who does most of her work in the astral plane and most of her communications through dreams. A good bit of the story occurs in visions interacting with mystical guides such as the raven, the coyote, and other American Indian legends.

Joanne is a tough Seattle police woman who has reluctantly discovered that her healing powers are needed again when a good portion of the police department fails to show up for work. It appears that they have all gone to sleep and no one is able to wake them up. Using her powers as a shaman, Joanne realizes the sleepers are being slowly drained of their life forces by some parasitic type of magic. As her investigation progresses, she realizes she’s the source of the coma problem and she’s got to move fast to save her friends, her fellow officers–and eventually, the world.

The character of Joanne is well developed and it’s enjoyable getting to know her in the book. She’s tough and vulnerable at the same time and I like that combination in a female lead character. All of the male characters are described as good looking, except perhaps Gary, a friend of hers, who is a good bit older than the other characters. But even he is compared to Sean Connery by Joanne, and that makes him pretty good looking to me. The nice thing about the male characters in the book is that they are intriguing, they all have a ‘real’ personality, and they engage your interest as one tries to evaluate their romantic potential for ending up with Joanne.

If you’ve read previous entries in this fantasy book series you know that Joanne has a love/hate relationship with her boss. I’ll bet you’re wondering if anything comes to fruition in this book . . . let’s just say that anything can happen in dreams. And, like in dreams, when you wake up you wonder “did this really happen”? You’ll have to read this one to find out!

This fantasy book was a change of pace for me. The use of dreams as the communication path gives you a different approach to the urban fantasy novel. Joanne spends about half of the book in some kind of trance giving wonderful descriptions of her dream world which makes you want to be there as well. C. E. Murphy provides us with a unique setting that you are happy to jump into, postponing your own dream world as needed, in order to finish her novel. Check it out at online retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Note: this book is also suitable for young adult readers.