The Dark Dreamweaver is the story of David, a young boy, who is transported into Remin, a parallel world, where Thane, an evil wizard, has taken control of the Imaginator, a dream-producing device, and is causing people in our world to have nightmares instead of good dreams. In this parallel world people's dreams become a form of energy, called Spectrum, used to keep the country of Remin functioning. When the good dreams are replaced with the nightmares, the supply of Spectrum is diminished and life in Remin is at risk.

In his travels, David meets a variety of Reminites. He first meets Houdin, a good wizard, bewitched by the evil wizard so that he constantly is reborn as different creatures. In this life Houdin takes the shape of a monarch butterfly. Throughout the book Houdin experiences the different stages in a butterfly's life cycle. David also meets Kira, a sort of female warrior and Aradel, a sullen jellyfish. The three Reminites explain the power of the Imaginator to David.

"...After much study, it was determined that the real power as not the stone itself but the air around the stone. It's as if the power pours out of the stone and changes the air. There are four different elements to the power as you have by now realized Fire, water, earth and air. Four crystals were carved from pieces of the stone. Through trial and error some crystals were shaped so that each one extracted one element from the air around the stone...The four crystals were placed at this level to concentrate the power of the stone. But now that the stone's power was refined into four separate parts, a way had to be found to bring the powers back together and make them available to the people..."

In The Dark Dreamweaver, Nick Ruth attempted to write a story that appealed to young children, yet taught a number of lessons. The most obvious is the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. It also seems as if Mr. Ruth tried to teach a lesson about our reliance on fossil fuels - but perhaps I just read that into the story.

Many books written for children or young adults also largely appeal to adults. The Dark Dreamweaver is not one of them. Mr. Ruth's writing style was uneven. In places it was interesting enough, but in others it was mind-numbingly boring. Actually I am not sure who this book is written for. The main character, David, is 11 years old and much of the writing seems geared towards a 4th or 5th grader, but some parts seem to be written for someone older. Some of the conversation seems stiff - as if the author was trying to make it understandable to younger children, but didn't quite know how to do so.

The characters were an interesting lot: a butterfly, a jellyfish, two sea serpents, a lion-dog and finally, Sir Heads-a-Lot - a man who could change his appearance when the circumstances arose. In the end, most of the characters' reasons for being along on the journey were explained, but it was hard to visualize this troupe actually walking along together. I couldn't help thinking that they all belonged more in an episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants than in this story.

I had high hopes for this story. I was disappointed, however. It may appeal to children - and according to the back cover has won 7 awards and honors. There seemed to be too much going on in this book. The environmental science lessons combined with wizardry just didn't seem to work - at least not for me, but it is highly probable it does appeal to the intended audeience.