Posted by Dave Thewlis on November 26, 2014 at 05:43:58 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: Re: Things We Don't Like! posted by Roger Wardale on November 26, 2014 at 05:14:30:
That "it was all a dream" business is essentially the same device as that used in Red Moon, Black Mountain, The Dark Is Rising sequence, and many other children's books where at the end after all the adventures and the effect on the protagonists, suddenly zappo! and they don't remember it or "it never really happened". I always felt cheated by it and even today think it is unnecessary, an uncomfortable author's way of suddenly dragging the story "back into real life" although it manifestly wasn't in the first place. The readers never imagined it was (or wasn't), or cared, until right at the end where it's rubbed in their faces.