Rating: 
Summary: lacks character development, dialogue, and plot
Review: The best things about this book are the battle scenes and the historical setting. Unfortunately the characters never feel very real or believable. Key characters like Eburovic (Breaca's father) figure prominently in some sections and then disappear from the story even though they haven't gone anywhere. The second most important character, Ban (Breaca's brother), never develops a personality of his own and never feels remotely convincing.
Buyers should also be warned that sections of the book include episodes of homosexuality, rape, and sexual mutilation. Some sections are gratuitously perverse, while at other points the book reads like a gay romance novel. This book is definitely not appropriate for children.
Rating: 
Summary: Details sharp as talons!!!
Review: The prose contained within this fabulous book is both unshakable and brave. But what I think readers will most appreciate is Manda's eye to detail. Her descriptions of the eagle were so archly vivid and so palpable, that every night I was reading this book (for over a 3 week period!) I would wake up in a sweat, after having dreamt deeply about the eagle--just as she described it--inch for inch. That alone made this book worth reading! Not to mention all the philosophical things it make me think about.
Rating: 
Summary: She's working too hard. Overwritten.
Review: There is no reason not to like this fantasy-like lore of an early English warrior queen. The idea is fantastic. The problems are:
-Manda Scott goes on forever. Philip Pullman can give you a terse sentence describing a place, and you'll know what he means and the way it makes the characters feel in the way you can get the sense a place by glancing around. Manda Scott is not so blessed. She uses language naturally well - everything is well-written - but it's OVERwritten. (P.S. I confess that I never finished it.)-Breaca's character is nothing special and you are stuck with her for 500+ pages. Caradoc is not remarkable either. -This is not Ms. Scott's fault, but many people have studied this era so little that this book is confusing. -The whole book is so dark and mysterious, it reminds be of the Lord of the Rings DVDs--cryptic, poorly-lit and overlong. But I still give 3 stars for hard work, a good idea, and nice writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreaming The Bull
Review: Well....I read Dreaming the Eagle first by Manda Scott and didn't particularly like it. I found that the characters were superhuman and grew up very fast. The dreaming all the time made me wonder if they were stoned half the time. There were of course many things I did like it and I pressed on to read Book 11, Dreaming the Bull.
It can only be said that if one was too add up the number of people killed it would make one wonder how many people were left in Britiania to carry on. And the wounds that people received would be enough to sink a battle ship.
One positive thing is that the book is extremely well written and I was gently drawn in to the world of Breaca and Ban. The descriptions of the battles are amazing. One feels as if one is on one of the horses at the height of the battle, and I felt a real kinship with Hail. I realize that a good part of the book is fiction but I am now encouraged to read the books listed in the Bibliography.
Manda's command of dialogue is superb. One can see the logic unfolding behind each character's decision to act. Things are very well talked out. One suspects that in actual history it would not have been so. However, I recommend this book to everyone, even if you were not impressed with the first book, you must read the second. It leaves you hanging and I can hardly wait for the third. I hope the powers that be make this series into a movie.
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