The Secret World of Basilius Hoffman: The Dream Snatcher (352 pages), published in 2011, is the first in an ongoing series of books devoted to the explorer of hidden worlds Basilius Hoffman and his exploits to gain the legendary Cartographer’s Diary in the company of his nephew. Two other volumes have been published: A Lighthouse in the Dark (2013) and The Battle for Avalon (2015). The book is divided into fourteen chapters, each with an illustration by Ivan Valladares at the beginning and end.

In chapter 1, Peter Hillman is a twelve-year-old boarder at a prestigious school. He is waiting outside for his parents to arrive and take him away for the Christmas holidays. His parents are late and immediately inform him that they have to go on an urgent journey, so he will be spending the holidays with his mother’s brother, Uncle Basilius, whom Peter hasn’t seen in three or four years. His uncle is an eccentric character who comes down to meet them in a pair of mismatched slippers. He has just come back from a trip to Australia and plays them a few notes on a Yidaki, a kind of didgeridoo, during which Peter is transported to the top of a mountain and feels a sense of liberation. When he goes to bed that night in his uncle’s house, a catlike creature enters his room and sprinkles sand over the child. Uncle Basilius enters the room, but fails to catch the creature, which escapes through a window. He thinks it may have been a Sandman, but it seems the creature was stealing Peter’s dream, which is now in the sand. The two decide to investigate.

In chapter 2, after Uncle Basilius has rung a bell with a golden hammer three times, they sit down to wait until through the clouds there appears a hot-air balloon called the Argestes. The balloon is piloted by Xonás, who greets them cordially and invites them on board, where they also meet Miss Juliet, an aeronautical engineer who has been carrying out repairs, and travel to the City of Rooftops, where people live on rooftops, above the streets, and treasure forgotten artefacts. In the middle of the city is a square with a golden lighthouse. Peter is mesmerized by the scene, although at one point he suddenly feels observed by a tall man in a hat and coat. They leave the square and head for the realm of a certain Rivka, a woman who speaks the language of cats.

In chapter 3, Rivka, who toys with them like a cat, informs them that the strange creature who tried to steal Peter’s dream belongs to a race of felines that has been displaced by humans and wishes to regain control of the world. They steal dreams from children in order to retrieve the knowledge replaced by Reason that will enable them to connect two worlds. Uncle Basilius and Peter are forced to escape, since the felines now know they are there. They seek refuge in an old bell tower, pursued by the strange felines, but their passage is blocked by a heavy trapdoor. They finally manage to get through, but the felines climb the wall. Suddenly the Argestes arrives – someone has activated the emergency signal, perhaps Rivka – and they manage to board, repelling the felines with a jar of angry red bull ants Uncle Basilius has brought from Australia.

In chapter 4, Peter wakes up in bed and deduces that the previous night’s adventures have been a dream. However, there is a present waiting for him in his room – a leather notebook with the beginning of a tale about a prince who wishes to leave his father’s kingdom in order to see the world. The king refuses his son’s wish and says, if he leaves, he will disinherit him. Peter attempts to do his school homework, but eventually he starts writing the rest of the story, in which the prince, Iskiel, visits a famous wizard, Azarot, who promises to let him leave without his father’s knowledge in return for a bag of gold and the choice of anyone he likes as apprentice when Iskiel becomes king. Azarot wants Iskiel’s firstborn son, but Iskiel refuses to let this happen. However, the bargain has been struck; Azarot says that for 999 days no one will know who he is. When Iskiel tries to return to the palace, they throw him out. Meanwhile, Uncle Basilius has discovered a compass that will enable them to track down the sand for stealing dreams and thus to locate the felines. When Peter tells him about the man in a hat and coat spying on them, Uncle Basilius is horrified and says they will have to inform the Brotherhood.

In chapter 5, they travel by car (a pearl-white Cadillac convertible) to a castle in the middle of a lake: Avalon, where the Truth is preserved against human reason, the Truth that enables us to discern the future and make our own choices without upsetting the world’s balance. Uncle Basilius asks a messenger, Clarence, to convene an emergency meeting of the Council. Peter explains how in the City of Rooftops he was observed by a tall man in a hat and coat. When he adds that the man was holding a stick emitting a green light, the members of the Council are appalled: after seven years, it seems that an old pupil of Uncle Basilius’, called Gabriel, has returned.

In chapter 6, Uncle Basilius explains how he first met Gabriel as a young man in Greece with a particular interest in lost civilizations. Basilius introduced him to the Brotherhood, and he became an expert in maps. He discovered a page from the legendary Cartographer’s Diary, which revealed the location of the Staff of Command in a hidden valley in the Himalayas. Four members of the Brotherhood, including Gabriel and Basilius, recovered the Staff, which had been left to Gabriel by the Cartographer himself, Nicolai Kavriedich, in a letter dated before Gabriel was born. Gabriel wanted to use the Staff to investigate the land of mists or underworld beneath the City of Rooftops, but the Council refused him permission, so he stole the Staff despite Basilius’ efforts to stop him. The Council is afraid that Gabriel has returned from the land of mists and that the Staff is now capable of swallowing up spiritual energy. Meanwhile, Basilius has had a claw of one of the strange felines analyzed: it seems they are 7000-year-old mummies that have been brought back from the dead.

In chapter 7, Basilius and Peter visit the library in Avalon and discover that there was a cemetery of mummified cats in Bubastis, the cult centre of the Egyptian goddess Bastet, protector of cats. They assume that this is where their feline attackers have come from and that Gabriel, using the powers of the Staff, has brought them back from the underworld for a particular purpose. It turns out that an ally of Uncle Basilius’, Abel Rinkin, who didn’t appear at the Council’s emergency meeting, has been investigating the same subject. They find a note in his handwriting, ‘Sol Invictus’, referring to the winter solstice, and references to ostraca, potsherds used for writing, on one of which a cat is depicted subjugating a human. They visit Abel Rinkin’s house, only to find that it has been ransacked. While Basilius is upstairs, Peter catches sight of Gabriel, who disappears. They learn that a gold mask of Bastet has been stolen from the local museum.

In chapter 8, Basilius and Peter receive a parcel containing the gold mask of Bastet, which has been sent by Rinkin from Cairo with the message: ‘Protect it with your life, there isn’t much time’. Meanwhile, Peter continues his story about the prince Iskiel, who meets an itinerant artist called Branigan. Branigan introduces Iskiel to a sage, who explains that the only way to break a magical contract is to look inside the Crimson Heart belonging to a knight. Branigan and Iskiel entertain the knight and then find the Crimson Heart in his castle. Iskiel looks inside but, just to make sure, they decide to steal the heart, which is a ruby. Iskiel, however, is double-crossed by Branigan, who leaves him in the hands of the knight’s guards. Basilius and Peter visit the museum and discover that a sistrum and an ostracon were stolen with the mask. They also realize that the winter solstice according to the Julian calendar is on Christmas Day, which is when they expect their time to run out. They hear on the car radio that cats are disappearing from homes and a snowstorm has enveloped Cairo. They visit the museum’s curator, Professor Seimandi, who explains that Abel Rinkin suspected a toy factory, Wonderland Toys, of being behind the robbery. When they visit the factory, Uncle Basilius disappears inside and Peter is rendered unconscious.

In chapter 9, Basilius discovers that they are fabricating toys using the dreams of children. He is then confronted by Gabriel. Meanwhile, Peter has been captured by Rivka, who hands him over to the Master, a man in a lion’s mask. In the factory, Gabriel helps Basilius to escape. His name is now Duncan, and it was he who activated the emergency signal to summon the Argestes. He says only he can stop the felines conquering the world with his Staff, but he needs the gold mask. Basilius agrees to hand it over if Gabriel, now Duncan, will help him rescue Peter. In chapter 10, Abel Rinkin is captured by the Master and Rivka in Cairo. In the City of Rooftops, Rivka tells Peter the story of the lighthouse: how a lighthouse keeper, Giuseppe, set his lighthouse on fire in order to warn a passenger ship of impending danger, then set to sea on a raft, only to return with a golden box, which enabled him to transport the old lighthouse to the City of Rooftops, where he continued to guide people. Peter is then transported with the Master and Rivka to a snowy desert. Meanwhile, Basilius and Duncan enter the City of Rooftops, where they come across Samuel, who informs them that The Cartographer’s Diary has been divided into parts, each of which will perform a set function. Basilius and Duncan pass through the same portal as the Master, Rivka and Peter. They arrive in an abandoned Egyptian village, not far from the Pyramids, which are covered in snow.

In chapter 11, Peter is confined in a railway carriage, where he encounters Abel Rinkin. Rinkin relates the legend of how Ra decided to punish humans, having his daughter Bastet turn herself into the warrior lioness Sekhmet, who rendered Egypt a desert. She could only be placated when confronted by a gold mask of herself. But then humans started destroying Sekhmet’s allies, the feline creatures, and the door to the kingdom of the gods was finally closed. Rinkin explains that the Master wishes to reopen that door, ushering in an era of wealth and fertility for Egypt, with himself as pharaoh, but at a terrible cost, for Sekhmet will not pardon the other humans. Only the mask can stop her. Rinkin gives Peter a small hammer, which he uses to ring the train’s bell, thereby summoning the Argestes. When he tries to escape, however, Rivka follows him, the Argestes is shot down, and Peter and Rivka land in the snowy desert, where they are surrounded by armed nomads. In chapter 12, Rivka is removed by the guards, but Peter is dressed in royal clothes and betrothed to the princess. The local king believes that Peter has fallen from the sky in fulfilment of a prophecy that says the sixth sun will bring a new king (obviously Peter) and a princess (presumably Rivka) whose sacrifice will appease Sekhmet’s wrath. Peter asks the king’s daughter, his apparent bride, to help him escape. Meanwhile, the train on which Abel Rinkin is travelling stops, and the Master uses the energy of children’s dreams contained in the sand to raise the Temple of Bastet from the desert. A swarm of feline creatures is summoned by the sistrum to protect it.

In chapter 13, the king’s daughter, Kahina, helps Peter and Rivka to escape on a camel, which takes them to the Temple of Bastet. Meanwhile, Basilius and Duncan reach the same location, where Duncan demands the mask, Basilius refuses and runs into the temple. Duncan confronts the Master. The Staff, however, has no effect on the Master, who is protected by his lion’s mask and begins to overcome Duncan. Basilius, wearing Bastet’s mask, comes to the aid of his former pupil and discovers that the Master is in fact the curator Professor Seimandi. Basilius and Seimandi engage in a sword fight, but Basilius is forced to concede in order to save Peter, who has been recaptured by Rivka. Despite Duncan’s protests, Basilius gives Seimandi Bastet’s mask, the goddess Sekhmet reappears and is about to destroy Basilius and Peter, but Rivka, in an about-face, sacrifices herself to save the others. In chapter 14, Peter understands that Rivka was Sekhmet’s daughter. When Sekhmet realizes this, she relinquishes her anger and turns back into Bastet. With their tears, the cats bring Rivka back to life. Bastet reveals that Basilius will discover what he is looking for, but that Reason will end up taking control. She and Rivka depart to the other world, which has been separated from this one by the choices of humans. The Argestes arrives just in time to take Basilius, Peter, Rinkin and Duncan away before a group of angry nomads can reach them. Duncan then leaves, insisting that he and Basilius keep a certain secret that Peter doesn’t know. Back at Basilius’ house, it is Christmas Day. Peter’s parents arrive and agree to let Peter stay in the city with Uncle Basilius instead of returning to his boarding school. For the first time, he has a real home.

This novel, which has sold very well in Galicia and been enthusiastically received by book groups and on social media, effectively combines fantastic elements, myths and legends to present the story of a boy, Peter, who is not afraid to follow his dreams. There is a strong message to the reader that we should not be limited by the impositions of others and that even the smallest gestures can make a difference. Obvious influences are the creators Jules Verne, Michael Ende and Hayao Miyazaki. Five novels are planned in the series, and Spanish translations of the first two have been published by Sushi Books.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne