In “Dreamwalk” (January 2003), the sixth book of the “Roswell” tie-in series, Paul Ruditis bridges Kyle’s trauma over the death of Alex at the end of Season 2 with his deepening friendship with Isabel, as seen in Season 3. I think this could’ve made for a striking episode, as it chronicles Isabel’s adventures inside Kyle’s head. It also would’ve called for two young actors: a 6-year-old version of Kyle, plus a 12-year-old boy who Liz and Max are babysitting over the weekend.
In the rush of revelations at the end of Season 2, one of the things that gets lost in the shuffle is that Tess had mind-warped Kyle into carrying Alex’s body out to the car, thinking it’s a duffel bag. Ruditis – who also wrote a decent entry in the excellent “Buffy” anthology “How I Survived My Summer Vacation” (2000) – pairs that trauma with something that’s central to Kyle’s life but is never mentioned on the show: his mom, Michelle, leaving him and his dad when he was younger.
If “Dreamwalk” was a TV episode, it could’ve done the trick from the “Buffy” episode “Restless” wherein the filmmakers use the natural layout of the sets to evoke dream logic – for instance, Kyle’s bedroom door leading directly to a hallway in the Roswell sheriff’s station. Isabel being stuck in someone’s dream illustrates the dangerous side of dreamwalking in more robust fashion than is seen on the TV series.
Ruditis peppers a sense of mystery into the other thread, wherein Max and Liz babysit Jason, who had been like a younger brother to Liz until he moved to the nearby town of Artesia. Jason is acting morose, but is it normal teenage behavior or something more? And why is the house so utterly spotless? The author spends a lot of words building up the mystery without giving us a great payoff. It turns out he’s being abused by his stepdad, and we don’t actually see any resolution, although Max and Liz vow to help him.
The author introduces a better mystery in just one sentence in the epilogue. Isabel can’t shake the thought that Kyle’s mom left her husband and son the same year that Isabel, Max and Michael exited the pods. I wonder if Ruditis is setting up a thread for later books in the series. If not, this idea could’ve beefed up “Dreamwalk” by being explored here. Even if it turned out to be a false lead, learning more about Michelle and why she left would help us understand Kyle and Jim more.
Ruditis does a nice job with the summer-after-Season-2 continuity, but in a rather flat way. Jim begins to get back into music, something that will lead to his formation of the Kit Shickers. Jesse and Isabel are dating on the sly, and Isabel has to be careful to keep it that way.
The best part of “Dreamwalk” is Isabel and Kyle simply spending a day together as friends, as she tries to tire him out enough that he’ll be able to fall asleep without being beset by nightmares about Alex’s death. Kyle and Isabel fans will like this book, but its exploration of the other members of the Pod Squad is rather slight, as Ruditis seems to be laying groundwork for future novels rather than putting it all into this one.
