The best fiction books incorporating dreams

Cliff Jones Jr. has threaded together an impressive anthology with Mirrormaze: A Dreampunk Anthology. I think the structure of the book with prompts to guide you through the maze makes this anthology distinctive. The stories cover a variety of genres but are always tied to that central topic, dreams.

There are many outstanding stories that I found interesting in their structure and content, but I won’t give anything away to influence your choices, you have to determine your own gems. The stories are well written, enjoyable, they make you reflect and with almost 30 stories, there are many viewpoints of what constitutes a ‘dream’.

It took me several weeks to meander my way through the maze, I’d jump in every time I had free time. I love short story anthologies, you can read a couple, be carried away to an imagined time and place, fall back to reality, until it’s time to ‘dream with eyes wide open’ again when you open the book or device.

I strongly recommend Mirrormaze: A Dreampunk Anthology to all readers because everyone can relate to the fascinating journeys dreams take us on.

The Dream Master was originally published in Amazing (Jan/Feb 1965) titled, He Who Shapes. The novella won Roger Zelazny a Nebula Award in 1966. I have re-read this novel several times over the years, and subconsciously I think it influenced the premise for Dream Phaze. Some of the tech is a little outdated by today’s terms, but the overall idea is still fresh.

This is a novel I have read several times. George Orr, the protagonist, has the power to alter the past and his present reality via his dreams, which gives him an unwelcome God-like advantage. The skillfully descriptive narrative explores psychological and philosophical threads of what George does with this power compelling the reader to think about the moral dilemmas and consequences. I think this is one of my favourite novels because it analyses the morality of how George and others use his “gift”. Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my favourite sci-fi authors and this novel was nominated for several awards and won the 1972 Locus Award for Best Novel.

I first read The Handmaid’s Tale in 1986 and it had an immediate impact. The dark dystopian world that Atwood creates could be compared with George Orwell’s, 1984. Offred escapes her dismal existence through dreams, as did Winston Smith in 1984. The book conveys powerful messages on society and how quickly things can unravel. There are only a handful of novels since 1980 that I feel are influential in near-future science fiction and The Handmaid’s Tale is definitely one of them in my opinion.

With similarities to Haruki Murakami’s style of writing, I love the structure of this novel. Told in the first-person narrative via 8 eclectic chapters, Mitchell weaves the captivating story of Eiji. Don’t try and preempt or anticipate what is going on, just go with the words written on the page and you will be swept up into Eiji’s surreal quest. The theme is a common one, boy searches for father, but it is beautifully written and executed.