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chrisu12's review
3.0
A very different sci-fi book that I got the opportunity to read. We follow Alex, a young man in a distant, dystopian future, where human kind has created a new society on a distant moon. The new world is colorful and beautiful, which can be seen on the book cover, however, the society is very dark. Capitalism, individualism, and colonization are a part of this society, which have a very weak social security net, which leads to alcoholism, drug-abuse, prostitution and a very dark side in the society. Alex is one of these, a deeply depressed young man that doesn't fit the society's mold and norm, with large childhood trauma, which has led him into a very dark place. Finally, he chooses to sleep in a science pod, were his body is used as fuel and building blocks, while he dreams and never wake up. Until he does.
The book was very different to what I normally read, very dark, not necessarily due to the violence, more from its tone and how much it deals with Alex's depression and struggle with life. I struggled in the beginning, up until about 50% of the book, when we meet Tom, which adds some hope to the story. The first-person perspective and the main character mainly reacting to everything inside, instead of actively talking and acting was another struggle for me.
The science fiction part of the book came more visibly towards the end, which peaked my interest, as well as the added hope to the story, which was very absent in the beginning. Overall an interesting story that was a bit different to the books I normally read
The book was very different to what I normally read, very dark, not necessarily due to the violence, more from its tone and how much it deals with Alex's depression and struggle with life. I struggled in the beginning, up until about 50% of the book, when we meet Tom, which adds some hope to the story. The first-person perspective and the main character mainly reacting to everything inside, instead of actively talking and acting was another struggle for me.
The science fiction part of the book came more visibly towards the end, which peaked my interest, as well as the added hope to the story, which was very absent in the beginning. Overall an interesting story that was a bit different to the books I normally read
mattpfarr's review
3.0
I was given a free copy of this book for an honest review.
I Dream in Colour is a debut novella from Sarah Mazza. It follows the story of a very broken Alex as he comes out of a dream pod quite unexpectedly; the pod he chose to live in to escape the trauma and addiction that rattled his life. After waking, he chooses not to return to the pod. Now he has to deal with his old self he was running away from.
Throughout most of the story, which takes place on a space colony in another universe, the scifi elements are really background, even minimalist. Ending aside, this story could have easily taken place anywhere. While I enjoy a really deep worldbuilding and setting, it is kind of nice sometimes to just have a story told that doesn't have the scifi/fantasy elements forced in. The strength of Sarah's storytelling here is exploring the depths of the despair of trauma, addiction, and helplessness. Alex wants to get clean, but can't. He doesn't really have anything to look forward to even if he does get clean. Just to see his trauma in a clearer light. This was so clearly articulated, I kept asking myself what the heck happened to the author! But I think that thought comes out of how well it was evoked on the page. Unfortunately, I really felt like other elements were getting in the way and distracting from the story of trauma and self defeat that Alex was going through. Maybe in a longer book, other elements could have had room. It even became clearer at the end of the book that wasn't actually the story we are here to experience. Which, for me, was disappointing. I was really engrossed in Alex's mess but it seems we've gone another direction now.
As you can expect in a book about an addict who was in a dream pod for years, the narrator is a little shaky on how much can be trusted. There were a couple little things that didn't make sense though that I think were not due to that. When Alex wakes up, the director of the program mentions they don't have a plan for what to do if someone wakes up, stating nobody ever has before. Which I found to be completely unbelievable. There is no way an authoritative government would allow a program that takes people (volunteers) and puts them permanently in sleeping pods and harvests from their bodies without having a plan for if someone wakes up. I get that the intent was to have confusion in the scene, but that can be achieved with them bungling up the plan. As it would be very believable for them to be freaked out. Or just have a low level person say it and be wrong. When the leader of the whole thing says it, most likely it is true.
This is a pretty typical dystopian authoritative government. Because the story mostly focuses on Alex's demons, we don't get a whole lot of information about the government. It is an advanced society though that colonized in another universe. They do a lot of oppression specifically against homosexuals and trans. Which honestly felt a little forced in. I still don't know why the government in this setting would care about that. Towards the end Alex starts to learn more about the government's motivations he didn't know about which causes him to start to rethink how he views it. However, then the story ends, so we don't really get to see the result of that.
Towards the end, a new character is introduced in a very strange way. I was actually quite confused in the last chapters, though it does explain in the end. But then the new character doesn't really matter in the end because it ends to soon.
Like I said, the setting is really background, but what we do get is quite interesting. The alien lifeforms on the planet are quite interesting and terrifying. In a very short passage, there are some interesting cultural elements introduced that made me very engaged with it.
Overall, I wish the story had been a bit longer to really explore some of the elements. Some parts seemed shortcutted. For instance, in one scene Alex is in line to get work. They inform him his paperwork hasn't processed and it will take weeks. He walks away distraught because he has no way to eat for those coming weeks. I was very concerned with how he would solve the problem. Then....the next paragraph is a time jump to him starting his job. So the tension was just lost. This is the first book in a series though and I want to read the rest. I really want to know more about Alex's journey. I am a little worried though with how this one ended that we won't have time for that. There are quite big stakes to worry about now for the next book and Alex's internal battle seems like it might take a back seat. I think it is a testament to how well his character was written that I care more about that than the events I don't want to spoil here.
I would recommend this book though the trauma elements are written so well, that it could be pretty difficult for some still processing some of their own. I'd say give it a go though. As a self published book, I thought it was very professional. I did find one typo, but overall it seemed a great overall product. I did give this the same stars I gave Brandon Sanderson's debut work I also just finished and he is one of my favorite authors.
I Dream in Colour is a debut novella from Sarah Mazza. It follows the story of a very broken Alex as he comes out of a dream pod quite unexpectedly; the pod he chose to live in to escape the trauma and addiction that rattled his life. After waking, he chooses not to return to the pod. Now he has to deal with his old self he was running away from.
Throughout most of the story, which takes place on a space colony in another universe, the scifi elements are really background, even minimalist. Ending aside, this story could have easily taken place anywhere. While I enjoy a really deep worldbuilding and setting, it is kind of nice sometimes to just have a story told that doesn't have the scifi/fantasy elements forced in. The strength of Sarah's storytelling here is exploring the depths of the despair of trauma, addiction, and helplessness. Alex wants to get clean, but can't. He doesn't really have anything to look forward to even if he does get clean. Just to see his trauma in a clearer light. This was so clearly articulated, I kept asking myself what the heck happened to the author! But I think that thought comes out of how well it was evoked on the page. Unfortunately, I really felt like other elements were getting in the way and distracting from the story of trauma and self defeat that Alex was going through. Maybe in a longer book, other elements could have had room. It even became clearer at the end of the book that wasn't actually the story we are here to experience. Which, for me, was disappointing. I was really engrossed in Alex's mess but it seems we've gone another direction now.
As you can expect in a book about an addict who was in a dream pod for years, the narrator is a little shaky on how much can be trusted. There were a couple little things that didn't make sense though that I think were not due to that. When Alex wakes up, the director of the program mentions they don't have a plan for what to do if someone wakes up, stating nobody ever has before. Which I found to be completely unbelievable. There is no way an authoritative government would allow a program that takes people (volunteers) and puts them permanently in sleeping pods and harvests from their bodies without having a plan for if someone wakes up. I get that the intent was to have confusion in the scene, but that can be achieved with them bungling up the plan. As it would be very believable for them to be freaked out. Or just have a low level person say it and be wrong. When the leader of the whole thing says it, most likely it is true.
This is a pretty typical dystopian authoritative government. Because the story mostly focuses on Alex's demons, we don't get a whole lot of information about the government. It is an advanced society though that colonized in another universe. They do a lot of oppression specifically against homosexuals and trans. Which honestly felt a little forced in. I still don't know why the government in this setting would care about that. Towards the end Alex starts to learn more about the government's motivations he didn't know about which causes him to start to rethink how he views it. However, then the story ends, so we don't really get to see the result of that.
Towards the end, a new character is introduced in a very strange way. I was actually quite confused in the last chapters, though it does explain in the end. But then the new character doesn't really matter in the end because it ends to soon.
Like I said, the setting is really background, but what we do get is quite interesting. The alien lifeforms on the planet are quite interesting and terrifying. In a very short passage, there are some interesting cultural elements introduced that made me very engaged with it.
Overall, I wish the story had been a bit longer to really explore some of the elements. Some parts seemed shortcutted. For instance, in one scene Alex is in line to get work. They inform him his paperwork hasn't processed and it will take weeks. He walks away distraught because he has no way to eat for those coming weeks. I was very concerned with how he would solve the problem. Then....the next paragraph is a time jump to him starting his job. So the tension was just lost. This is the first book in a series though and I want to read the rest. I really want to know more about Alex's journey. I am a little worried though with how this one ended that we won't have time for that. There are quite big stakes to worry about now for the next book and Alex's internal battle seems like it might take a back seat. I think it is a testament to how well his character was written that I care more about that than the events I don't want to spoil here.
I would recommend this book though the trauma elements are written so well, that it could be pretty difficult for some still processing some of their own. I'd say give it a go though. As a self published book, I thought it was very professional. I did find one typo, but overall it seemed a great overall product. I did give this the same stars I gave Brandon Sanderson's debut work I also just finished and he is one of my favorite authors.
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