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briewoodfiction's review
4.0
Miles Cressman's debut is exemplary of the promising side of indie publishing, a solid and technical read that demands a certain caliber of reader to fully plumb its depths. The story is a heady affair that does not insult the reader's intelligence and allows for drawing one's own conclusions before tying up the ends on its own.
As a first novel it is not without its flaws. Speed bumps in the prose can interrupt the flow and some of the lingering plot threads will not pay off fully unless one is prepared to absorb the entire series. This is by design and while I've yet to launch into the other installments yet, I'm confident that Cressman's craft will come into its own as you follow him from one book to the next.
I feel that this first novel suffers from a somewhat schizophrenic presentation; the story itself would be found too complex by casual readers, while the prose isn't quite up to the heights of an M. John Harrison or similar mainstay of speculative fiction, thus perhaps losing the interest of more die-hard science fiction fans. A professional eye and a layer of polish would have done wonders, but this is a forgivable lament for an independent title.
Nonetheless I finished the book at a good fast clip and never found myself bored or overwhelmed. I look forward to moving onto the next book in the series and would absolutely recommend The Dream Metropolis to the open-minded reader.
As a first novel it is not without its flaws. Speed bumps in the prose can interrupt the flow and some of the lingering plot threads will not pay off fully unless one is prepared to absorb the entire series. This is by design and while I've yet to launch into the other installments yet, I'm confident that Cressman's craft will come into its own as you follow him from one book to the next.
I feel that this first novel suffers from a somewhat schizophrenic presentation; the story itself would be found too complex by casual readers, while the prose isn't quite up to the heights of an M. John Harrison or similar mainstay of speculative fiction, thus perhaps losing the interest of more die-hard science fiction fans. A professional eye and a layer of polish would have done wonders, but this is a forgivable lament for an independent title.
Nonetheless I finished the book at a good fast clip and never found myself bored or overwhelmed. I look forward to moving onto the next book in the series and would absolutely recommend The Dream Metropolis to the open-minded reader.
jessicadennett's review
3.0
* Received copy for honest review *
My explanation of this book might be rubbish but let's go with it. It's a novel set in a dream. Everyone's dream. A company have created this city where people can dream basically it's set in a world where everyone in the city is really asleep and it is all a dream and while they all think they are just dreaming but being given a chance to dream forever they are actually dreaming of real people who are also dreaming along with them. They get kind of skips in dreams and most of them do kind of control the dreams with their thoughts.
It follows quite a lot of characters which at first I thought was It's downfall but as the book went along and you figured out who people really were and their relationships with one another in the dreams and in reality it really became one of the most interesting parts. All the characters that it followed were completely different and very interesting and some of their stories did make me cry a little, especially Abele and Caine :-\ .
I did feel like sometimes we didn't really get to know enough about the world or the characters until the last second. there are still some people that I have no idea what their meaning was in the grand scheme of things. I do have to give this book and author major props for the fact that while inception boggles my mind even after seeing it three or four times I understood all the ins and outs of this dream world as it doesn't try to explain the ins and outs of dreaming and stuff. It gives you the world as it is and doesn't try to make you understand why it is the way it is.
I loved the reasons why all these people decided that they wanted to dream forever. Like all their reasons for wanting to escape reality ranged from petty reasons that they could get over to big horrible issues that you can understand a person wanting to leave reality behind for. There were stories of people's dreams in the dream city that made me laugh and feel sad at the same time and they were basically really interesting.
Overall I gave this book 3 Stars because while I wasn't fully engaged in all the characters there were some that I really loved and with as many POVs as there was in this book, I can't blame myself for disliking some of them. but the city itself and all the world building was excellent and I would definitely recommend it!
My explanation of this book might be rubbish but let's go with it. It's a novel set in a dream. Everyone's dream. A company have created this city where people can dream basically it's set in a world where everyone in the city is really asleep and it is all a dream and while they all think they are just dreaming but being given a chance to dream forever they are actually dreaming of real people who are also dreaming along with them. They get kind of skips in dreams and most of them do kind of control the dreams with their thoughts.
It follows quite a lot of characters which at first I thought was It's downfall but as the book went along and you figured out who people really were and their relationships with one another in the dreams and in reality it really became one of the most interesting parts. All the characters that it followed were completely different and very interesting and some of their stories did make me cry a little, especially Abele and Caine :-\ .
I did feel like sometimes we didn't really get to know enough about the world or the characters until the last second. there are still some people that I have no idea what their meaning was in the grand scheme of things. I do have to give this book and author major props for the fact that while inception boggles my mind even after seeing it three or four times I understood all the ins and outs of this dream world as it doesn't try to explain the ins and outs of dreaming and stuff. It gives you the world as it is and doesn't try to make you understand why it is the way it is.
I loved the reasons why all these people decided that they wanted to dream forever. Like all their reasons for wanting to escape reality ranged from petty reasons that they could get over to big horrible issues that you can understand a person wanting to leave reality behind for. There were stories of people's dreams in the dream city that made me laugh and feel sad at the same time and they were basically really interesting.
Overall I gave this book 3 Stars because while I wasn't fully engaged in all the characters there were some that I really loved and with as many POVs as there was in this book, I can't blame myself for disliking some of them. but the city itself and all the world building was excellent and I would definitely recommend it!
booksandbelle's review
3.0
* Received copy for honest review *
My explanation of this book might be rubbish but let's go with it. It's a novel set in a dream. Everyone's dream. A company have created this city where people can dream basically it's set in a world where everyone in the city is really asleep and it is all a dream and while they all think they are just dreaming but being given a chance to dream forever they are actually dreaming of real people who are also dreaming along with them. They get kind of skips in dreams and most of them do kind of control the dreams with their thoughts.
It follows quite a lot of characters which at first I thought was It's downfall but as the book went along and you figured out who people really were and their relationships with one another in the dreams and in reality it really became one of the most interesting parts. All the characters that it followed were completely different and very interesting and some of their stories did make me cry a little, especially Abele and Caine :-\ .
I did feel like sometimes we didn't really get to know enough about the world or the characters until the last second. there are still some people that I have no idea what their meaning was in the grand scheme of things. I do have to give this book and author major props for the fact that while inception boggles my mind even after seeing it three or four times I understood all the ins and outs of this dream world as it doesn't try to explain the ins and outs of dreaming and stuff. It gives you the world as it is and doesn't try to make you understand why it is the way it is.
I loved the reasons why all these people decided that they wanted to dream forever. Like all their reasons for wanting to escape reality ranged from petty reasons that they could get over to big horrible issues that you can understand a person wanting to leave reality behind for. There were stories of people's dreams in the dream city that made me laugh and feel sad at the same time and they were basically really interesting.
Overall I gave this book 3 Stars because while I wasn't fully engaged in all the characters there were some that I really loved and with as many POVs as there was in this book, I can't blame myself for disliking some of them. but the city itself and all the world building was excellent and I would definitely recommend it!
My explanation of this book might be rubbish but let's go with it. It's a novel set in a dream. Everyone's dream. A company have created this city where people can dream basically it's set in a world where everyone in the city is really asleep and it is all a dream and while they all think they are just dreaming but being given a chance to dream forever they are actually dreaming of real people who are also dreaming along with them. They get kind of skips in dreams and most of them do kind of control the dreams with their thoughts.
It follows quite a lot of characters which at first I thought was It's downfall but as the book went along and you figured out who people really were and their relationships with one another in the dreams and in reality it really became one of the most interesting parts. All the characters that it followed were completely different and very interesting and some of their stories did make me cry a little, especially Abele and Caine :-\ .
I did feel like sometimes we didn't really get to know enough about the world or the characters until the last second. there are still some people that I have no idea what their meaning was in the grand scheme of things. I do have to give this book and author major props for the fact that while inception boggles my mind even after seeing it three or four times I understood all the ins and outs of this dream world as it doesn't try to explain the ins and outs of dreaming and stuff. It gives you the world as it is and doesn't try to make you understand why it is the way it is.
I loved the reasons why all these people decided that they wanted to dream forever. Like all their reasons for wanting to escape reality ranged from petty reasons that they could get over to big horrible issues that you can understand a person wanting to leave reality behind for. There were stories of people's dreams in the dream city that made me laugh and feel sad at the same time and they were basically really interesting.
Overall I gave this book 3 Stars because while I wasn't fully engaged in all the characters there were some that I really loved and with as many POVs as there was in this book, I can't blame myself for disliking some of them. but the city itself and all the world building was excellent and I would definitely recommend it!
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