Customer Reviews

Communion of Dreams

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Few times in my reading life have I come across a novel such as Communion of Dreams. It is a fantastical yet grounded in real life adventure of our humanity on the verge of "growing up".

I am not the most eloquent writer, in fact I am a sculptor and professor by trade. However I can, without hesitation, state this is one of the most fascinating books I have read in a great many years. It keeps you transfixed on the characters, their moires and social foibles, and yet allows you to see them as human...even Seth!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who even slightly questions our role in the universe. Mr. Downey has a touch on the universal pulse of being that unique. I look forward, with great anticipation, to the other "artifacts" he has hidden for us.

Thank You James for a wonderful ride!!!

Mark Alan Mueller

Communion of Dreams

"Communion of Dreams" by Jim Downey is a very promising first novel in the spirit of Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey." Like "2001" it's the story of the discovery of a non-human artifact somewhere in the solar system. Downey's alternate future, set in 2051, is based on a society shaped by a disease that killed billions of people and rendered the majority of those who survived sterile. Computer technology has evolved to leverage bio-cybernetics and uses sophisticated new hardware based on unique organic matrices found only on Saturn's planet-sized moon, Titan. Advanced artificial intelligence systems, called "experts," support senior leaders as executive assistants. New discoveries have helped science to better understand gravity, generate local gravity fields and use gravity manipulation to build drives for space travel. Regularly scheduled reaction drive spaceships travel to Saturn and beyond, serving miners and settlers. Humans are exploring the outer reaches of the Solar system.

Against this background, Jim tells the story of assembling the team of investigators -- including artists, not just scientists -- and their trip to the artifact. Once they arrive it chronicles the challenges the team encounters as they try to make sense of the artifact and the deeper mysteries it represents. Like Clarke and Kubrick's "mystical" Star-Child in "2001," Downey takes his characters beyond the bounds of traditional science and into the realm of dreams and beyond. His ending surprised me and provided an intriguing take on the question "Why are we still alone?"

I really enjoyed "Communion of Dreams" and found myself wishing that it didn't end quite so quickly. I wanted to take more time to explore the world Downey created and the social conflicts that remained after the massive loss of life more than a generation earlier. A deeper understanding of those conflicts would have increased the underlying tensions in the book and made the villains feel more "real." Still, it is not faint praise to say "I wish a book was longer!" I hope Downey will return to this alternate future history and tell us more about the deeds and dreams of the people who live there.

I thought this book was reasonably good, fairly original, with a different take on a post-post-apocalyptic world where humanity has made it past a big disaster and has made some advances and is establishing itself in the solar system. It has a mystical, almost gnostic techno-spiritual flavor, which is fairly unusual for sci-fi these days, but also has some "hard" sci-fi elements and cool technology and stuff.

Overall it's fairly well written and has a less straightforward plot than a lot of modern sci-fi. Dialogue is ok. A couple of things prevent me from giving it a higher rating.

(1) the first part of the book really drags. It doesn't really become "interesting" until the final third or so. it just took me a long time to get into this.
(2) a lot of characters are introduced early on, but are very thinly drawn, to the point that it gets hard to tell who's who, and many of them are not that important to the story, or disappear off the map completely for long periods of time.

The pacing of the story is very leisurely until toward the end; I think the concept behind this story might work better as a novella or a short story.

Lover's of pure science fiction here is a book you must read! I do not normally write reviews or comment on books I read. While many are enjoyable there are very few writers that hint of becoming great writers. But finally Mr. Downey appeared. Other reviewers have done a smashing job of outlining the novel 's plot, theme, character development and so forth. For that reason I am not going to repeat their efforts. Read some of the five star reviews for that information.

I have been a reader of science fiction from an early age. I grew up with the great writers: Asimov, Henlien, Bradbury, Clark and F. Herbert ... With that education of the genre I have found it difficult to find pure science fiction that comes even close to the standards I have for great books. With Mr. Downey's Communion of Dreams, there is finally a writer I can look forward to reading his future works. I gave this book a 4 star rating as there are a few editorial mistakes. These do not distract from the enjoyment of the book. And to be honest there are very few writers that come close to the greats.

If you do not read this book you will miss out on one of the finest science fiction books to coming along for a long time.

One negative review noted there were too many meetings and too much discussion in the book. I almost didn't read it from that reviever's comments, however I am very glad I read the reviews linking this book to A.C.Clark's classic 2001, A Space Odyssey. If you love that one you will enjoy this one!

Communion of Dreams is of a genre I used to call "space science fiction" when I was a kid. Anything that took place away from Earth qualified. However, this novel takes it to another level entirely. Several levels, in fact.

First of all, the characters are wonderfully three dimensional, and felt quite "real". I liked them, or didn't like them, or wasn't sure how I felt, but I definitely felt they were actual people, not just black and white names on a page. I loved how, with the minimum of words to describe a gesture, or look, or a few words of dialogue, entire volumes of personality and attitude emerged. I enjoyed watching those attitudes change as the characters faced new challenges and wrestled with what was, for most, a major paradigm shift. My own opinions of those characters occasionally changed as well, as I watched them deal with the challenges with which they were faced.

Second, the story was gripping and held my attention throughout (although I admit I tended to gloss over the more technical descriptions). A lot was happening to a lot of people in a short period of time, but I never felt overwhelmed since it was all presented in a logical and timely manner. Often when the characters themselves were caught by surprise, I was as well. When reference was made to events prior to the story, there was always an explanatory back story that fit perfectly and didn't feel like a flashback; just a few sentences that painted a detailed picture without pages and pages of detail. I have to say, the compact and concise way in which the entire novel was written was refreshing. I don't refer to the length of the book, but the fact that every comment, every gesture, every description, was neither more nor less than needed to precisely and accurately convey what was going on. And yet, it was not at all choppy, nor did I feel in the slightest that I was being shortchanged. In fact, during the last half of the book I was reading so fast to take it all in that I am looking forward to re-reading it, now that I know what happens, to see what nuances I might have missed.

One of the things I enjoyed most, as a science fiction fan of many decades, was finding little bits of reference to various other writers, either in a conceptual sense or, sometimes, in a name used or a place mentioned. So many science fiction novels touch on psychology, sociology, scientific and technological progress, philosophy, religion or just sheer adventure. This one has it all, and I do mean *all* of it. My mind was a whirl of ideas and thoughts, all intertwining as I read about the discovery of the artifact, watched different people react based on their perception and frame of reference, and saw their attitudes change over time as more and more was discovered. The plot wasn't so much convoluted as it was intricate. Yet everything was brought to a satisfying conclusion, with no real loose ends, but rather openings for a possible sequel. Or perhaps a prequel ... I'd love to learn more about Darnell Sidwell's experiences before and during the Fire-Flu, for example. Then again, it might very well be that we are to decide our own endings, based on our own, no doubt now altered, attitudes and perceptions after reading this tale.

I picked up this book during one of the free sales of it, but just got around to reading it. The books starts out a little slow as the characters are developed, but picks up pretty quickly. For a first book the author did a great job on it. I was getting worried as I was reading that the book would end and leave me waiting on a 2nd book to tie it up, but thankfully it didn't.

Synopsis: Humans know we are the only race out there cause we haven't been able to detect any one else. That all changes when an artifact is found that is not of human origin. We must now figure out what it is and in the process discover more about ourselves before a group destroys it.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but it had lots of good feedback so I figured I'd give it a whirl. Boy, am I glad I did!! This is top rate sci fi story telling at it's best! My only complaint is that it seems the author rushed the ending a bit, but other than that it was well thought out, character development was good, the science seemed entirely plausible, and it was good sized book (which I love). It's hard to believe this is the author's first novel. I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with.

If you like Jack McDevitt, you'll love this book!

This was outside of my normal reading area but it caught my eye and I'm glad it did. Interesting and well crafted story with enough character development and detail to keep things interesting without getting bogged down with filler material. I will be keeping watch for other works by Mr. Downey and hope that he is giving thought to both a prequel and sequel.

Like many great books, Communion of Dreams is full of depth that can be thought about and explored long after the first reading. If you are a casual reader, the flow of the book and the story line are excellent entertainment. On top of that, if you are a student of science or philosophy, you will find a lot more to delve into. I hope that there will be a lot more from James Downey, not only continuing along this story line, but other works as well. I would place it in my top ten Science Fiction books without hesitation.

I read this and thoroughly enjoyed it. It definitely has an 'early sci-fi' feel to it. People have compared the writing style to Clarke. I'm more into the military sci-fi but this was a refreshing and enjoyable change. It's also my stand by as a gift. I don't know what to get someone who reads? Buy this and ship it to them.

I enjoyed this so much, I backed the author's Kickstarter project. I'm looking forward to the prequel.