Customer Reviews

Dream Dancer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was cleaning out the garage and came upon this, which I bought when it was new. This is a rich and complex trilogy about an Earth girl who is swept up into the politics of a vastly powerful space-faring family. The author appears to understand hard science better than most SF authors, and she uses it judiciously. It is a shame this is out of print; it clearly deserves more recognition than it ever got.

The dream Dancer series (Dream Dancer, Cruiser Dreams & Earth Dreams) follows the fortunes of Shebat who is lifted from a life of grinding poverty on decaying earth into the seething morass of intra family power politics, civil unrest and light speed technology that is the "Consortium" run by the charismatic and manipulative Kerrion clan.

Combining a unique vision of a future lived in space with well drawn portraits Janet Morris has created a tale in which you become desparately involved in the twisting fortunes and shifting allegiances of a number of intriguing characters.

I bought Dream Dancer in the 80's on a business trip to the States to read on a flight home to Sydney. I enjoyed it so much and got so involved that (as I knew they were not available in Australia) I rang a colleague in San Francisco from the airport, as soon as I landed, and had him purchase the other two books in the series and express courier them to me the same day - I couldn't wait to find out what happened in the sequels. I wasn't disappointed.

I read this book a long time ago, too; recently thinking about internet access, I remembered that this book was one that prophesized in-head database access, so I dug it up via Amazon. Very cool (OK, the cover art did its job!) This is not an s-f skimmer - you have to really slow down and dig into the dense, poetic prose. The author focuses on encounters and critical junctures, and zips by developments she's not really interested in, leaving you pondering the details for yourself. (I'd like to read the 'director's cut'.) Some interesting topics, set in year 2251: sponge space (think: wormholes), old Earth magic (spells); 'internet' access inside your head, if you rate a connection; space cruisers, again with a mental interface, who develop sentience; dream dancers (leave it to your imagination here); power politics (that never changes, does it?); precocious and sexy 17-year-olds dumped into the middle of all this. That's just some of Morris' "vision of the future", as she says in the intro.

The series is an intricate work of art. I'd bet that's why it's not known much now: this is not an easy read, almost filigree in its use of language - but it's worth the effort.

In a time when man has colonized the galaxy and Earth has become little more than a living museum to be forgotten and derided, a young girl is taken up into one of the highest and most powerful human damilies in the known galaxy.

Well written, it covers a sprawling civilization that spans the galaxies and engages in political intigue and high society that hooks your attention firmly.

In a time when man has colonized the galaxy and Earth has become little more than a living museum to be forgotten and derided, a young girl is taken up into one of the highest and most powerful human damilies in the known galaxy.

Well written, it covers a sprawling civilization that spans the galaxies and engages in political intigue and high society that hooks your attention firmly.

Janet Morris is probably better known for her Silesia series and for her contributions to Thieves World than she is for this little 80s space politics offering. While not her best work, it may well appeal to people who are in the mood for this particular mix.

Morris has several themes to which she commonly returns. Her novels often feature a female protagonist who is strongly talented and experiences radical class displacement. In this case, we have Shebat as an abused young girl raised on a primitive planet. She is elevated to become part of the most powerful family in the galaxy. Morris explores the life of Shebat as, despite her talent, she becomes an unintentional pawn in the games of ruthless men. She must reject conventional paths to reason and victory to find her own solution to the challenge.

Dream Dancer suffers from some weak plotting. Shebat makes some fairly unbelievable emotional leaps in her saga. The story also gets tangled up occasionally in its own complexity. There are a fantastic number of elements introduced in this relatively slim novel and it becomes very difficult to keep track of which parts are important for the reader.

If you are more tolerant of confusing complexity than I am, you may see more of the positive elements (of which there are many) in the series. Particularly nice is the way that Morris blends low-tech magic and high-tech science.

Be aware that Morris often includes very adult material and scenes in her books. It does not detract from the readability, but may make Dream Dancer unsuitable for younger readers.

Dream Dancer deftly combines politics, theories on time and space, artificial intelligence, romance, dreaming, and magic

as science, all into a cohesive, tightly woven story with some of the most beautiful prose and wittiest dialogue I've read in a long time. I do not understand why these books are out of print. I think Morris' brand of writing is a bit like Madeleine L'Engle, though scientific rather than mystical. I found the concept of 'dream dancing' to be very compelling.

The singularity of Morris' work is the believability of her world...and how she grounds all these things that are unreal or extrapolations of our current knowledge and technology in things that are very real...sibling rivalries, pilot strikes, diplomacy, elections, rebellions, etc.

Her characterization is excellent and have a believable quality of depth to them. Shebat is a very likeable heroine and Chaeron--well, what can I say about him except that he ranks among my top males in fiction. The first book of the series concentrates primarily on Shebat's introduction and integration into this new world and so comes mostly from her perspective.

These 3 books are really meant to be read in contintuity, and the end of the first book will make you jump right into the next.

This is not a book that can be gobbled up in one sitting, if that's your kind of read you will not like this book. It's to complicated to be called any easy read, but if you have the time and science fantasy does not turn you off then you will have a treat in store for you. I understand it's out of print now, but do your self a favor and order a used copy, it will give you hours of pleasure. Other reviews will tell you a little of the story line so I won't repeat them, but I will say that Janet Morris has you bouncing back & forth thoughout the book on just who the hero to Shebat really is. Surprisingly you will not find out until the last two pages of the book; then you'll need to go back and check a few of your facts to see how you could have missed it so long. Now that's my kind of writer. Bad day, with nothing to do? Long trip coming up? This is just the book to take you away into a world all its own. You won't be sorry you went there.