Dream Thief [Paperback]

Steve Lawhead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1983

Every morning Dr. Spencer Reston, dream-research scientist on space station Gotham, wakes up exhausted with the nagging feeling that something terrible is about to happen. Spence soon discovers that he has become a vital link in a cosmic coup masterminded by a mysterious creature known as the Dream Thief . . . and all civilization hangs in the balance. Here is science fiction on the grand scale of Dune and Asimov's Foundation series. Dream Thief has it all: fast-paced adventure, alien settings, wonderful character development, cliff-hanging suspense, epic plot, and compelling spiritual underpinnings.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Sleep scientist Dr. Spence Reston is having trouble sleeping. His experiments are giving him dreams that haunt his waking hours. He has long periods for which he has no memory. Suicide is beginning to seem like a good idea. Is he losing his mind? Or is there another altogether more frightening explanation? Thus begins a battle for the future of the universe, in which the fate of humankind hangs on the fragile sanity of one man. Original and accomplished, bursting with suspense and intrigue, Dream Thief is science fiction on a grand scale. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Author

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of fantasy and imaginative fiction. He is the author of many book, including, the Byzantium and the Pendragon Cycle series. He lives in Oxford, England, with his wife and sons --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 409 pages
• Publisher: Good News Pub (September 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891072667
• ISBN-13: 978-0891072669
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,247,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen R. Lawhead is a prolific and bestselling author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. He is best known for his King Raven trilogy, a re-telling of the Robin Hood legend, and Pendragon Cycle, centering on the King Arthur legend. Other notable works include the Song of Albion, Celtic Crusades and Dragon King Trilogies, Byzantium, Patrick, Avalon, and the works of science-fiction Dream Thief and Empyrion saga. Lawhead makes his home in Oxford, England, with his wife.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The center of every man's existence is a dream - Chesterton, April 2, 2002

By 

Priscilla Stafford (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Thief (Paperback)

Dr. Spencer Restron (his friends call him Spence) is a dream research scientist on the space station GM, also called Gotham. He's waited all of his life to be able to take the chance to be in his position. But now, every night he has terrible dreams, dreams he can't remember but he wakes up feeling exhausted and tired. He has this nagging suspicion that something is about to happen, something terrible. Little does he know that whatever he is experiencing has something to do with the mysterious creature called.. the Dream Thief. The Dream Thief has taken a special interest in Spence for some reason... some terrible reason which could mean the end of freedom for all civilization. Even with friends like Ari, Adjani, Packer, Kalkinov, and more, Spence knows it will be a miracle for them to find out the Dream Thief's plan and to stop him. Spence's views will be changed entirely on the subject of God as he journeys to save mankind.

I have always loved reading "The Dragon King Trilogy" written by Stephen R. Lawhead so for my birthday, I decided to get "Dream Thief". And I've had a totally enjoyable time reading it! It has everything, exciting adventure, alien settings, lots of suspense, character development, well thought out plot, romance, and a great reference to God. I must say that one of the best things about the book are the amazing characters whom I just loved! There's Spence, Ari, Adjani, Gita, Kyr, Packer, Kalkinov, and plenty more. I can't tell you much more about the book, it would ruin the book. You're just kept in suspense till the very end! My suggestion to you is if you're looking for a good Christian science fiction book, get "Dream Thief". Best for teen and adults.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring SciFi- Who Would Have Thought?, July 9, 2001

By 

Jedidiah Palosaari "Not My Real Name" (Fes, Morocco) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dream Thief (Paperback)

Wow! This was a *great* book. I don't exaggerate when I say this is the best Christian Sci-Fi I have ever read. I enjoy Lewis' Space Trilogy very much, perhaps more than Dream Thief, but, while the Space Trilogy is technically Sci-Fi, Lewis' writing style and his understanding of science, even for when he wrote it, makes Lewis' works read more like Fantasy. Lawhead is the first Christian author I have ever read who has a believable future- true science fiction. Though I've read only four of Lawhead's works so far, I far prefer his Sci-Fi to his Fantasy.

It is great to see that we (Christians) still exist in the future. In every other book I have ever read, and I have read a lot of science fiction, the Christians are not ever mentioned, as if a plague came and wiped all of us out sometime in the late 21st century. Religion in Sci-Fi is given short shrift in general, but, if mentioned, it seems to usually be anything but monotheistic.

This isn't a Christian dogma book, where everything is allegorical- Christians, and God, are simply an integral part of the storyline, and there is a Christian worldview behind it. Yet there are many non-Christians who play important roles as well, including a number of the key protagonists and heroes. A non-Christian should not feel intimidated in picking up this book- it is a very good read. The story line catches you, moves quickly, and it's almost as if you're out of breath waiting for the next event. Though the one disappointment I had was sometimes it felt like sections of action were skipped and only referred to after the fact, I stayed up a couple nights till 2 or 3 in the morning till my eyes could no longer focus and my brain kept rereading the same paragraph.

And Lawhead doesn't even go for easy answers with his Christians. They aren't conservative/fundamentalist, as Christians are commonly portrayed as all being, but clear and logical thinkers. Christianity isn't presented as a Western religion, which is accurate, as it has not been in numbers since the 70's, now that most Christians are in the 2/3rds world, and if the Nestorians are included, it was primarily an Asian religion until 1000 AD. Indeed, the primary Christian in the book is from the largest Baptist state in the world, Nagaland, India. Christianity also isn't shown as just a moral belief with an idea of some great deity we can pray to, but with an excluded middle. This is a God who can and does work miracles- amazing, believable ones- just as He does in real life.

Would that this were a genre, rather than, as it would seem, the only book of it's kind out there. The biographical conversion story is an old, valuable format in Christian literature. Here now it has been merged with science fiction in an engrossing and believable way. And in an inspiring way. Too often when I read science fiction I come away with a sense of hopelessness. Often the underlying worldview of the author, seeping through the pages of his or her work, is one without hope, in the sense of expectant joy about the future. This was not the case in Dream Thief. The reader gains a strong understanding that God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him. One identifies with the main character feeling a number of times that all is lost, and the situation too dire to be saved. But when looking back throughout the experience, retrospectively God's hand can not be ignored. I could easily recommend this to friends to read so that they might draw closer to truly understanding and being one with God.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars X files from the future's standpoint., December 6, 2003

By 

A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dream Thief (Paperback)

Mankind is on the verge of a Martian terraforming project a few hundred years from the present day. In a state-of-the-art satellite station Gotham (orbiting Earth) scientists prepare and research while special teams are regularly dispatched to Mars to establish the framework for a permanent colony. A Gotham-employed sleep researcher, Dr. Reston is plagued by a series of increasingly bizarre nightmares that give him uncomfortable premonitions about something sinister pending on Mars.
As a non-scientist, I was still able to appreciate with fascination what seems to be a very credible and realistic account of the future world in this universe. The logistics of a working space station and how humans adapt to it, the early stages of a terraforming project -- these are explained well enough to create a plausible backdrop for the story, but not detailed to death for more casual audiences like me. The looming mystery on Mars that culminates with a first encounter with an ancient Martian race is the real story as far as I'm concerned. The focus of Dream Thief is nicely character-driven.
Stephen Lawhead does a surprising departure from space about midway and takes us to an even more alien environment (for most of us Westerners): India. Seen through the eyes of a santized, educated man of the 23rd (?) Century, India is even more exotic and disturbing. Lawhead may be borrowing from some pretty standard SF mythos at this point in the novel as he ties in space visitors with certain aspects of humanity's religious and cultural heritage (Gee, where have I heard that before..?), but his interpretation of how that worked out from the aliens' standpoint is unique. He deserves credit for an original twist on that modern day Science Fiction convention.
Readers of Lawhead's Arthurian and fantasy series books will be very happy with his change to Sci Fi. His style is intact. New readers will just enjoy the good tale. And as in his other books, the Christian message is very subtle (ie, not "preachy"). In fact, the implications of the spiritual revelations from the Martian could just as easily be New Age as Christian, as no mention of Jesus is actually made (and believe me, I was watching for it). Whether or not that is a plus is up for you to decide, but I was a tad disappointed in Stephen for that.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle