Customer Reviews

A Dream of Wessex

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

 

 

...reality or perception? What do we really know? This book spins these concepts and leaves you unsettled. A dream within the real world, or the world within a dream? Perhaps a dream within a dream? If you dream far enough can you come full circle?

A charmingly dated book, gritty and unstylised. Set, in common with those other of Chris Priest's works which I've read, within pastoral Dorset, but invested with dread inside the alter-Dorset occasionally inhabited by the characters. Do they visit this alternate reality or do they create it? Does it exist apart from them? Shades of virtual-reality concepts, which followed this work much later, but suggesting dark possibilities and existential issues unvisited in contemporary virtual-reality works. The introduction of an individual into the melee who disturbs the delicate balance destabilises the experiment, with interesting consequences.

The book takes images which would normally be reassuring and familiar in their peaceful permanence and imbues them with what felt to me like a brooding disquiet. The whole timbre is one of threatened violence, although there is very little, and no gratuitous violence in the work.

It has Priest's gentle touch in the writing and was thoroughly enjoyable. Good to read before progressing to Fugue for a Darkening Island and The Glamour.

Julia Stretton is a researcher for the Ridpath projection, a machine that has generated a completely convincing simulation of what the world may look like in the early 22nd Century. In the projection, the south-west of England has broken away from the rest of the island of Britain due to an earthquake and has become something of a holiday resort, tolerated by a communist government in London for the sake of international relations. In this vision of the future Julia finds herself drawn to a man named David for reasons she doesn't quite understand, but in the real world the arrival of her ex-lover on the project's staff causes chaos for Julia and the project...

A Dream of Wessex was originally published in 1977 and was Christopher Priest's fifth novel, following up on the extremely well-received An Inverted World and The Space Machine. Like many of Priest's books, it contains musings on memory, identity, consciousness and reality. The book also describes what looks suspiciously like a prophetic virtual reality cyberspace simulation some years ahead of such things becoming fashionable thanks to cyberpunk.

The novel features Priest's traditional narrative hallmark, namely being written in clear and readable prose through which the author laces several narrative and thematic time bombs that explode in the reader's face at key points (dubbed 'The Priest Effect' by David Langford), including several hours after you finish the book when you suddenly go, "Hang on, does that mean..." and you have to go scurrying back to re-read half the book to confirm your suspicions. Characterisation is excellent, with Julia an interesting protagonist who spends part of the book in fear of her ex-lover, but eventually coming to terms on how to deal with him through internal reasoning rather than a more obvious and melodramatic external form (beating him up or having some big speech, for example). As usual with Priest, what he doesn't say about the characters can be as important as what he does say, leaving the reader with some intriguing interpretive work to do.

However, it's the incredible ending that will sit for the longest in the reader's mind. It maybe isn't as completely mind-blowing as The Separation's conclusion or as deeply haunting and unsettling as The Prestige's, but it's still astonishingly well-written and haunting.

A Dream of Wessex (*****) is a very strong work of science fiction, powerful and thought-provoking and the work of an imaginative author at the height of his powers. What's even more startling is that it isn't even Priest's strongest work. The book is not in print at the moment, although some older copies can be found on Amazon UK and USA.

In the early 22nd century, the world is divided into two main power-blocs, one Communist, the other Islamic. England is part of the Communist bloc, whereas the USA has become an Islamic state known as the Western Emirate States. The south-west peninsula has become separated from the English mainland following a series of catastrophic earthquakes, and is now an island known as the Isle of Wessex. Wessex is now England's prime holiday destination, known for its casinos and mosques, built to cater for visitors from the Western Emirate States.

Or is it? This 22nd-century Wessex does not, in fact, exist, except in virtual reality. (Christopher Priest does not actually use that expression, which was not in use in the 1970s, but he clearly anticipated the concept). The "real" part of his novel, which was written in 1977, is set in the year 1985. A mysterious group known as the Wessex Foundation has set up what is known as the Wessex Project. A device known as the Ridpath Projector has created an imaginary future into which the participants can be projected. Once inside the Projector they believe themselves to be living their lives in the Wessex of the 22nd century and are unable to remember their lives in 1985. Upon their return to reality, however, they can remember the lives they have been living in Wessex. The main character, Julia Stretton, is one of the participants in the scheme, and much of the plot derives from the conflicts which arise when Julia's abusive ex-boyfriend Paul also enters the projection.

Priest's vision of 1985 is one of a world confronted by many social problems; the cities are plagued by terrorism, crime and lawlessness, and there is a severe housing shortage. (In some ways his prediction did come true, although not quite to the degree that he imagined). The purpose of the Wessex Project is to suggest possible solutions to those problems by envisaging a future in which they have been overcome. The Communist England of by no means an idealised Utopia; it is, like the real Communist societies of the 1970s, bureaucratic and authoritarian. Neither, however, is it an Orwellian dystopia, but a relatively peaceful society, free of crime and shortages.

What it is not, however, is a futuristic society. In many ways the England of the 2130s is still the England of the 1970s with a different political system and a different geography. There have been no startling scientific innovations in the intervening sixteen decades; about the only invention that we would not recognise is the "skimmer", a device used in the popular sport of wave-riding along the tidal bores which race through the narrow channel between Wessex and the mainland. Priest suggests that mankind needs crises in order to make progress, as the search for solutions to social problems can lead to advances in science and technology. If those problems are somehow made to disappear by other means, the result could be a scientifically and socially conservative society, something like 1970s Communism preserved in aspic for a century and a half.

The most interesting theme of "A Dream of Wessex", however, is not the politics but the science, and the philosophical implications of that science. The book is an early example of that sub-genre of science fiction dealing with computer technology and artificial reality which has become known as "cyberpunk", although that term did not exist in 1977. If a virtual reality machine like the Ridpath Projector could actually be constructed, how would this alter our perception of reality? Would it even alter our perception of the basic concept of "reality"? Priest ends his story with a neat circular twist which brings these questions sharply into focus.

"A Dream of Wessex" is a multi-layered work. On one level it is simply a science-fiction adventure story. It is written in clear, transparent prose and the growing sense of tension in the latter part of the book had me turning the pages quickly in my anxiety to find out how Julia and her companions would resolve their difficulties. (This was the first full-length novel in several years that I finished in a single day). On another level, however, it fulfils that other essential function of intelligent science fiction, that of imaginative speculation about possible future developments in technology and the social implications of those developments. (In the "Star Wars" era of the late seventies, its "artificial reality" scenario must have come as a refreshing sci-fi alternative to the all-pervasive space travel theme). Finally, it is an intriguing philosophical speculation about the nature of reality.

Written in 1977, Christopher Priest's `A Dream of Wessex' stands at the mid point of media questioning reality. Falling on the tail end of Philip Dick and his oeuvre's continual exploration of metaphysical meaning, the book is also an (unheralded) fore-runner to the sci-fi featuring uncertain realities that followed in the 90's. Many ideas that are exploited in films such as 'The Matrix' or 'Inception' can find their conception in Priest's tale of a scientific experiment into alternate realities. In particular, the dream-within-a-dream and mind disconnected from body plot devices can be seen as strong precursors to these modern examples.

`A Dream of Wessex' also marks the mid point of another aspect of literature: style. Lacking any embellishment or literary flourish - similes even, Priest tells the tale of Julia Stretton in very straight-forward fashion, almost brooding fashion. The direct prose neither lifting the spirit or dropping it, Julia's life as a geologist inside a social experiment plods steadily along, the details of the setting and emotional output described in a minimum of words. The premise of the social experiment is of a group who willingly detaches themselves from physical reality to mentally live inside a projection of their collective psyches. As the experiment moves on, some participants routinely remove themselves, returning for brief periods to their normal lives. Others, however, have been inside the fictional Wessex for more than 2 years, their bodies atrophying slowly in a drawer in reality. While the idea may be interesting and keep the reader guessing as to which reality is the real reality, where the plot finds truly finds its impetus is when Julia's ex-lover announces his intentions of joining the experiment. Threatening and violent in private, his effervescence seems to have charmed the board of trustees governing the experiment into letting him join. The psychological drama which unfolds for Julia is only heightened by the distance from reality the experiment seems to take her every time she links in. The climax this situation builds to seems one only Priest could pen.

Thus, the third mid-point is my opinion of the novel: it is neither gosh-wow nor forgettable. Its strong parts include competent plotting, excellent metaphysical questions, and an overall story structure which highlights the theme well. Where the novel doesn't meet expectations, however, is in the blasé nature of its prose, the occasional gaps in logic of the projection premise, and the lack of a wholly motivated plot. Questions like: "Is that the only reason propelling Julia at the moment?" or, "Shouldn't there be a stronger justification for the experiment to exist?" occur occasionally. That being said, the novel remains a well-told, brain-in-the-vat tale exploring the meaning and perception of reality. Those who enjoy Philip Dick or the premise of any of the afore-mentioned movies wouldn't be wasting their time reading `A Dream of Wessex' and may have their eyes opened to the world of Christopher Priest in the process.

When I saw the film 'Inception' I was startled by an image that came straight out of a dream I had had years previously. I liked the movie but wished it didn't have all the 'cops and robbers' stuff in it. Thought I would like to do it more thoughtfully. Christopher Priest's novel 'A Dream of Wessex' didn't come to mind but it should have because I had read the novel years earlier - perhaps too many years earlier (it was published in 1987).

I have enjoyed Christopher Priest's novels over many years - he's probably the one surviving SF writer who has sustained my interest in the genre. Sometimes he does get into the gory side of terrorism and war a bit too graphically for me. I picked up 'A Dream of Wessex' to reread it and was immediately enchanted. Here is 'Incpetion' and its dream worlds without the 'cops and robbers'.

A great read.

Other recommendations:
Christopher Priest - The Affirmation (the novel that introduced me to Christopher Priest), The Glamour, The Separation, The Prestige (which made a fine movie).
WH Hudson - A Crystal World
Anna Kavan - Ice Age