Dreamland: A Novel of the Ufo Cover-Up [Paperback]

Hilary Hemingway (Author), Jeffry P. Lindsay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1996

A fictionalized account of the authors' very real and frightening research into the UFO enigma molds evidence of a cover-up into a suspenseful novel about the events surrounding a top-secret Air Force base called "Area 51" or "Dreamland." Reprint. AB

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

High energy and a clever concept can't rescue this lackluster thriller about a UFO conspiracy that dates back to the 1940s. The plot presupposes the truth of the Roswell Incident, a UFO crash the Pentagon has supposedly covered up for almost 50 years. The surviving aliens are now under close observation at a secret military base where they have their own breeding project and are developing a high-tech weapon called JOSHUA. The aliens have their own agenda, however, and they abduct pregnant astronomer Annie Katz and relieve her of her three-month-old fetus. Annie's history of miscarriages is used to justify her subsequent behavior: the day after being told she isn't pregnant, and never was, she goes back to work. By the time she finally undergoes hypnosis to relive her abduction, it's too late to alleviate the plot's dull uniformity, engendered by too-brief scenes, too many characters and too much focus on action at the expense of atmosphere (and, in Annie's case, of believability). Due in part to the authors' spare prose, events happen too quickly and to little effect, and the narrative suffers from a brittle superficiality that stifles the reader's interest. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Hemingway, niece of Ernest, and her husband, Lindsay, use speculation about the alleged crash landing of a UFO in the Nevada desert and the ensuing cover-up as the basis for this thriller. Astronomer Annie Katz and her engineer husband become involved in a secret, government-sponsored project that may be related to an eerie time loss Annie experienced while driving through the desert. Soon both Katzes are pawns in a contest between the ruthless project coordinator and unknown forces. The authors mix every aspect of ufology-from crop circles to cattle mutilations-into an unsatisfying stew of mystery and paranoia. Partly to blame are the lackluster Katzes (a lesser character, Annie's psychoanalyst friend, is far more interesting) and not enough edge-of-the-seat suspense. Still, the recent surge of interest in the unknown (e.g., television's The X-Files and Sightings) should spur interest in this novel. For popular fiction collections.
--Eric W. Johnson, Teikyo Post Univ. Lib., Waterbury, Ct.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Tom Doherty Assoc Llc (July 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812535022
• ISBN-13: 978-0812535020
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,895,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been much better, November 29, 2005

By 

Stefan Isaksson "www.stefanisaksson.se" (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreamland: A Novel of the Ufo Cover-Up (Paperback)

MJ-12, Roswell, alien abductions, missing time, hypnotic therapy, extraterrestrial/human hybrids, captured aliens, conspiracies to left and right; all this and more can be found in "Dreamland", written by Ernest Hemingway's niece and her husband and published in 1995.

The heritage from Hemingway is very apparent from the first to the last page, even though Hilary and her husband never are even close to Ernest's literary achievements. The sentences are often short, descriptions of the environment are few and insufficient, and more than once the text feels extremely unrealistic when the most spectacular events imaginable are met with not much more than a shrug of the shoulders from the main characters. Writing fiction about the supernatural and the paranormal is a difficult art to master, and Hemingway and Lindsay fail miserably from page one.

Any reader with basic knowledge in UFO history will recognize much from the story. The excitement is therefore somewhat killed, since it's often not very hard to figure what will happen next. At the end the story is twisted quite interestingly, however, that doesn't take away the fact that the rest of the story has been extremely dull.

But this is, again, if the reader has previous knowledge of UFO history. For the "normal" reader, who has never heard of things taken for granted by sceptical ufologists, the book is sure to offer several interesting moments. Hemingway and Lindsay have used more or less everything offered by lesser sceptical ufologists and added a story about a man and his wife who are caught in the line of fire between the American military and peaceful extraterrestrials.

But, the main problem with the book is that is just feels uninspired. The sections about alien abductions feels as if they were taken right out of any Budd Hopkins book, and the argumentation regarding the Roswell incident is just plain awful. The credibility is reduced, and thus the entire reading experience is ruined. This is too bad, because a skilled author is very likely to have been able to make something good out of the whole mess.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been much better, November 22, 2005

By 

Stefan Isaksson (Malmoe, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreamland: A Novel of the Ufo Cover-Up (Paperback)

MJ-12, Roswell, alien abductions, missing time, hypnotic therapy, extraterrestrial/human hybrids, captured aliens, conspiracies to left and right; all this and more can be found in "Dreamland", written by Ernest Hemingway's niece and her husband and published in 1995.

The heritage from Hemingway is very apparent from the first to the last page, even though Hilary and her husband never are even close to Ernest's literary achievements. The sentences are often short, descriptions of the environment are few and insufficient, and more than once the text feels extremely unrealistic when the most spectacular events imaginable are met with not much more than a shrug of the shoulders from the main characters. Writing fiction about the supernatural and the paranormal is a difficult art to master, and Hemingway and Lindsay fail miserably from page one.

Any reader with basic knowledge in UFO history will recognize much from the story. The excitement is therefore somewhat killed, since it's often not very hard to figure what will happen next. At the end the story is twisted quite interestingly, however, that doesn't take away the fact that the rest of the story has been extremely dull.

But this is, again, if the reader has previous knowledge of UFO history. For the "normal" reader, who has never heard of things taken for granted by sceptical ufologists, the book is sure to offer several interesting moments. Hemingway and Lindsay have used more or less everything offered by lesser sceptical ufologists and added a story about a man and his wife who are caught in the line of fire between the American military and peaceful extraterrestrials.

But, the main problem with the book is that is just feels uninspired. The sections about alien abductions feels as if they were taken right out of any Budd Hopkins book, and the argumentation regarding the Roswell incident is just plain awful. The credibility is reduced, and thus the entire reading experience is ruined. This is too bad, because a skilled author is very likely to have been able to make something good out of the whole mess.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Starts off strong, then runs out of gas, December 14, 2004

By 

Howard Menger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamland: A Novel of the Ufo Cover-Up (Hardcover)

As has been noted, this novel cranks up the intensity level straight out of the gate. There's quite a bit of familiarity with the UFO/Abduction scenarios as reported and the authors initially make good use of the lore.

Still, some things nag at the reader: The characters are not developed beyond that of two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs to varying degrees. Most egregious example is that of the Noo Yawker psychiatrist Carol Blum, relocated to Los Alamos for some unknown reason.

She's a real pain in the neck, a complete caricature of a fast-talking, obnoxious and smarmy Manhattanite. You can forgive yourself for feeling glad when she's murdered near the end. With her abundant "'tude," you'll wonder why someone didn't off her previously.

The lead characters, Stan and Annie Katz are similar smarmy transplanted Noo Yawkers, the authors having seen fit to outfit them with a de rigueur Volvo wagon. Completely unbelievable is how Annie goes from hardened UFO skeptic to full-on True Believer after just one meeting and hypnosis session with a MUFON investigator.

Of course ... there are the evil shadow government types after Annie and her husband, led by the malevolent Colonel Wesley. All through the book I was really hoping that Wesley'd finally get those particle beam weapons up and running and vaporize the aliens to their own Kingdom Come, but it's not to be. The ending takes a left turn into New Age Twinkie John Mack/Richard Boylan territory. The aliens you see, are here, I guess to help us somehow? They have to take fetuses for some strange reason from pregnant women during abductions to preserve their own species it would seem. And all they want to do is return to their home planet, but they can't because of the evil US government and the machinations of career military types within MJ-12.

Now in my book, if something comes out of the skies like a thief in the night and prods and pokes and removes ovum, fetuses, other genetic material, etc. without consent, I'd say they'd be a pretty good candidate for aiming particle beams at 'em. But no... The aliens are *nice* and are led by the doll-like "Mr. Boojum" whom, like E.T. only wants to go home. Awwww...

How do they do it? Well, Mr. Boojum is from a collectivist space hive society that is like some super-Stalinist galactic gulag: Individual aliens are bred for specific tasks and cannot or are not permitted to know information outside their own school-to-work programming. So for some strange reason, this civilization beams information to Annie so that the aliens can manipulate Stan to build this weapon, which could be transformed into a propulsion device by means not explained. Why they can beam information, but not just send another ship is not explained.

So finally at the end, Annie gets her baby back, Mr. Boojum gets his propulsion system and all that are still alive are happy. It's like a regular "We Are The Off-World" singalong... As the other reviewer wrote, perhaps it'd be best to come up with your own ending. Mine has the aliens disappearing in a flash of light, never to return...