Dream Thief (Paperback)

~ Steve Lawhead (Author) "THE MAN IS SLEEPING..." (more)
Key Phrases: wafer screen, great yellow eyes, landing pod, Dream Thief, Dal Elna, Director Zanderson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This thrilling science fiction novel involves a research scientist who is studying sleep and an alien plot to undermine the civilization of Earth.

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 alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan Publishing Company (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310205522
• ISBN-13: 978-0310205524
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,088,276 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 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

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.

15 of 18 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

5 of 5 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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