Dream Thief

Dream Thief is a book by an author I’ve enjoyed in the past, Stephen R. Lawhead. First published in 1983 (my copy’s from 1993), it’s actually been sitting on my shelf for years. I figured it was about time I read it. Here’s the summary of the book from the author’s website:

‘The dreams had been at Spence again. He could feel their lingering presence like a dimly remembered whisper. They were unsettling in a vague sort of way. Haunting – there was the world that seemed to fit. He felt haunted.’

Through his research, Dr. Spencer Reston, sleep scientist on space station Gotham, has made himself vulnerable. Unaware of the fact as yet, he has become a vital link in a cosmic coup masterminded by a mysterious creature known as the Dream Thief.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I don’t read a lot of Christian fiction, mainly because I find the Christian elements are usually clumsy and heavy-handed. This book didn’t have that problem. I thought the Christian elements blended well with the rest of the story and added an extra level of interest for me. I also don’t read a whole lot of sci-fi, mostly because I find the concept usually overshadows the characters and I end up not caring about any of it. This book didn’t have that problem either. The focus on the main character’s inner struggles and development was quite strong. I liked him well enough, and the other characters were enjoyable. My favorite was the friend, Adjani. The plot was interesting and the ending satisfying.

There were some things I thought could have been handled better. The only two female characters of any note are the love interest and the love interest’s mother, and for a large chunk of the book, the love interest is only there to play the damsel in need of saving. It would have been nice to have at least one important (or even notable) female character who was interesting on her own account. The villain was pretty generically evil, so it would also have been nice to see him be a bit more complex. This book took me much longer to read than average, partly because it’s just much longer than average, and partly because it’s pretty slow moving. Which is a bit annoying, but at the same time, I can’t point to any parts that could be cut or significantly shortened. I guess that’s just a warning that if you’re an impatient reader who has to have something exciting happening all the time, you might get tired of this book quickly. Also, even though my copy was the ninth printing, there were still at least a dozen or so typos, and those are always jarring when I come across them.

So, not a perfect book, but a solid, entertaining story, and in my opinion a very successful blend of the Christian and sci-fi genres. Four out of five stars.