Dreamfall
By Joan D. Vinge
Warner, $22.95
ISBN 0446516279
Review by Larry Woods
A new book by Hugo Award-winning Joan D. Vinge is usually a pleasure, and Dreamfall does not disappoint. Dreamfall continues the adventures of Vinge's telepathic outcast, Cat, who is half psionic Hydran, half human, and all punkish trouble. Orphaned as a child, feared for his telepathy, Cat yearns to return to the Hydran home planet of Refuge. As usual, beware of wishes being granted, for when Cat arrives he is still an outcast because of his halfbreed nature-a state worsened by the fact that he has somehow lost his telepathic powers. Some self-worth is restored when he is retained by a group of human xeno-archaeologists to investigate the living artifacts called the Cloud-Whales, beings who populate the atmosphere leave their "thoughts" behind in a phenomenon called "dreamfall." The reefs that are formed from dreamfall contain alien knowledge that could make a powerful human-owned business cartel rich.
Larry D. Woods, an attorney, is an avid reader of science fiction.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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