Rating: 
Summary: Power games as they've been played for centuries
Review: I will try to avoid repeating a jacket flap and other reviewers: all thoughts are fairly accurate and objective. This book is very fortunate to have such sophisticated readership and it absolutely deserves such readers.
But it seems to me that only one reviewer and the author of flap piece noticed the crucial point of the book: it is about a quest for unrestrained power at any price.
All three historical episodes in Dreams describe the power games that go through the same stages regardless of the century described: "do-good" doctrine of power seeker, his slow ascent to power, removal of his contenders and insiders, his glorious legacy for the generations to come.
Mr. Pears reveals the hidden mechanics of power games with rare mastery. I would guess that he was a pretty diligent student of game theory: many of his scenes and dialogs in Dreams encapsulate the classical game scripts. If you read this novel with such notion in mind, its ending does not appear abrupt or illogical.
Enjoy the read. If Dreams is the only book that you find time to read this year, you will fill your quota of learning with abandon.
Rating:
Summary: Stellar
Review: Having been a fan of Instance of the Fingerpost, I was anxious to read Mr. Pears new novel. Now that I have completed the story, I felt I had to express my opinion. This story is an amazing journey between times, ideas, places and peoples. Intellectually stimulating, but highly intriguing, Scipio recounts the story of three men living at different periods whose civilizations are on the brink of collapse. Each man falls in love with a woman who, because of circumstances, he cannot fully embrace. This is an excellent and sometimes sad story that is gripping and brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the faint of brain :-)
Review: Pears turns in yet another twisting, turning, thought provoking narrative in several voices. If you read "An Instance of the Fingerpost" you will not be disappointed with how the author handles incredibly detailed understanding of history with power and immediacy for a current audience. However, be forewarned that the key issues in play are civilization and philosophy, not "whodunit." The plot involves a Provencal poet, a Roman aristocrat, the Vichy government, a troubled academic, Papal conspiracies, the Black Death, barbarian kings, forgotten Siennese painters -- oh, it's terrific. So why 4 stars? The narrative here is third person, amd maybe a bit less engaging than the first-person testimonials in "Fingerpost." Against anyone else, Pears deserves a 5. Against himself, this should maybe be a 4.5
Rating:
Summary: sliding panels into the past
Review: I picked this book up at Borders, thinking it would make great poolside reading during my son's swimming lesson. Was I ever wrong! I found myself drawn into the plot immediately. But my brain got tired before too long and I had to put it down. There are so many stories going on at once that sometimes it's hard to keep track of them all. And I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. Still, I really appreciate the obvious talent that went into the writing, and it made me think more than I had in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating But Emotionally Cold
Review: This is an erudite, fascinatingly complex and highly literate novel that consistently engaged my interest, if not my emotions. A five-star novel, to me, would be one that engaged both my mind and my heart (the supreme example of this, Edith Pargeter's "The Heaven Tree Trilogy"). While I was interested in all the characters, I felt a bit let down by the fact that I never truly mourned any of them, or felt any great loss at their fates. They existed more as proponents of ideas (and vaguely articulated ideas, at that) than as living, breathing people, with the possible exception of Olivier, whose decisions were not motivated by high-minded philosophy but by simple human love. Yet even his fate was less devastating emotionally than it should have been. For Manlius and Julien, I felt mostly exasperation, that they should have spent their lifetimes pursuing the "ideal" to the utter loss of their own honor, goodness or virtue. Christianity is much-maligned and less-understood in this book, which is a pity, because Christianity, at its core, has more to do with ideal love than intellect, which certainly fails as a yardstick of virtue. (As C.S. Lewis once pointed out, there has never been a better educated population in history than that of pre-World War II Germany.) If Christianity has failed, it is because it has seldom been tried: certainly not by the bulk of the medieval clergy. However, I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in history and ideas, not to mention ideals of human behavior.
Rating: 
Summary: A trade off between intellect and vigor
Review: I enjoyed the thoughtfulness of the premise, the richness of the back story and the erudition behind the story, and the elaboration of the themes and the plot. This is a much more substantive novel than 90% of the product out there. You will enjoy this book if you enjoy philosophy, the play of history and time, complex, inter-weaved plotting, and literary and historical allusions. This is beach reading for folks that like the finer arts, enjoy the interplay of theory and art and the stimulation of talking about ideas with friends over a bottle of wine. Please do not read the rest of these comments until you have read the book. You should enjoy this book for what it is, and I hope it will stimulate your thinking as much as it did mine. The following comments only reflect some ideas I had about why it is flawed, and what could be done to fix those flaws. For despite its wonderful qualities, this is a disappointing book. From a characterization perspective, only Olivier undertakes any kind of heroic action, and his ultimate action is the passive kind of waiting around to get caught and beaten. The other two male protagonists, Manlius Hippomanes and Julien Barneuve, chronologically first and third in the historical progression are innerly passive, despite their outward engagement. The author would have us believe that this is a result of their misunderstanding of their true philosophical and moral obligations, but it also has something to do with their particular characters. (It raises the question -- could the author understand or portray a true man of action?) Pears also doesn't do justice to the philosophical richness of christianity. Saint Augustine incorporated significant neo-platonist ideas into his work, and Aquinas elevated christianity to an aristotelian cerebral contemplation of the spheres. Besides, on his own side of the ledger, Pears could have also enlisted someone like Boethius, to showcase classical virtue in a much more heroic mode. As a result, the philosophical showdowns that Pears seeks to pull off aren't as powerful as they could be. To really have pushed this novel over the top, the antagonists (and their world view) needed to be more fully realized. The defenders of a classical, neoplatonist view of virtue fail in their conception and realization. And in truth, the story also falls short because of its frequently chilly and reserved treatment of love.
(Actually, it would be very interesting to de-construct this novel, and separate what it is trying to portray from what it actually portrays.) Structurally, the Manlius thread needed the most work. It would have been nice to see a female counterweight to Sophia, the "conversion" of the jews seemed abruptly set up, and an obvious case of trying to achieve thematic symmetry, and it's hard to elevate the "Dream" manuscript when it's built on such a flawed philosophical base. In sum, I didn't have a problem with the philosophical tendentiousness so much as that the philosophy and the story lines didn't seem to gel together the way that the author, at least on the surface, wanted to tie them together. There are some brilliant bits in there -- particularly the three-sided Marcel-Bernard-Julien shifting relationships, and I am already looking forward to the next work of Pears, because he's really got something here, and he has something to say.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful, thought-provoking
Review: I know, I know, when you say "insightful and thought-provoking" it sounds like telling your friend his blind date is "a great dancer and has a wonderful personality." In other words, a schnauzer. But for someone willing to put thought and energy into thinking about what he or she is reading, and who appreciates the extraordinary skill and forethought required to produce this, it's a real find you won't put down, I find I enjoyed this slightly less than "Instance of the Fingerpost," which is why it only got four stars instead of five, but it's a masterpiece nonetheless. I was at the store the day it went on sale, bought it in hardback and glad I did. Don't take it to the beach; save it for a long read in a comfortable chair and a healthy pitcher of your favorite beverage nearby.
Rating:
Summary: An Unforgettable Achievement
Review: The novel begins, "Julien Barneuve died at 3:28 on the afternoon of August 18, 1943. It had taken him twenty-three minutes exactly to die..." From that moment on I found this one of the unforgettable novels I've ever read. I, too, delighted in "An Instance of the Fingerpost," although its mysteries were, I thought, resolved in a manner I could not believe. This novel is yet more sophisticated and with a surer touch as well as a darker vision. It is certainly not for those who want a fun beach read but the thoughtful reader will delight in it. Earlier reviewers have noted the strengths of the novel, its three-level plot structure in which what Manlius Hippomanes and his inspiration, Sophia, do in Gaul as the Roman Empire dies around them is inextricably linked to a romantic medieval poet in Avignon and a cynical intellectual in post-WWI France who is coaxed into joining the Vichy regime. All three stories are tied by strong threads of continuity - the most important being a work by Manlius in which he attempts philosophically to resolve questions between neoplatonic vision and Christian dogma. 800 years later, Olivier de Noyen will try to understand it, as will the modern character, Julien, as war breaks out with Germany in 1940. It may sound dull - trust me, it is not. What I know about neoplatonic thought could be written on a finger's end. What is required is journey for the reader into ancient and modern life when one way of life is dying about you and a violent new one is being born, and the kinds of choices you make to survive. All this is exemplified by very real characters confronting real crises and what happens to them - and those around them - because of the kinds of decisions they make. I can't give away the ending but I found the last paragraph almost unbearably poignant and in tune with the symphony Pears' has composed. Each character has a woman - perhaps the same woman, there are threads hinting this playfully - who inspire them to examine themselves. The novel's theme again and again, whether shown in art, literature or life, is the blind man, seeking . . . whether love, truth, or honor is deliberately ambiguous. Each man loses what he loves through the choice he makes. I suspect this book might be harder for those who know or care nothing for history; if you knew nothing about the slow decline of the Roman Empire, the Black Death and early Christianity, or the collaborators in France who worked with the Nazis, you might lose a lot of the resonance Pears imparts. But many people loved "Fingerpost" without being experts in that arcane time either, and I like to think this book will be even more highly praised. Personally, I found it superior. A wonderful experience.
Rating:
Summary: a masterpiece...
Review: One of the greatest "historical novels" ever written...difficult but rewarding.
If the "sliding panels" narrative presents initial difficulties, you'll probably do what I did: on completing the work, I began it again with even greater pleasure.
Utterly different from the author's marvelous "art history mysteries" (which I love), this is the work he'll be remembered for not ambitious if uneven INSTANCE OF A FINGERPOST...
A brave, insightful work from one of the world's finest writers.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult but rewarding
Review: This is a good book. It's much heavier going than "Instance of the Fingerpost," and rather less sheer fun. But the intellectual challenge is greater and perhaps the rewards too. The three stories run simultaneously and center on the conflict between moral virtue and political action. It's a worthy theme. I'm not entirely sure, however, how well Pears brings it all off. The ending seems to lack thematic closure. Or perhaps I just missed something. This isn't a book for plot or character--the narrator is very distanced from his material, lending a chilly tone. But if you want something challenging, different from the beach reads that occupy so much of our time nowadays, give this a try. Don't wait for the movie, for there won't be one.
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