The Dream Master

Rating:
Summary: Muddled Dream
Review: Zelazny's prose is in fine form here and he displays a myriad of interesting ideas quite well. In fact some of the background filling in of the world is more interesting than the plot. In particular the mutated dog and his relationship with normal dogs and human society.

Prose aside, Zelazny manages to be at once all too clever and heavy handed. Calling the Dream Master "Render" and having his female patient be named "Eileen Shallot". Other references to classic myth abound as if Zelazny is telling the reader "Oh, aren't I/We so smart, catch the symbolism and foreshadowing here??"

The plot is fairly simplistic, and the ending heavily foreshadowed. For all that it still managed to get me a little engaged even though it was obvious how it was going to happen. Unfortunately, virtually all the characters are unlikeable, from Render, to Shallot, to his girlfriend DeVille and in particular his son as well as Shallot's dog.

Several interesting plot threads are developed and just left hanging. As this was an expansion of a short-story why not flesh out those plot threads. What's with Render's suicide obsession, and the suicides we see of people in the society? What's wrong with the mutated dog, why does he run off and torment normal dogs, is this normal or is the dog as broken as his Mistress?

The quality of writing and the ideas though save this from being a poor novel and pull it into the firmly average bracket. Zelazny fans, or those into novels of dreaming such as Lathe of Heaven may wish to give this a look.

Rating:
Summary: Weak plot, unpleasant characters, but lots of poetic style
Review: Dr. Charles Render is a psychiatrist who uses advanced technology to manipulate the dreams of his patients in this confused and ultimately depressing novel by Roger Zelazny. The therapy Render practices is called neuroparticipation, and allows the doctor to enter the dreams of his patients and act out fantasies that ease the patients' problems. While this may seem a little far-fetched, Zelazny has posited a world where such marvels as programmable flying cars and intelligent talking dogs are cutting edge technology. Despite the difficulty of his work, Render himself seems a less than perfect psychological specimen. He harbors some lingering guilt over the death of his wife some years previously, and compensates for it by being very overprotective of his brilliant young son. This doesn't prevent him from undertaking the most challenging patient of his career, Eileen Shallot, a blind-from-birth Resident in Psychiatry who wants to be a neuroparticipant like Render. The dream-molding device enables Eileen to see with Render's eyes, and much of the action of the novel is Eileen's adventures in learning to see. Although not overlong, this book strike one as a marvelous short story that has been padded out to an all-too-predictable conclusion. Much of the book seems pointless and off the subject and is often merely confusing, especially when it shifts point of view. For example, the long digressions with Render's girlfriend Jill DeVille and the extended trip with the talking dog both contribute nothing to the story, and could have been cut without any loss whatsoever. But perhaps the biggest weakness of this book is that none of the characters are particularly likable. Render is over-confident, over-bearing, and self-centered. Miss DeVille's attraction to him seems almost unfathomable unless we assume she's after his money. And Eileen Shallot seems driven by a monomania that is more of a handicap than her blindness. As a result, the reader can be forgiven for not much caring about what happens to these people. Zelazny's skill with prose is never in doubt; his descriptions are almost poetic in their serene beauty, but he gives himself very little plot to work with here, and characters whose fate means nothing to us. The dream sequences are not nearly as imaginative as one would expect, and the few interesting ideas we are presented us with don't really seem that revolutionary anymore in the 21st century, making this book a victory of style over substance. If you're not really a fan of Zelazny's work, this one probably won't change your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Weak plot, unpleasant characters, but lots of poetic style
Review: Dr. Charles Render is a psychiatrist who uses advanced technology to manipulate the dreams of his patients in this confused and ultimately depressing novel by Roger Zelazny. The therapy Render practices is called neuroparticipation, and allows the doctor to enter the dreams of his patients and act out fantasies that ease the patients' problems. While this may seem a little far-fetched, Zelazny has posited a world where such marvels as programmable flying cars and intelligent talking dogs are cutting edge technology. Despite the difficulty of his work, Render himself seems a less than perfect psychological specimen. He harbors some lingering guilt over the death of his wife some years previously, and compensates for it by being very overprotective of his brilliant young son. This doesn't prevent him from undertaking the most challenging patient of his career, Eileen Shallot, a blind-from-birth Resident in Psychiatry who wants to be a neuroparticipant like Render. The dream-molding device enables Eileen to see with Render's eyes, and much of the action of the novel is Eileen's adventures in learning to see. Although not overlong, this book strike one as a marvelous short story that has been padded out to an all-too-predictable conclusion. Much of the book seems pointless and off the subject and is often merely confusing, especially when it shifts point of view. For example, the long digressions with Render's girlfriend Jill DeVille and the extended trip with the talking dog both contribute nothing to the story, and could have been cut without any loss whatsoever. But perhaps the biggest weakness of this book is that none of the characters are particularly likable. Render is over-confident, over-bearing, and self-centered. Miss DeVille's attraction to him seems almost unfathomable unless we assume she's after his money. And Eileen Shallot seems driven by a monomania that is more of a handicap than her blindness. As a result, the reader can be forgiven for not much caring about what happens to these people. Zelazny's skill with prose is never in doubt; his descriptions are almost poetic in their serene beauty, but he gives himself very little plot to work with here, and characters whose fate means nothing to us. The dream sequences are not nearly as imaginative as one would expect, and the few interesting ideas we are presented us with don't really seem that revolutionary anymore in the 21st century, making this book a victory of style over substance. If you're not really a fan of Zelazny's work, this one probably won't change your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Zelazny, the dream master
Review: First let me start off by saying that I am a huge Zelazny fan and that would most likely make me extremely biased. But I also like Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, and Lovecraft - so I think I can be fairly open-minded and am somewhat well-rounded. Contrary to most of the reviews on this book, I thought that 'The Dream Master' was very very good. True the characters could've been deeper, but Zelazny's writing style is captivating in and of itself. There is so much happening in this novel and is at the same time almost without purpose. This, I would say, is a novel for the Zelazny fan who has already read (and liked) his Amber Series and 'Lord of Light' (also check out 'Night in Lonesome October' for a new avenue of Zelazny thought) - because I think that this novel is more like 'basking in the sunlight' of the style of a truely ingenious writer. So in that respect it succeeds and if you appreciate a writer's style and ability to interest (even without a major plot!) then you would probably enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: Master of the Dream Castle
Review: Ideas have always been the movers and shakers of science fiction. But because of this, all too often other aspects of good literature have been ignored or given short shrift by all too many authors. Zelazny does not fall into this trap.

The driving idea behind this book is the ability, with the help of some fancy technology, of a trained neuroparticipant therapist to directly monitor and control his patient's dreams. There is a downside to this: the therapist had better be very emotionally stable himself, else he runs the risk of having the patient take control and impress his thoughts and emotional problems on the therapist. Zelazny takes this basic concept and wraps it first in truly excellent prose; much of this work reads almost like a prose poem. He adds two strong characters, Charles Render, the therapist, and Eileen Shallot, a blind-from-birth woman who wants to be a therapist herself, but must first get over the problem of how to deal with the sights and visions that her future patients will have. Render (and I believe the name is significant, though this is a literary device Zelazny did not normally use) is a tightly controlled person, carefully bulwarking his emotional walls from the pain of the death of his wife and driven to over-protect his brilliant son. Though repeatedly warned of the dangers, he finds the challenge of introducing Eileen to the world of sight irresistible. Thus the stage is set for a trip through the world of dreams, dreams that are perhaps both simpler and more comprehensible than the garden variety most people have, but described with such excellence that it is almost like seeing a sequence of pictures, watercolors and oils in vivid colors.

The side characters also have important roles to play, from Eileen's talking seeing-eye dog to Render's nominal current love interest, Jill DeVille. Their actions precipitate the final action of the story, and indicate that the story is both carefully plotted and has a thematic depth that can only be seen when the play of irony surrounding these events and the careful allusions to certain legendary characters is carefully examined.

This story was originally published in slightly shorter form as "He Who Shapes", which took the Nebula award for best novella in 1965. With this expanded form, I think the final irony is more sharply defined, his main characters better fleshed out, but perhaps there are places where some unnecessary verbiage has been added. I would be hard pressed to declare which version is better.

The idea is only the kernel. Roger's layers of wrapping with all the elements of good storytelling is what makes this story a worthwhile read.


--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Rating:
Summary: My first Zelazny
Review: Picked this at random from the local bookstore. First impressions are that the prose is wonderfully poetic, and if thats indicative of Zelaznys writing, I shall certainly endeavour to read more.

Loved the concepts, with regards to the actual story I found it somewhat directionless, with the ending slightly predictable.

Nonetheless, a worthwhile exercise.

Rating:
Summary: "Dream" on
Review: Robert Zelazny wasn't quite in top form in "Dream Master," a rather jumbled SF novel that delves into the human mind. Zelazny writes with his usual minimalist poetry, but the finale and characters are definitely lacking. It's a nice read, but far from Zelazny's best.

Charles Render is a neuroparticipant therapist -- he taps into his patients' dreams and analyzes them to tell them what their undisclosed problems are. For example, he finds out that one man imagines enemies because the alternative is being ignored. His own problems go un-dealt with -- the death of his wife in a car crash, which has left him with some lingering guilt issues.

Then he meets Eileen Shallot, who wants the same kind of job he has. The problem is: she's been blind all her life, and no therapist of that kind has ever been blind because they get overwhelmed by the dreams. But he agrees to help Eileen gradually -- by letting her see through his eyes.

"Dream Master" was once a short story, and was expanded dramatically to make it into this novella. It's definitely a mixed blessing -- on one hand, Zelazny has plenty of room to paint strange dreamscapes and weird twists of the imagination. On the other, "Master" is definitely padded.

So long as "Master" sticks close to the interactions between Charles and Eileen, the story stays solid and sleek. But there are also a lot of scenes that do nothing except distract, like anything involving Jill DeVille (Charles' bland girlfriend) or the talking doggie.

Certainly Zelazny takes an unconventional and interesting idea -- psychotherapy using a "dream machine" -- and manages to wring a whole book out of that sole idea. His sparse prose really blossoms in the dream sequences, becoming lusher and stranger. They're not terribly strange as dreams usually are, but they're definitely interesting.

Charles isn't a terribly likable protagonist; he's a bit of a know-it-all. Okay, he's a doctor, but his condescension towards his patients comes across as arrogance. Eileen seems a little more likable, with her obsession with overcoming her disabilities. The other characters -- Charles' son and Jill -- are pretty much nonentities.

"Dream Master" makes up for lackluster characters with Zelazny's imagination and excellent prose. Just don't expect him to be in top form in this dreamy scifi exploration.

Rating:
Summary: "Dream" on
Review: Robert Zelazny wasn't quite in top form in "Dream Master," a rather jumbled SF novel that delves into the human mind. Zelazny writes with his usual minimalist poetry, but the finale and characters are definitely lacking. It's a nice read, but far from Zelazny's best.

Charles Render is a neuroparticipant therapist -- he taps into his patients' dreams and analyzes them to tell them what their undisclosed problems are. For example, he finds out that one man imagines enemies because the alternative is being ignored. His own problems go un-dealt with -- the death of his wife in a car crash, which has left him with some lingering guilt issues.

Then he meets Eileen Shallot, who wants the same kind of job he has. The problem is: she's been blind all her life, and no therapist of that kind has ever been blind because they get overwhelmed by the dreams. But he agrees to help Eileen gradually -- by letting her see through his eyes.

"Dream Master" was once a short story, and was expanded dramatically to make it into this novella. It's definitely a mixed blessing -- on one hand, Zelazny has plenty of room to paint strange dreamscapes and weird twists of the imagination. On the other, "Master" is definitely padded.

So long as "Master" sticks close to the interactions between Charles and Eileen, the story stays solid and sleek. But there are also a lot of scenes that do nothing except distract, like anything involving Jill DeVille (Charles' bland girlfriend) or the talking doggie.

Certainly Zelazny takes an unconventional and interesting idea -- psychotherapy using a "dream machine" -- and manages to wring a whole book out of that sole idea. His sparse prose really blossoms in the dream sequences, becoming lusher and stranger. They're not terribly strange as dreams usually are, but they're definitely interesting.

Charles isn't a terribly likable protagonist; he's a bit of a know-it-all. Okay, he's a doctor, but his condescension towards his patients comes across as arrogance. Eileen seems a little more likable, with her obsession with overcoming her disabilities. The other characters -- Charles' son and Jill -- are pretty much nonentities.

"Dream Master" makes up for lackluster characters with Zelazny's imagination and excellent prose. Just don't expect him to be in top form in this dreamy scifi exploration.

Rating:
Summary: Fast, fun read
Review: Zelazny's prose is always polished nearly to a poetic lustre, and once you jump into it, it carries you along so swiftly that it seems almost unsafe to get out until it comes to an end. He doesn't insult the reader's intelligence by overwriting or overexplaining. The drawback of that last trait is that in any work of his you're liable to find yourself speeding along only to slam into a brick wall raised by some arcane reference of the author's, leaving you momentarily dazed and wondering what you just read. Having said that about his work in general, I'll say that it's mostly true in this work too. Others have said it reads like a padded short story, and that's exactly what it is. It was originally published as the so-called novella "He Who Shapes," which won a Nebula award in 1965. It's better in that shorter form, but Zelazny did a passable job when he subsequently expanded it into this fuller version. Often short stories suffer when expanded like this (Hemingway's "To Have and Have Not" comes to mind), but in this case I think both versions are very good. If you haven't read the short story, you won't know what you're not missing when you read "The Dream Master." Still, if you're new to Zelazny, you're probably better off picking up a compendium of his short works or of Nebula winners that includes "He Who Shapes." His work is easier to digest at first in small servings.