Rating: 
Summary: Finest last line of any book I've ever read
Review: ...but if you don't read the book first, it won't mean a thing. Yes, this book moves more slowly than some of Willis's later books, but it is far from boring. Each detail builds to an inevitable climax, the reader feeling the same mixture of doom and hope that Jeff does.
I have loved this book for a long time, so much that when asked to lend it, I bought a second copy in case the first never came back.
Rating: 
Summary: When you least expect it
Review: ...this book will GET you!
I read it, enjoyed it, wondered what in the world was going to happen. When it happened it took me completely by surprise. A haunting book that draws you in so skillfully you don't even realize what's going on.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, entertaining and highly recommendable
Review: After I read The Doomsday Book, I looked for other books by Connie Willis, and found Lincoln's Dreams. Although Lincoln's Dreams isn't a very long book, it contains areas of interest for a broad spectrum of people: Civil War history, psychology, mystery, romance, and the price of war both in the past and present. Several years ago, I recommended it to someone I worked for, and when I ran into her recently, the first thing she remembered about me was that I was the person who suggested she read it! It's fascinating. It's entertaining. Read it.
Rating: 
Summary: My least favorite Connie Willis book
Review: After reading this book I read an interview with the author where she said it was more about Traveller than Lee or Lincoln. Indeed it is about loyalty and unconditional love. I have previously read To Say Nothing of the Dog by Willis and still count it as one of my favorite books. But that was comic where this is simply stunning. It is the kind of book that makes you fall in love with the author for having created something so beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: Short, but A Great Book
Review: Connie Willis is one of the best speculative fiction writers, and "Lincoln's Dreams" book is up there with her best. The hero of the story is Jeff Johnson, who is an historical researcher. He is employed by a writer of Civil War books, Braun. They are in the process of finalizing Braun's latest book, "The Duty Bound", and starting to work on Braun's next book on Lincoln, when he meets Annie. Annie is suffering from bad dreams, which appear to be coming from Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. Throughout the book Jeff helps her determine what the dreams mean, and becomes obsessed with her. This short hypnosis cannot do justice to this book, since there are many layers to the story. I found that this book was hard to put down, and that I was always eager to get back to it.This book won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best SF novel published in the U.S. in 1987. It was rated as the 5th best Fantasy Novel in by the 1988 Locus Awards. It was nominated for the 1988 Mythopoeic Award, and the William L. Crawford - IAFA Fantasy Award.
Rating: 
Summary: Like falling asleep in front of the History Channel?
Review: I did enjoy this book, although not as much as other Connie Willis books that I have read ("To Say Nothing of the Dog", "Bellwether"). The concept behind the story, that of a modern-day person experiencing the dreams of a long-dead historical figure, was intriguing. I also liked the Civil War trivia, and the parallels drawn between historical events and persons with the lives of the modern characters. I didn't find in this book, however, the same degree of character development as in her other books. (I really only cared about Jeff.) The other stories had such strong characters, with well-developed relationships and motives. This book also didn't have the same cleverness, whimsy, and romance that the others did. I read somewhere that this was Willis' first book. I wonder what she would have done with this fascinating story line if she were to write it now? Next on my reading list is "The Doomsday Book". (Seems there isn't a historical era Willis won't tackle!)
Rating:
Summary: When you least expect it
Review: I read this book several years ago and still think about it. It is a gem where time is a major character, and the nature of time and history the topic. I found it haunting and thoughtful and lovely.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best from one of the best . . .
Review: I've enjoyed everything by Connie Willis that I've ever read . . . so how did I miss ever reading her first novel? I dunno, but I'm glad I noticed. This is a beautifully conceived, quietly lyrical story of love and loyalty. Jeff Johnston is a young Civil War researcher working for an historical novelist, who meets Annie, who has been having Robert E. Lee's dreams (so the general can get some rest), and he becomes her protector and facilitator. And he eventually finds out just how he himself figures in her dreams. The anxiety and tension build so slowly, you won't notice at first, but by the time you're three-quarters through the book, you won't be able to put it down, not for a minute. And the tragic closing line is the most literally stunning I've ever read. Her grasp of the relevant minutiae of the War is flawless, too. There's a reason Connie has won six Hugos and six Nebulas, as well as the Campbell Award for this very book.
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Achievement
Review: It's hard to figure on how to write a review for this book without giving anything away. Suffice it to say, for the short hook, that this is a book that no reader should go without. Connie Willis takes a hard theme and makes it relatable, understandable, and devastatingly personal for any reader who's willing to accept the book to start with. I'm honestly amazed by some of the negative reviews that the novel gets. I can understand them, to a point--if you've read Connie Willis before, you may be somewhat distressed by the almost unbroken seriousness of tone and story in Lincoln's Dreams. This is not funny or amusing in the way that her better accepted stories are (Doomsday Book, for example, manages to maintain a sense of humor throughout the middle of its several hundred pages). Before you pick up this book, you need to understand that Connie doesn't go out of her way to make the story she's telling easy for you. Nor should she, if you ask me. I'm willing to go along with everything that Willis lays before me in this story, including the sometimes difficult to understand characters. You need to know, though, that they are difficult to understand not because they are flat, but because they are decidedly human (and real people can sometimes be some of the most two dimensional you will ever meet, and I'm including literary figures in that analysis). There are a couple of points in the story where you have to grant Willis some liberties, but for the most part the characters are internally consistent and understandable. The biggest obstacle that this story has is probably its theme--the destructive power of love. However, I was amazed to find when I took some time to sit back and think about the book that the author had managed not only to relate this fundamental theme to me, but that she had done so without the vitriolic hatred of the emotion that many who would try to address it seem to fall into. Indeed--the story shows the terrible destruction that love in all its forms can bring upon a person while still maintaining its desirability and its essential goodness. At the end of the story, you feel the loneliness that the lack of love brings, and I believe that this loneliness is the ultimate expression of the theme that Willis is trying to examine. And the fact that she was able to evoke this in me and show these things to me is what ultimately marks this novel as a triumph for me. I'm not normally one to be emotionally affected by a story, but Connie Willis has always managed to pull my strings, and nowhere more than in this story. This is not a happy story (though it is not without wit, as some would have you believe) but it is an important one, and a lesson that any person can draw. In short, it is a transcendant work that may very well be looked back on as one of the best novels of the last half of the century, and I don't throw that praise around lightly. At the very least, you should at least give the book a try.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bloody Likely
Review: Perhaps it was because I was going through a "logic/realism" period in my life when I read this book, but the idea that the main female character, Annie, was having Robert E. Lee's dreams so that he could get some rest beyond the grave seemed a bit silly.
Don't get me wrong, I love most of Connie Willis' writing. I love that her writing style is so recognisable. She throws you into this world with barely an explanation, so it feels like you've entered halfway through a story, until you realize that there's still more than you expected. But the jump from "Annie's having vivid dreams from the perspective of Robert E. Lee" to "She must be having them because he can't rest in the afterlife" seems a bit stretched. Call me cynical. Maybe I missed something, but it's questionable.
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