I absolutely loved A Dream of Wessex. This book really sets the scene for Priest’s later work such as, The Affirmation and his ‘Dream Archipelago’ that would become a recurrent environment in his writing. A Dream of Wessex is brilliantly told and despite the science fiction aspect of the story, relationships are really at the heart of the story.The story’s focuses on Julia, who has rebuilt her life following a turbulent relationship, and has joined the “Wessex project” – a collective of 38 minds who join together through a specially built projector machine, to envisage a future time, where they exist as alter-egos in the dream-like world of “Wessex". This being Priest, you can expect a blurring of lines between Wessex and reality, past and present and dreams within the dream. And everything changes when Julia’s ex, Paul, suddenly turns up at the Wessex project. The troubled relationship between Julia and Paul is expertly told, and did remind me of the relationship triangulation in Priest’s The Glamour.As with most of Priest’s work, A Dream of Wessex is haunting and gripping, with an unpredictable air of unease throughout and very vivid dream-like imagery. For me it’s age didn’t show whatsoever, despite the fact part of it is set in the early 1980s. If you are a fan of Priest’s later books, then this comes highly recommended. Plus you can spot all the ideas that were ‘borrowed’ for the film Inception, of which there are many similarities…
This book, like the other Christopher Priest books I have read, kind of made my head hurt a little and I find myself having to slow down (no bad thing) to try and get the timeline/plot/dimension right in my head. Without giving too much away, it's a loop within a loop within a loop, and the kind where you have to sit down and actually conceptualise it, at which point your head either explodes or you realise it doesn't work. I'm not going to tell you which is which! But it's a piece of nice writing, albeit with a style from a different age - you only have to look at the cover to tell - but it works.
What do You think about A Dream Of Wessex (1978)?
Some nice poetic verging on the mystical lines about Wessex but the characterisations aren't very deep and so much of it is so dated. First published in 1977 it goes on a bit about typewriters and the idea of a futuristic society without computing jars too much to not irritate. I liked the conceit about Dorchester Marina, but otherwise it didn't really engage. You may not be able to judge a book by it's cover ("The flares! The lapels! The shirt collar! The length of his hair!") but some of the phrasing and concepts are incredibly dated. Julia was 'destroyed' by her ex, yet seems to live, walk, breath, eat, have sex a couple of times and fall in love. "Destroying" people seemed to be a preoccupation back then. Odd that you never hear it now.
—Carl Bennett
I have to admit that I approached this book with some trepidation, having not really liked The Separation, but I enjoyed this quite a lot. It's about a group of scientists who explore the nature of reality by creating their own "projected" world and living in it, with alternate personalities for months at a time. A nice little piece about the nature of reality, and a good human story of conflict with one of the participants having to deal with an abusive ex-boyfriend. The end was confusing, but when you get layers of reality like this, it often is. It could probably do with a re-read.
—Raj
