The premise of The Dream Metropolis genuinely intrigued me. It is about a whole city within a shared lucid dream. The dreamers are able to interact and fall in and out of dreams, while having a dream city at their disposal to change and manipulate. Unfortunately, this story fell short for me and was ultimately a disappointment.
The scattered haphazard flow made the story very hard to follow. Jumping between 4 or 5 different perspectives, I wasn't even completely sure what was going on until about a quarter of the way in. I suspect the disjointed perspectives was intended to mimic the nature of the shared dream state, but I think it really reduced the clarity of the story.
I was unable to form any interest in most of the characters. Since most of them were basically just wandering around the dream world fairly confused, none of them developed any clear motivation or direction. Even though some of the characters had interesting flaws, it is hard to form attachment to them when they have no goals or real problems to overcome.
The two characters that I felt a little bit of care for, the architect of the city and the cocaine junkie, were featured so seldomly that I would often forget about their existence.
Near the end of the story there is a bit of glimmer when some of the motivations behind the creation of the city and who is involved are revealed. It was too little too late though, and as the story came to a conclusion nothing interesting was actually revealed or overcome.
With more intrigue and a clearer focus this story could have some potential. There is no easy fix though, so I can't recommend this story under any preconditions. The Dream Metropolis is at most only 2 stars.
The Dream Metropolis
Smashwords ($0.99)
Amazon Kindle
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