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A Prisoner of Dreamland and Other Oneiric Terrors
Welcome to Dreamland, where the stars are hungry and unspeakable horrors dog the dreamer’s heels.
Things are seldom what they seem in Dreamland: forests are labyrinths and butterflies have teeth. Nor is there any reliable map of the twilight continent. Every oneironaut charts their own out of the whole cloth of imagination. Nor is dreaming always a private affair. Not when everyone in town shares the same dream, or a stadium full of fans participate in a Master Dreamer’s latest entertainment, or a dead sibling lures you into a haunted nightmare, or a killer leaves taunting clues in the Kingdom of Nod, or the ghost of an ancient warlock beguiles the dreamer with promises of power.
Dream logic is as squirrely as March weather. Anything’s possible. The dead may rise, and that lover you thought you would spend your life with but haven’t seen in decades could be waiting around the next corner happy to see you. Or devour you.
That light glimmering in the evening mist? Follow it at your peril! And whatever you do in the land of Morpheus in pursuit of adventure or mystery, do not, under any circumstance, as you value your immortal soul, disturb the dreams of slumbering gods.
There have always been oneironauts, intrepid dreamers of imagination and will, who create their dreams and control their outcome.
Things are seldom what they seem in Dreamland: forests are labyrinths and butterflies have teeth. Nor is there any reliable map of the twilight continent. Every oneironaut charts their own out of the whole cloth of imagination. Nor is dreaming always a private affair. Not when everyone in town shares the same dream, or a stadium full of fans participate in a Master Dreamer’s latest entertainment, or a dead sibling lures you into a haunted nightmare, or a killer leaves taunting clues in the Kingdom of Nod, or the ghost of an ancient warlock beguiles the dreamer with promises of power.
Dream logic is as squirrely as March weather. Anything’s possible. The dead may rise, and that lover you thought you would spend your life with but haven’t seen in decades could be waiting around the next corner happy to see you. Or devour you.
That light glimmering in the evening mist? Follow it at your peril! And whatever you do in the land of Morpheus in pursuit of adventure or mystery, do not, under any circumstance, as you value your immortal soul, disturb the dreams of slumbering gods.
There have always been oneironauts, intrepid dreamers of imagination and will, who create their dreams and control their outcome.
262 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2024
18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 22, 2024
A Horror Bookworm Recommendation
A Prisoner Of Dreamland by Garrett Boatman
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
- Extraordinary events are occurring within a small town’s city limits. It’s October 31st 1977, the children seem to be witnessing living nightmares and enduring traumatic experiences. It just so happens, the grownups are not able to see these non-human entities that are haunting their dreams.
- A small group of teenagers partake in a “dreamatron sleep study.” Donning their headsets, they enter a subterranean labyrinth of bone-chilling imagery and potential dangers that lurk within. Little do these virtual adventurers know, they have just arrived within the unspeakable Lovecraftian mythos world. Tap that return key to begin the madness.
- Imagine if you will, a coin-fed dream dispenser, one made for the sole purpose of providing a lovers embrace. Then one day you return to find your “ghost-lover” has expired…out of order. - Author Garrett Boatman would like to share this story among many others as he invites you into his Dreamland.
A Prisoner of Dreamland is a short story collection of the conscious mind and a glimpse beyond. From an apothecary’s cure for insomnia that hasn’t been tested on human subjects to the strange case of a succubus inhabiting a man’s dreams, these dreamland visions allow morbid nightmarish monstrosities to wander among the waking world. Intense, creepy, weird, and pure abject horror…a separation from safety is the common denominator.
Garrett Boatman is talent at its best. For me, the icing on the cosmic cake is the passageway Boatman provides to a Lovecraftian hell. Arkham, Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon and of course the Ancient Ones, this is one heck of a tentacle slithering good time. Because of all the less-savory inhabitants, A Prisoner of Dreamland should come with a “you must be at least this tall to ride” warning on the front cover.
Embrace the darkness and explore the mystical side of a new kind of reading experience. Enter Boatman’s A Prisoner of Dreamland, it’s the ultimate in “terror of the unknown.” A five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.
A Prisoner Of Dreamland by Garrett Boatman
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/
- Extraordinary events are occurring within a small town’s city limits. It’s October 31st 1977, the children seem to be witnessing living nightmares and enduring traumatic experiences. It just so happens, the grownups are not able to see these non-human entities that are haunting their dreams.
- A small group of teenagers partake in a “dreamatron sleep study.” Donning their headsets, they enter a subterranean labyrinth of bone-chilling imagery and potential dangers that lurk within. Little do these virtual adventurers know, they have just arrived within the unspeakable Lovecraftian mythos world. Tap that return key to begin the madness.
- Imagine if you will, a coin-fed dream dispenser, one made for the sole purpose of providing a lovers embrace. Then one day you return to find your “ghost-lover” has expired…out of order. - Author Garrett Boatman would like to share this story among many others as he invites you into his Dreamland.
A Prisoner of Dreamland is a short story collection of the conscious mind and a glimpse beyond. From an apothecary’s cure for insomnia that hasn’t been tested on human subjects to the strange case of a succubus inhabiting a man’s dreams, these dreamland visions allow morbid nightmarish monstrosities to wander among the waking world. Intense, creepy, weird, and pure abject horror…a separation from safety is the common denominator.
Garrett Boatman is talent at its best. For me, the icing on the cosmic cake is the passageway Boatman provides to a Lovecraftian hell. Arkham, Miskatonic University, the Necronomicon and of course the Ancient Ones, this is one heck of a tentacle slithering good time. Because of all the less-savory inhabitants, A Prisoner of Dreamland should come with a “you must be at least this tall to ride” warning on the front cover.
Embrace the darkness and explore the mystical side of a new kind of reading experience. Enter Boatman’s A Prisoner of Dreamland, it’s the ultimate in “terror of the unknown.” A five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.
December 27, 2024
This was a good collection.
My favorite story out of this anthology was the title story "A Prisoner of Dreamland". I think that it touched closest to one of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories the most, and I commend the author for that.
Follow-up favorites include:
•"Of Consciousness and Chaos" (Don't take drugs from friendly strangers...)
•"The Palimpsest" (Don't trust creepy oneiromancers...)
•"The Hungry Stars" (Stay away from Carcosa)
Most of the other stories were good as well, though I didn't particularly care for either "The Witness" or "A Cure for Insomnia".
Overall, it was a great collection, though I would have enjoyed more stories set directly in Dreamland. Can't have everything I guess.
I'd recommend the anthology.
My favorite story out of this anthology was the title story "A Prisoner of Dreamland". I think that it touched closest to one of Lovecraft's Dream Cycle stories the most, and I commend the author for that.
Follow-up favorites include:
•"Of Consciousness and Chaos" (Don't take drugs from friendly strangers...)
•"The Palimpsest" (Don't trust creepy oneiromancers...)
•"The Hungry Stars" (Stay away from Carcosa)
Most of the other stories were good as well, though I didn't particularly care for either "The Witness" or "A Cure for Insomnia".
Overall, it was a great collection, though I would have enjoyed more stories set directly in Dreamland. Can't have everything I guess.
I'd recommend the anthology.
December 9, 2025
This book gave me weird dreams... Fourteen thematically linked lucid nightmares from the outlandish imagination of Garrett Boatman. In A Prisoner of Dreamland the author provides smart scenarios, well-written and fast moving. He makes creative use of standard horror tropes, creatively incorporating them into the framework of these 'dream' stories. At turns grisly and thought-provoking. A really good read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews