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The Dreams of the Eternal City
Living in 2040 in an age of harsh austerity, Ethan Thomas works for a sinister organisation that enforces the ‘Sleep Code’ – laws which regulate sleep in order to fulfil the United Kingdom’s need for economic growth. A strong belief in the justice of his work drives Ethan to fanatically pursue sleep criminals and his own lazy colleagues to the detriment of his personal relationships.
Ethan’s conscientiousness leads his superiors to assign him to a new project where he will be responsible for identifying a group of subversives working to undermine the Sleep Code. Delving into a world of secretive intelligence agencies and groups with ambiguous loyalties, Ethan works night and day to fulfil his duty.
But when he develops a problematic sleep disorder, Ethan finds himself increasingly compromised personally and professionally. Experiencing the same situations that he has previously investigated, he witness the corrupt ways that the law is enforced. Now Ethan must decide whether he can maintain his integrity and his belief in the system he defends.
Ethan’s conscientiousness leads his superiors to assign him to a new project where he will be responsible for identifying a group of subversives working to undermine the Sleep Code. Delving into a world of secretive intelligence agencies and groups with ambiguous loyalties, Ethan works night and day to fulfil his duty.
But when he develops a problematic sleep disorder, Ethan finds himself increasingly compromised personally and professionally. Experiencing the same situations that he has previously investigated, he witness the corrupt ways that the law is enforced. Now Ethan must decide whether he can maintain his integrity and his belief in the system he defends.
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 7, 2018
About the author
Mark Reece
3 books13 followersMark Reece is a widely published short story writer, whose work has been published in Orbis, Structo, Here Comes Everyone, Fire, The Delinquent, and Postscripts (PS Publishing), amongst other places. The Dreams of the Eternal City is his first novel. He currently lives in Staffordshire, in a flat filled with fine paintings (all copies).
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 16, 2019
*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*
Not sure what to think about this one: The year is 2040 and sleep is regulated by the UK's government to enhance the productivity of the country. Ethan wholeheartedly enforces these laws. After receiving a new, big project dealing with subversives, Ethan must choose between work, his girlfriend and the 'Sleep Code'.
I waited and waited for things to actually happen, for Ethan to doubt the system...
So many great ideas, yet so little execution. Characters remained somewhat blunt, their relationships unbelievable, sub-plots were never finished, not enough world-building, not enough backstory, a disappointing ending.
2,5 stars because I liked the tone of the novel and the general ideas!
Not sure what to think about this one: The year is 2040 and sleep is regulated by the UK's government to enhance the productivity of the country. Ethan wholeheartedly enforces these laws. After receiving a new, big project dealing with subversives, Ethan must choose between work, his girlfriend and the 'Sleep Code'.
I waited and waited for things to actually happen, for Ethan to doubt the system...
So many great ideas, yet so little execution. Characters remained somewhat blunt, their relationships unbelievable, sub-plots were never finished, not enough world-building, not enough backstory, a disappointing ending.
2,5 stars because I liked the tone of the novel and the general ideas!
February 6, 2019
In 2040 the ‘Sleep Code’ must be obeyed.
During a time of harsh austerity, sleep is regulated in order to keep the United Kingdom growing. Ethan Thomas works for the sinister department, he believes in his job and pursues the sleep criminals.
That is until he is assigned a new project to identify a group of subversives, he works night and day until he develops a problematic sleep himself and must rethink his loyalties and fight for his integrity.
I thought this book sounded good until I started to read and then it all fell apart. The story just never got started and nothing happened! I was glad when I had finished, I was so disappointed.
Ethan is weak, his girlfriend soft and the other characters were cardboard. I really cannot find anything good to say about it.
I hate to give such a negative review, but it is just dull.
Give the book a read yourself and make up your own mind, just remember you will not get those hours back.
Chester.
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.
During a time of harsh austerity, sleep is regulated in order to keep the United Kingdom growing. Ethan Thomas works for the sinister department, he believes in his job and pursues the sleep criminals.
That is until he is assigned a new project to identify a group of subversives, he works night and day until he develops a problematic sleep himself and must rethink his loyalties and fight for his integrity.
I thought this book sounded good until I started to read and then it all fell apart. The story just never got started and nothing happened! I was glad when I had finished, I was so disappointed.
Ethan is weak, his girlfriend soft and the other characters were cardboard. I really cannot find anything good to say about it.
I hate to give such a negative review, but it is just dull.
Give the book a read yourself and make up your own mind, just remember you will not get those hours back.
Chester.
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.
January 22, 2019
If The Dreams of The Eternal City had been a bit snappier and sassy, it would have been so much better. As it is, I found it too slow and stagnant. I wanted this or that to happen, but nothing serious actually happened. The characters were not fleshed out because they had no opportunity to grow and show who they are. I was disappointed with this story. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
February 13, 2019
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of this book was intriguing, but the execution was lacking. In this dystopian vision of a near future in which the government has mandated that all people may only sleep between certain authorized hours, Reece strikes an Orwellian tone but fails to create a convincing world. The best science fiction starts from a "what if?" question and builds from there. This book does so, but I found myself so frequently jerked out of the story by inconsistencies in its internal logic that I could not enjoy it. The stated reason why the government is controlling its people's sleep is that it wants to increase productivity. I could believe that premise if only I had been given a more fully-developed reason why the government believes that instituting the "sleep code" would increase productivity. Perhaps if all workers were legally required to do nothing but work during their non-sleep hours, the restrictions would make sense. Because leisure time is still permitted, the ban on unauthorized sleep makes no sense. How does the government or the country benefit if a tired worker spends a couple of hours watching a movie instead of sleeping? They would still not be working for that period of time. I also wish that the book had included some explanation of how the government could justify making its workforce chronically exhausted. Did some alternative scientific movement arise to debunk all evidence that adequate sleep is beneficial to cognitive function? Did all the sleep-advocating scientists get arrested?
I really did want to like this book. If only the author had refined the rules of his world a bit more precisely, I think it could have been quite good. As it stands, the book feels more like an unfinished draft than a final project.
The premise of this book was intriguing, but the execution was lacking. In this dystopian vision of a near future in which the government has mandated that all people may only sleep between certain authorized hours, Reece strikes an Orwellian tone but fails to create a convincing world. The best science fiction starts from a "what if?" question and builds from there. This book does so, but I found myself so frequently jerked out of the story by inconsistencies in its internal logic that I could not enjoy it. The stated reason why the government is controlling its people's sleep is that it wants to increase productivity. I could believe that premise if only I had been given a more fully-developed reason why the government believes that instituting the "sleep code" would increase productivity. Perhaps if all workers were legally required to do nothing but work during their non-sleep hours, the restrictions would make sense. Because leisure time is still permitted, the ban on unauthorized sleep makes no sense. How does the government or the country benefit if a tired worker spends a couple of hours watching a movie instead of sleeping? They would still not be working for that period of time. I also wish that the book had included some explanation of how the government could justify making its workforce chronically exhausted. Did some alternative scientific movement arise to debunk all evidence that adequate sleep is beneficial to cognitive function? Did all the sleep-advocating scientists get arrested?
I really did want to like this book. If only the author had refined the rules of his world a bit more precisely, I think it could have been quite good. As it stands, the book feels more like an unfinished draft than a final project.
December 15, 2018
I received this book through NetGalley, in exchange for a n unbiased, honest review.
I found this to be a very interesting read. Although, quite a bit of it seemed like minutiae that wasn't really relevant to the story.
Ethan Thomas lives in a dystopia-sorta England and he works for a government agency that controls and regulates the sleep of citizens. Every citizen has a sleep schedule and a work schedule that they're expected to comply with. You cannot fall asleep before your sleep shift., nor can you sleep any longer after your alarm clock goes off at the end of your sleep shift. Ethan is an investigator, responsible for analyzing sleep code breaches and recommending the punishment based on severity of the breach.
Much of the story focuses on Ethan's work, where he is assigned a special project. He ends up fanatical about the project at the end of the book. So fanatical that his sleep schedule gets all sorts of screwed up and he endangers his relationship with his long-term girlfriend, Aislin.
The ending was not very exciting. It just sort of ended. I was thinking I was getting close to the end and there must be a sequel planned because I didn't know how it would get wrapped up in a few pages. This story does make you think. I would say that it was mostly enjoyable, however, the ending was not what I was expecting.
I found this to be a very interesting read. Although, quite a bit of it seemed like minutiae that wasn't really relevant to the story.
Ethan Thomas lives in a dystopia-sorta England and he works for a government agency that controls and regulates the sleep of citizens. Every citizen has a sleep schedule and a work schedule that they're expected to comply with. You cannot fall asleep before your sleep shift., nor can you sleep any longer after your alarm clock goes off at the end of your sleep shift. Ethan is an investigator, responsible for analyzing sleep code breaches and recommending the punishment based on severity of the breach.
Much of the story focuses on Ethan's work, where he is assigned a special project. He ends up fanatical about the project at the end of the book. So fanatical that his sleep schedule gets all sorts of screwed up and he endangers his relationship with his long-term girlfriend, Aislin.
The ending was not very exciting. It just sort of ended. I was thinking I was getting close to the end and there must be a sequel planned because I didn't know how it would get wrapped up in a few pages. This story does make you think. I would say that it was mostly enjoyable, however, the ending was not what I was expecting.
January 5, 2019
The Dreams of the Eternal City is a sci fi novel set in the UK where sleeping hours are rigidly enforced by the Government. Unfortunately, I found majority of the book repetitious where the main protagonist, Ethan Thomas travels to work, jokes with his work colleague Mohammed, travels home, converses with his girlfriend and tries to sleep. It is only during the final third where things get interesting but even then, nothing worth reading the previous two thirds to get to. And then it ends.
On face value it is an interesting premise but as you read through the book the more it becomes less convincing. There does not appear to be any opposition apart from the Ilkonian shadow terrorist group (Ilks) however it is confirmed that people voted for sleep enforcement however the enforcement reads like a dictatorship, but this is not confirmed.
Mark Reece is a good writer and this would have worked better to set up a world for a sequel or even a trilogy however it would have required a large part of the book to be cut down and maybe extend the ending which just ends without any resolution.
This book was provided by Netgalley for an unbiased review.
On face value it is an interesting premise but as you read through the book the more it becomes less convincing. There does not appear to be any opposition apart from the Ilkonian shadow terrorist group (Ilks) however it is confirmed that people voted for sleep enforcement however the enforcement reads like a dictatorship, but this is not confirmed.
Mark Reece is a good writer and this would have worked better to set up a world for a sequel or even a trilogy however it would have required a large part of the book to be cut down and maybe extend the ending which just ends without any resolution.
This book was provided by Netgalley for an unbiased review.
December 6, 2022
Whatever this tried to be, it failed. For a romance I couldn't care less about the couple, flat as their interactions were. For a dystopian it's not enough of an impact on the people. For scifi it provided to little of facts on sleep. For action not enough happens. For self-discovering journey it lacks deeper thoughts.
I can't even say this is a call to think about the current lifestyle of people or the pressure of economy, since there is no "Ah!" moment, the hinted at rebellion simply gets cut off and dwindles into nothing and all the chars are too numb and flat to care about + there are leads never followed up. Things don't even change for the main char in the end - if that's supposed to be an unique attempt at an dystopia, then sorry, it failed to transfer its message.
I can't even say this is a call to think about the current lifestyle of people or the pressure of economy, since there is no "Ah!" moment, the hinted at rebellion simply gets cut off and dwindles into nothing and all the chars are too numb and flat to care about + there are leads never followed up. Things don't even change for the main char in the end - if that's supposed to be an unique attempt at an dystopia, then sorry, it failed to transfer its message.
February 3, 2019
I received a free copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review and for the first time in my short NetGalley history, I am obliged to give a truly negative review. This long, turgid tome is quite simply awful. The premise is interesting enough, a near future with a big brother style "sleep code", but there is a desperate lack of exposition on how the situation arose. The pace is constantly plodding, characters are one dimensional and the ending ridiculously abrupt. The only way this makes sense is if the author intends to make a series out of it, but I certainly won't be picking up volume two.
November 19, 2018
Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is an interesting futuristic novel. Ethan is tasks with investigation people who break the sleep code. In this time period people are required to only sleep a number of hours a day and work longer hours. The author, through Ethan's point of view, shows us what a sleep deprived world looks like. The world building is good but the pace is slow. I had to read through about 50%of the book to get into the action. Other than that it's a good novel.
This is an interesting futuristic novel. Ethan is tasks with investigation people who break the sleep code. In this time period people are required to only sleep a number of hours a day and work longer hours. The author, through Ethan's point of view, shows us what a sleep deprived world looks like. The world building is good but the pace is slow. I had to read through about 50%of the book to get into the action. Other than that it's a good novel.
November 21, 2018
I really liked the premise of this book. I could tell the author wrote short stories because this was an imaginative idea that often is not found in longer pieces. Elements of 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 all were present here. The chief concerns I had with the text is that, in making this a full-length piece, I felt the dialogue was a bit too pedestrian. It felt like the author recorded too many casual conversations in full rather than in brief. Also the ending was too abrupt for me. Then again, if he is writing a sequel, then I am totally on board.
November 29, 2018
Promising debut with a fascinating premise. The story itself does get off to a roaring start, and while I admittedly, found some parts of the book plodding in places, there was more than enough going on to keep my attention throughout. Definitely an author to keep an eye on.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 8, 2019
J'ai lu 193 pages sur l'expérience de la privation de sommeil et de la paranoïa. Ça ressemblait plus à un exercice de style qu'un roman...
March 2, 2020
Interesting that a book about sleep put me to sleep so quickly.
July 11, 2023
It had potential and then it didn't...
November 24, 2018
I was excited about this title from NetGalley. It had an interesting dystopian premise, offered a debut novel from a new author, and intrigued me immensely. Unfortunately, the execution of this novel was not fantastic.
The story of a society in which sleep is regulated should be full of information about sleep and why it's important. Or maybe about how an over-reaching government can end up harming its citizens in unexpected ways. Or about an uprising of the people to shut down such an institution. This book didn't really address any of those topics, at least not deeply enough.
Mark Reece has published many short stories, but this is his first novel. While I may struggle with reading short fiction, I tend to enjoy longer fiction from short story writers. Maybe it is the part of me that enjoys Hemingway. There is a lot to be said about concise writing, even in fiction that can tell a wonderful story. Unfortunately, I did not get that from this novel.
While the opening pages presented a big, exciting scene, the majority of the first half of this book was slow. I found the characters to be largely flat and had very little interest in their well-being. The dialogue was boring and there was a lot of focus on the mundane. About half-way through, the story picked up and the slow suspense that had been simmering came to the forefront. Where the beginning was somewhat slow, the pace of the story became much faster as we hurled toward a lackluster ending.
Overall, I would have a hard time recommending this book to other readers. I did see some promising elements and will likely read future offerings from this author, but this book as a whole just did not do it for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy of this ebook.
The story of a society in which sleep is regulated should be full of information about sleep and why it's important. Or maybe about how an over-reaching government can end up harming its citizens in unexpected ways. Or about an uprising of the people to shut down such an institution. This book didn't really address any of those topics, at least not deeply enough.
Mark Reece has published many short stories, but this is his first novel. While I may struggle with reading short fiction, I tend to enjoy longer fiction from short story writers. Maybe it is the part of me that enjoys Hemingway. There is a lot to be said about concise writing, even in fiction that can tell a wonderful story. Unfortunately, I did not get that from this novel.
While the opening pages presented a big, exciting scene, the majority of the first half of this book was slow. I found the characters to be largely flat and had very little interest in their well-being. The dialogue was boring and there was a lot of focus on the mundane. About half-way through, the story picked up and the slow suspense that had been simmering came to the forefront. Where the beginning was somewhat slow, the pace of the story became much faster as we hurled toward a lackluster ending.
Overall, I would have a hard time recommending this book to other readers. I did see some promising elements and will likely read future offerings from this author, but this book as a whole just did not do it for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy of this ebook.
February 7, 2019
Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I liked this book, I really did. But at some points I really wish it had that extra oomf that would leave me thinking about it more after I finished. I felt like I was just waiting and waiting, for Ethan to do something. The book was interesting and I really liked the idea. The mystery and paranoia was good but I wish it had extra oomf.
The ending of the book wasn't what I really expected. It kinda, just sort of ended. I kind of expected more at the end.
Overall I did like this book and the writing style. I will be looking forward to other books by this author!
I liked this book, I really did. But at some points I really wish it had that extra oomf that would leave me thinking about it more after I finished. I felt like I was just waiting and waiting, for Ethan to do something. The book was interesting and I really liked the idea. The mystery and paranoia was good but I wish it had extra oomf.
The ending of the book wasn't what I really expected. It kinda, just sort of ended. I kind of expected more at the end.
Overall I did like this book and the writing style. I will be looking forward to other books by this author!
May 24, 2019
Thankyou to NetGalley, Troubadour Publishing Limited, Matador and the author, Mark Reece, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Dreams Of The Eternal City in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I was initially intrigued by the premise of the storyline. I have to say, on the whole, the author delivered a fascinating book. It did drag in places whereby the plot seemed to really slow down, but I ended up with a good read.
I was initially intrigued by the premise of the storyline. I have to say, on the whole, the author delivered a fascinating book. It did drag in places whereby the plot seemed to really slow down, but I ended up with a good read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews