そいねドリーマー

by 宮澤 伊織

夢の世界で今夜もあなたを待っている。

女子高生ふたりの“添い寝"が世界を救う――
大好評『裏世界ピクニック』著者が贈る渾身の最新作

不眠症により眠ることができない高校生の帆影沙耶は、どんな相手でも眠らせられる金春ひつじと夢の中で“恋人"として出逢う。ひつじの先輩の藍染蘭に適性を見出された沙耶は、彼女たち〈スリープウォーカー〉の一員に加わることに。この街では、眠りの世界〈ナイトランド〉で人の精神に取り憑く睡獣と、夢に侵入して自由に動ける能力者スリープウォーカーたちの戦いが人知れず続いていたのだった。チームで添い寝をすることで、睡獣狩りを順調にこなしていく沙耶たち。しかしそこに、思いもよらぬ暗雲が――彼女たちは人類の眠りを守れるのか? 気鋭のエンタメ作家が贈る、添い寝ドリームSFノベル!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, LGBT, Fiction, Yuri, Paranormal, Lesbian

233 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 2018

Reviews

[Magic Birdie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess it's a solid book. Things are oddly inconsistent/unclear despite the simple plot. The Suiju were my favorite part; their designs are fairly good, and I like what they ended up doing. I wasn't much affected by the characters/relationships (or the cuteness therein), which the book seems to rely on for its appeal.

*I found this book through the mobile game Alter Ego.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

They should have called this ‘Lovers in a Dangerous Dreamtime’.

So, is there a category for ultra-light novels? I enjoy light novels as a fun snack between fuller books, but this reads like a Cliff’s Notes version of even those less than weighty tomes.

There is quite a bit to like here - the relationship between the leads is pleasantly understated, the dream world has lots of fun descriptive imagery and the use of dream logic gets appropriately twisty towards the end.

However, there should just be more of it. The pace is incredibly fast and it feels like it introduces ideas and characters and they have no room to breathe at all. A fun journey but it could have been really great with a bit more polish.

[poet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, effective. I feel like they could have done a bit more but given the length things wrapped up well and gay so what more could one want really.

[kurogane shiroikaze · Rating 2 out of 5]

Closer to a novella than a full novel, this work explores a group of Sleepwalkers from the perspective of the main character Saya, who inadvertently stumbles upon them in her search to cure her insomnia and finds herself possessing a special power. Inevitably, she gets roped in and soon discovers the fate of the world hangs in the balance, with her holding the key to save it.

A pretty interesting sci-fi / fantasy novel, the book's depictions of the main characters abilities to jump in to dreamland and fight nocturnal horrors is the main highlight of the writing. Miyazawa successfully writes in a way that continuously makes the reader question if they are still in a dream or fully awake. In fact, there are huge overtones of Inception (2010) in the dream adventure scenes, more as a homage rather than outright copying.

Unfortunately, the negatives of the book outweigh its positives, chiefly due to the rather short length. The first half and introduction were pretty decent but after passing the halfway mark thereabouts and establishing the major conflict of the book, the pacing gets really rushed. The number of characters diluting the work is also a concern, as the main group consists of 5 people but the real focus is only on our heroine and her romantic interest.

The rushed pacing results in some really unsatisfactory character development overall and in fact would have been much improved if the author actually cut down half of the core group. Aside from the main pairing, the rest of the group were rather forgettable and I could barely differentiate between them towards the end.

This also leads to the unsatisfactory climax, highly reliant on a few deus ex machinas that were never properly built up. There was a half-hearted attempt to foreshadow the eventual ending, but still remained rather disappointing overall with an abrupt ending that raised more questions to me than answers.

While I applaud the author's inventiveness and writing skills, this is sadly marred by the pacing and abruptness of the ending. The book was also kind of marketed towards fans of yuri but the romance in here is really paper thin and felt too artificial. Unable to recommend this book to anyone, aside from really hardcore fans of the author.

[Wrlccywrlir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it. The length was fine, although the ending was a bit abrupt. An epilogue might've been nice. I thought it was going to be kinda low to non-existent on the yuri (like Akuma no Riddle (which I do like) or Futaribeya (which I didn't)), but I was satisfied with the amount of yuri and very happy with the cuteness. For me, this was a lot cuter than most yuri available in English, besides Kase-san and Morinaga Milk's works. The descriptions of the dream worlds and creatures were interesting too.

[Benji · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars- Fantasy GL light novel where a group of girls who can lucid dream team up to hunt monsters that cause sleep disorders. Over time they begin to notice the dreaming and waking worlds blurring together. I think this was creative and had an interesting premise but the short length prevented the story from reaching its full potential. There were too many characters and not enough time to adequately develop them. Some of the lore/worldbuilding needed more elaboration, particularly as the story got to the end and things became convoluted. The suiju were neat monsters though

[Blerta · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, fun adventure. I like stories about sleepwalking and dreams, since those experiences are always really interesting and mystical. The characters were cute, but I feel like the story was a little too short to really develop any of the characters much, and the ending was a bit too open-ended for my personal taste.

[Tsuya YueQin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short story that you can finish in a day in one sitting. For its length it's quite good, the pacing and setting of the story are great. But I do feel like there can be a lot more to explore, the climax and ending seemed quite rushed. Having an epilogue would be nice.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can really see the ideas that carried into Otherside Picnic here. it's also a fantastic description of what it feels like to fall in love inside a dream. better than Inception, with fewer plot holes.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting premise. The protagonist can’t sleep. Going on missions in the dream world is a nice concept.

[bobbu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iori Miyazawa has once again said "lesbian rights."

[Mandy]

There was barely an ounce of chemistry in anything put to paper that inspired me to read further.

[liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

short and sweet, kind of a fever dream

[Uka · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Some excellent imagery and dream vibes, but a little too much on the vibes part

[ndradit · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow this entire book is fever dream and i like bit of it

[Jewel Joules · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

Honestly, it felt more like a draft than a finished book. It was just too short for the plot and character relationships to be completely developed.

Would have been better if we got more backstory from the other characters and the whole lore of the sleepwalking community. It's sad that the two main characters were mostly the only one shown, it would have been a lot more interesting to learn more about what the other characters can do.

Overall, it's just plain undercooked. The characters were underutilized and the plot was underdeveloped. It's a cute story though, and nice concept about dreaming and sleepwalking.