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Dreamtime
'So, where is he then, your dad?'
The world may be on a precipice but Sol, fresh from Tucson-desert rehab, finally has an answer to the question that has dogged her since childhood. And not a moment too soon. With aviation grinding to a halt in the face of global climate meltdown, this is the last chance to connect with her absentee father, a US marine stationed in Okinawa.
To mend their broken past Sol and her lovelorn friend Kit must journey across poisoned oceans to the furthest reaches of the Japanese archipelago, a place where sea, sky and earth converge at the forefront of an encroaching environmental and geopolitical catastrophe; a place battered by the relentless tides of history, haunted by the ghosts of its past, where the real and the virtual, the dreamed and the lived, are ever harder to define. In Dreamtime Venetia Welby paints a terrifying and captivating vision of our near future and takes us on a vertiginous odyssey into the unknown.
The world may be on a precipice but Sol, fresh from Tucson-desert rehab, finally has an answer to the question that has dogged her since childhood. And not a moment too soon. With aviation grinding to a halt in the face of global climate meltdown, this is the last chance to connect with her absentee father, a US marine stationed in Okinawa.
To mend their broken past Sol and her lovelorn friend Kit must journey across poisoned oceans to the furthest reaches of the Japanese archipelago, a place where sea, sky and earth converge at the forefront of an encroaching environmental and geopolitical catastrophe; a place battered by the relentless tides of history, haunted by the ghosts of its past, where the real and the virtual, the dreamed and the lived, are ever harder to define. In Dreamtime Venetia Welby paints a terrifying and captivating vision of our near future and takes us on a vertiginous odyssey into the unknown.
265 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2021
4 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
Venetia Welby
2 books16 followersVenetia Welby is the author of two novels, Dreamtime (Salt, 2021) and Mother of Darkness (Quartet, 2017). Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, Spectator, London Magazine and anthologies Garden Among Fires and Trauma, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 11, 2022
Here is the Dreaming. As she falls awake and asleep, slipping from the time spectrum to a shimmering placeless place, the cats follow her. The walls are thin on the borders between the sea and the land. One world is threaded through the other, but the threads are rarely visible. Only when death is threatening, and the intruder is in your house.
Dreamtime is Venetia Welby’s second novel.
Her first was the fascinating Mother of Darkness (my review), which was published by Quartet Books, one of the longer established and more esoteric of the UK’s small independent publisher scene, founded in 1972 “on socialist ideals and a strong emphasis on co-operative spirit” and in 1973, publisher of the iconic Joy of Sex.
Unfortunately Quartet Books, who were also to publish Dreamtime, failed to survive the Covid-induced downturn, but the book was instead picked up by the Cromer-based Salt Publishing, one of UK’s foremost independent publishers, committed to the discovery and publication of contemporary British literature, and my direct-from-the-publisher copy arrived with their signature inclusion of a sachet of salt.
Dreamtime is an intriguing blend of post-climate-crisis fiction combined with an intriguing insight into Okinawan culture.
It is set in an all-too-plausible near future (c2035) of catastrophic climate change, an intensified opioid epidemic, an accompanying rise in prepper settlements and survivalist cults and social-media and communication dominated by a handful of tech trillionaires.
This is all encapsulated in the figure of Sol, a c.30 year-old woman. As the novel opens she is a rehab clinic in the almost uninhabitable US interior, recovering from various addictons, a clinic that has something of a New-age style but also functions as an effective prison in that release is only possible when completing the program.
The last stage of her therapy involves her symbolically re-creating her experience in the womb with her mother, who she has not seen for many years, as well as re-uniting with a childhood friend Kit. Sol's mother, Sol and Kit (the latter two as children) were all part of a cult, Dreamtime, lead by a charismatic guru Phoenix, but the cult collapsed when the death of one of the children, initially blamed on wild animals, turned out to reveal something far more sinister about Phoenix.
From her mother, Sol learns that her father, a missing figure in her life, is a US serviceman, now believed to be stationed in Japan, and she sets out with Kit to track him down, at first via Tokyo but soon reaching the army bases on the Okinawa islands.
She is determined to find and meet him in person, rather than via the all-pervasive Virrea, a virtual reality device, which has replaced the smartphone in its ubiquitousness. And their trip is given added urgency by a looming US total ban on air flights, one in part designed to limit carbon emissions, but equally serving to reduce travel options for climate refugees. For climate refugees are on the rise as increasing storms and floods destroy coastal cities, with the Okinawa islands themselves under imminent threat.
The story itself is presented in a way that really hooks the reader, and invests them in Sol's quest as well as the beautifully drawn relationship between Sol and Kit (she is a language he has learned since infancy but he’ll always find the grammar fully incomprehensible) whose relationship is almost that of siblings but with hidden, less filial, stirrings on both sides, a situation rather complicated by Sol's prediliction for substitute father figures. As the author herself has explained:
But for me the novel's real treasure was the way it works in Okinawan culture, Ryukyuan religious beliefs, and history, both that of the Ryukyu Kingdom but also the fate of Okinawa in and immediately after WW2. In part this is done by interspersing chapters of the story with an oral history (the speaker's identity becomes clear later in the book) but also by the involvement of spirits:
‘You don't really believe in this stuff, do you?' he asks Risa. 'I mean, I know you said in the bar about ghosts being like Virrea or whatever ... but you were joking just now, weren't your about the flame-haired fairies and foxes and all the rest of it?'
`Well ... sure.' She takes a sip of tea and looks mildly uncomfortable. 'But, you know, I grew up on this island, with its spirits and stories and grandmothers who wanted me to understand. Children don't really need it explaining, though, that there's another world that's just as real as this one we call reality. I've always felt it. It's just that it can't be pinned down to any point on our spectrums of time or space. An in-between place. And Umitu is right: strange things do happen here.'
'That's really weird,' Kit ventures. He has mostly managed to dismiss the teachings of Phoenix — and the bad dreams they still evoke — as the ravings of a criminal lunatic. If you want to lure people to a commune and have them do your horrible bidding, you have to have a crazy belief system they can get involved with. He does not like to hear the same kind of ideas expressed by someone sane.
'Weird is standard. Terrible things have happened on this island and so maybe it's like our history is still alive in the present. It muddles the timeline when the past can't die.'
Recommended.
Dreamtime is Venetia Welby’s second novel.
Her first was the fascinating Mother of Darkness (my review), which was published by Quartet Books, one of the longer established and more esoteric of the UK’s small independent publisher scene, founded in 1972 “on socialist ideals and a strong emphasis on co-operative spirit” and in 1973, publisher of the iconic Joy of Sex.
Unfortunately Quartet Books, who were also to publish Dreamtime, failed to survive the Covid-induced downturn, but the book was instead picked up by the Cromer-based Salt Publishing, one of UK’s foremost independent publishers, committed to the discovery and publication of contemporary British literature, and my direct-from-the-publisher copy arrived with their signature inclusion of a sachet of salt.
Dreamtime is an intriguing blend of post-climate-crisis fiction combined with an intriguing insight into Okinawan culture.
It is set in an all-too-plausible near future (c2035) of catastrophic climate change, an intensified opioid epidemic, an accompanying rise in prepper settlements and survivalist cults and social-media and communication dominated by a handful of tech trillionaires.
This is all encapsulated in the figure of Sol, a c.30 year-old woman. As the novel opens she is a rehab clinic in the almost uninhabitable US interior, recovering from various addictons, a clinic that has something of a New-age style but also functions as an effective prison in that release is only possible when completing the program.
The last stage of her therapy involves her symbolically re-creating her experience in the womb with her mother, who she has not seen for many years, as well as re-uniting with a childhood friend Kit. Sol's mother, Sol and Kit (the latter two as children) were all part of a cult, Dreamtime, lead by a charismatic guru Phoenix, but the cult collapsed when the death of one of the children, initially blamed on wild animals, turned out to reveal something far more sinister about Phoenix.
From her mother, Sol learns that her father, a missing figure in her life, is a US serviceman, now believed to be stationed in Japan, and she sets out with Kit to track him down, at first via Tokyo but soon reaching the army bases on the Okinawa islands.
She is determined to find and meet him in person, rather than via the all-pervasive Virrea, a virtual reality device, which has replaced the smartphone in its ubiquitousness. And their trip is given added urgency by a looming US total ban on air flights, one in part designed to limit carbon emissions, but equally serving to reduce travel options for climate refugees. For climate refugees are on the rise as increasing storms and floods destroy coastal cities, with the Okinawa islands themselves under imminent threat.
The story itself is presented in a way that really hooks the reader, and invests them in Sol's quest as well as the beautifully drawn relationship between Sol and Kit (she is a language he has learned since infancy but he’ll always find the grammar fully incomprehensible) whose relationship is almost that of siblings but with hidden, less filial, stirrings on both sides, a situation rather complicated by Sol's prediliction for substitute father figures. As the author herself has explained:
Having explored Freudian mother issues in Mother of Darkness, I was drawn to father issues this time—Sol has something of an Electra complex and this, combined with her errant father and an impulsive, addictive nature leads the plot as much as the wider ideas of climate breakdown, the end of aviation and war with China.
But for me the novel's real treasure was the way it works in Okinawan culture, Ryukyuan religious beliefs, and history, both that of the Ryukyu Kingdom but also the fate of Okinawa in and immediately after WW2. In part this is done by interspersing chapters of the story with an oral history (the speaker's identity becomes clear later in the book) but also by the involvement of spirits:
‘You don't really believe in this stuff, do you?' he asks Risa. 'I mean, I know you said in the bar about ghosts being like Virrea or whatever ... but you were joking just now, weren't your about the flame-haired fairies and foxes and all the rest of it?'
`Well ... sure.' She takes a sip of tea and looks mildly uncomfortable. 'But, you know, I grew up on this island, with its spirits and stories and grandmothers who wanted me to understand. Children don't really need it explaining, though, that there's another world that's just as real as this one we call reality. I've always felt it. It's just that it can't be pinned down to any point on our spectrums of time or space. An in-between place. And Umitu is right: strange things do happen here.'
'That's really weird,' Kit ventures. He has mostly managed to dismiss the teachings of Phoenix — and the bad dreams they still evoke — as the ravings of a criminal lunatic. If you want to lure people to a commune and have them do your horrible bidding, you have to have a crazy belief system they can get involved with. He does not like to hear the same kind of ideas expressed by someone sane.
'Weird is standard. Terrible things have happened on this island and so maybe it's like our history is still alive in the present. It muddles the timeline when the past can't die.'
Recommended.
September 30, 2021
“A vertiginous odyssey into the unknown”
I think I can sum up my own personal take on the essence of this book in the single definitive sentence below. But to break down the story into its individual elements, components and mechanics, and to analyse the characters, their emotions, connections and actions, is going to be a much more difficult challenge. Oh! and please don’t be fooled by that gorgeous cover art, there is nothing comfortable or beautiful or serene about this storyline, apart from the writing!
“An outstanding, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, future-world work; of fantasy, cultural and literary climate fiction”
Is this small cross-section of humanity indicative of what the remains of society in the rest of the world will be like, if climate emergency becomes climate reality?
The million dollar question therefore is: Is this book ultimately, a work of fantastical fiction, a reasoned reality, or maybe a little of both? I know what I think!
Author Venetia Welby, really doesn’t pull any punches and I would ideally like to have had the scheduling capacity to read this book for a second time, in order to fully comprehend and appreciate all the intricate nuances of the language and narrative, and to digest and dissect the enormity of the actions and potential consequences of our world sleepwalking into a climate disaster, with the effects it would undoubtedly have on not only the developed world, but also the hidden pockets and corners of the planet, where human life, dignity and sanitation, are already considered to be expendable commodities, a situation which would only be made worse after a severe climatic incident, but one which we so often forget – or choose to ignore!
If, like myself, you also consider yourself to fit loosely into the category of an ‘armchair traveller’, I can guarantee that nothing will have prepared you for this gut-wrenching, horribly vivid and probably intensely accurate window, onto the new ‘normality’ of life, for a small section of the privileged new world order, versus that of just one forgotten race of people and the terrible injustices and personal conditions they are forced to endure as the pawns in a game of chess they have no chance of winning. What would have been a pleasant sojourn into the Tuscon area of Arizona and the Ryukyuan Islands off the Japanese coast, turn into a nightmare of epic proportions, which is strangely lyrical when pen is put to paper, but totally destructive in the vivid images those words conjure up. Perhaps the only sort of ‘armchair travel’ in the future, will be the virtually imagined kind that Kit and Sol are familiar with – the ‘what might have been’ version, and that may not be such a bad thing.
Man’s inhumanity to man, is vividly brought to life and seemingly has no boundaries in this small snapshot, where there only seem to be two kinds of people; those who have little or nothing, and those who take it from them. In the ‘civilized’ world, you have a ‘good’ life if you can manage to stay addicted to something – anything, so that the pain and anguish washes over you and keeps you in a state of gentle stupor. Drugs, alcohol, tobacco and even sex, anything to dull the day to day life in a climate where your coastline has disappeared under water and what is left is arid and searingly hot.
For those Ryukyuan people who live at the edge of the dumping ground for the civilised world, life after climate catastrophe, is not quite so accommodating. Not only are the outlying islands rapidly disappearing underwater with each new storm system, but the water is now so poisonous and the sea creatures so toxic and deadly, that a way of life living off the land, is now also virtually extinct. Regular epidemics of fatal illness are a fact of life, with military security ensuring that ‘sick climate migrants’ are quarantined, never to be seen again. In both oneiric worlds, shape-shifters are growing in number, as the animals begin to reclaim that which was once originally theirs, only this time they might be so dominant and strong that wresting back power from them might never be a feasible option.
It is essentially the journey of two young people, who meld these two diverse, yet all too similar societies together. After a lifetime of living in care and being abused, Sol is on a mission to discover her true roots and reconnect with a father who she has built up in her mind to be someone of almost superhuman proportions, who is just waiting for the opportunity to be reunited with his long-lost daughter. Kit has always adored and loved Sol, has her best interests at heart within his limited capabilities, and would move heaven and earth to protect her, despite being constantly rebutted by a Sol who can never really leave her past behind her.
This uniquely multi-layered, multi-genre storyline, is wonderfully textured, brutally and frighteningly intense, deep and rich in atmosphere, ever evolving and written by an author who has complete confidence in the visual imagery of her words to lift the narrative and dialogue from the pages and make it come sickeningly to life.
Venetia has created a multi-faceted cast of characters, who are totally unrelatable, who have little synergy between them, are not easy to connect with, and who spend all their waking hours desperately searching for that elusive sense of belonging and inclusion. Devoid of all heart and humour, they are emotionally starved, damaged and complex, deep but with no real depth of feeling. Raw and vulnerable, yet totally unreliable and manipulative. As a reader who was ‘listening’ to their voices, I felt no real connection to them, or between them. Living for the day, the next fix, the next shoulder to cry on, the next person to lean on. It was difficult to see how the human race was ever going to survive, if this was a genuine sample of the quality of the remaining life on earth.
Futuristic this story may have been intended, however the potential this entire scenario has to play out within Venetia’s ambitious timeline of 2035, and all things being equal, that’s within my own lifetime, is a really scary thought!
What makes reading such a joyfully wonderful experience, is that with every story, each reader is taken on a unique and individual journey towards a common outcome. A small handful of books are so difficult to define without that journey having been made, and this is one such story, so I recommend that you read this one for yourself and see where your journey leads you!
To meet the author and read my personal memorable extracts from the book, visit...
https://www.fiction-books.biz/reviews...
I think I can sum up my own personal take on the essence of this book in the single definitive sentence below. But to break down the story into its individual elements, components and mechanics, and to analyse the characters, their emotions, connections and actions, is going to be a much more difficult challenge. Oh! and please don’t be fooled by that gorgeous cover art, there is nothing comfortable or beautiful or serene about this storyline, apart from the writing!
“An outstanding, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, future-world work; of fantasy, cultural and literary climate fiction”
Is this small cross-section of humanity indicative of what the remains of society in the rest of the world will be like, if climate emergency becomes climate reality?
The million dollar question therefore is: Is this book ultimately, a work of fantastical fiction, a reasoned reality, or maybe a little of both? I know what I think!
Author Venetia Welby, really doesn’t pull any punches and I would ideally like to have had the scheduling capacity to read this book for a second time, in order to fully comprehend and appreciate all the intricate nuances of the language and narrative, and to digest and dissect the enormity of the actions and potential consequences of our world sleepwalking into a climate disaster, with the effects it would undoubtedly have on not only the developed world, but also the hidden pockets and corners of the planet, where human life, dignity and sanitation, are already considered to be expendable commodities, a situation which would only be made worse after a severe climatic incident, but one which we so often forget – or choose to ignore!
If, like myself, you also consider yourself to fit loosely into the category of an ‘armchair traveller’, I can guarantee that nothing will have prepared you for this gut-wrenching, horribly vivid and probably intensely accurate window, onto the new ‘normality’ of life, for a small section of the privileged new world order, versus that of just one forgotten race of people and the terrible injustices and personal conditions they are forced to endure as the pawns in a game of chess they have no chance of winning. What would have been a pleasant sojourn into the Tuscon area of Arizona and the Ryukyuan Islands off the Japanese coast, turn into a nightmare of epic proportions, which is strangely lyrical when pen is put to paper, but totally destructive in the vivid images those words conjure up. Perhaps the only sort of ‘armchair travel’ in the future, will be the virtually imagined kind that Kit and Sol are familiar with – the ‘what might have been’ version, and that may not be such a bad thing.
Man’s inhumanity to man, is vividly brought to life and seemingly has no boundaries in this small snapshot, where there only seem to be two kinds of people; those who have little or nothing, and those who take it from them. In the ‘civilized’ world, you have a ‘good’ life if you can manage to stay addicted to something – anything, so that the pain and anguish washes over you and keeps you in a state of gentle stupor. Drugs, alcohol, tobacco and even sex, anything to dull the day to day life in a climate where your coastline has disappeared under water and what is left is arid and searingly hot.
For those Ryukyuan people who live at the edge of the dumping ground for the civilised world, life after climate catastrophe, is not quite so accommodating. Not only are the outlying islands rapidly disappearing underwater with each new storm system, but the water is now so poisonous and the sea creatures so toxic and deadly, that a way of life living off the land, is now also virtually extinct. Regular epidemics of fatal illness are a fact of life, with military security ensuring that ‘sick climate migrants’ are quarantined, never to be seen again. In both oneiric worlds, shape-shifters are growing in number, as the animals begin to reclaim that which was once originally theirs, only this time they might be so dominant and strong that wresting back power from them might never be a feasible option.
It is essentially the journey of two young people, who meld these two diverse, yet all too similar societies together. After a lifetime of living in care and being abused, Sol is on a mission to discover her true roots and reconnect with a father who she has built up in her mind to be someone of almost superhuman proportions, who is just waiting for the opportunity to be reunited with his long-lost daughter. Kit has always adored and loved Sol, has her best interests at heart within his limited capabilities, and would move heaven and earth to protect her, despite being constantly rebutted by a Sol who can never really leave her past behind her.
This uniquely multi-layered, multi-genre storyline, is wonderfully textured, brutally and frighteningly intense, deep and rich in atmosphere, ever evolving and written by an author who has complete confidence in the visual imagery of her words to lift the narrative and dialogue from the pages and make it come sickeningly to life.
Venetia has created a multi-faceted cast of characters, who are totally unrelatable, who have little synergy between them, are not easy to connect with, and who spend all their waking hours desperately searching for that elusive sense of belonging and inclusion. Devoid of all heart and humour, they are emotionally starved, damaged and complex, deep but with no real depth of feeling. Raw and vulnerable, yet totally unreliable and manipulative. As a reader who was ‘listening’ to their voices, I felt no real connection to them, or between them. Living for the day, the next fix, the next shoulder to cry on, the next person to lean on. It was difficult to see how the human race was ever going to survive, if this was a genuine sample of the quality of the remaining life on earth.
Futuristic this story may have been intended, however the potential this entire scenario has to play out within Venetia’s ambitious timeline of 2035, and all things being equal, that’s within my own lifetime, is a really scary thought!
What makes reading such a joyfully wonderful experience, is that with every story, each reader is taken on a unique and individual journey towards a common outcome. A small handful of books are so difficult to define without that journey having been made, and this is one such story, so I recommend that you read this one for yourself and see where your journey leads you!
To meet the author and read my personal memorable extracts from the book, visit...
https://www.fiction-books.biz/reviews...
September 29, 2021
This is a darkly compelling and utterly unique novel, and I blitzed through this despite how much it horrified me at times! Definitely one with that real shock factor…
It’s 2035, and Sol finally knows where her real father is, so fresh out of rehab for her drug addiction, she decides to head over to Japan to find him, before the ban on flying comes in. Taking the besotted Kit with her, the closest thing to family she’s had since they met at Dreamtime, the strange cult where they grew up, Sol will find herself making reckless decision after reckless decision out of desperation to meet this father. But how much danger is she willing to put them both in, with the world falling apart around them?
This novel is so hard to explain because it’s so unlike anything I’ve read before. It has this kind of seedy, sordid underbelly to it which draws you in and repulses you at the same time, with Sol relying heavily on drugs, and letting men take advantage of her in some fairly dazed states. If uplit is your bag then look away now because this is about as far from it as you can get - this is end of the world, worst of humanity kind of chaos. But it’s so brilliant and terrifying for it!
The writing is exquisite, and this vision of the impact we have on the earth so painfully real and likely. I’d probably put this one in the eco-fiction category, as whilst the characters are a huge part of our story, it’s the damaged earth around them which truly grabbed my attention. It was also fascinating from a historical and political point of view though, as I had no idea about the US military occupation in Okinawa and the controversy surrounding this. Everything about this novel is thought-provoking and almost like a warning. It’s the kind of fiction we need to wake people up.
This is a really dark, fairly twisted, and complex novel with many triggering topics, but it’s also a total marvel and one of the smartest novels I’ve read. Definitely a writer to watch out for!
It’s 2035, and Sol finally knows where her real father is, so fresh out of rehab for her drug addiction, she decides to head over to Japan to find him, before the ban on flying comes in. Taking the besotted Kit with her, the closest thing to family she’s had since they met at Dreamtime, the strange cult where they grew up, Sol will find herself making reckless decision after reckless decision out of desperation to meet this father. But how much danger is she willing to put them both in, with the world falling apart around them?
This novel is so hard to explain because it’s so unlike anything I’ve read before. It has this kind of seedy, sordid underbelly to it which draws you in and repulses you at the same time, with Sol relying heavily on drugs, and letting men take advantage of her in some fairly dazed states. If uplit is your bag then look away now because this is about as far from it as you can get - this is end of the world, worst of humanity kind of chaos. But it’s so brilliant and terrifying for it!
The writing is exquisite, and this vision of the impact we have on the earth so painfully real and likely. I’d probably put this one in the eco-fiction category, as whilst the characters are a huge part of our story, it’s the damaged earth around them which truly grabbed my attention. It was also fascinating from a historical and political point of view though, as I had no idea about the US military occupation in Okinawa and the controversy surrounding this. Everything about this novel is thought-provoking and almost like a warning. It’s the kind of fiction we need to wake people up.
This is a really dark, fairly twisted, and complex novel with many triggering topics, but it’s also a total marvel and one of the smartest novels I’ve read. Definitely a writer to watch out for!
January 16, 2021
The novel is brilliantly complex, emotional, and frightening. Welby's writing really gets deep and challenges the reader to think about consequences of our ways of life.
The story takes place in the future and follows a woman named Sol and her best friend Kit, who have grown up in a cult in Arizona. A lot of the complexity of the novel is due to humans unable to truly embrace reality in all its dimensions--including how the history of humans has changed the physical, cultural, and emotional landscape of the world through conquest, ecological ruin, killings, torture, climate ruin, and so much more.
How do humans live in such a world without some utopian climate-controlled cult where drugs and sex help one to forget? And that's how the story begins. But Sol's estranged mother comes to her to let her know about her real father, that he's alive, in Japan--and it's a missing life's puzzle piece that has haunted Sol forever. Because of climate catastrophe, planes are soon being outlawed, and she and Kit catch one of the last planes to Japan.
The crazy, raw descriptions of Japan are just miraculously beautiful at times, full of Japanese myth and animal spirits, yet also horribly accurate and impactful when exploring the aftermaths from Americans' history of dumping waste and using the islands from WWII onward--and now the islands are sinking due to rising seas. There are no safe places.
Welby dives us into this haunted world of the future, to lost worlds and oneiric places, which are in ruin, screaming of the past, present, and a very questionable future. Everywhere are ghosts, memories, mutations, and consequences filtering into the present. Disease and pollution make the world a place where the only way to forget is to get inebriated somehow, but to truly rise above might just mean facing harsh truths, strengthening one's will and spirit, and finding love.
The story takes place in the future and follows a woman named Sol and her best friend Kit, who have grown up in a cult in Arizona. A lot of the complexity of the novel is due to humans unable to truly embrace reality in all its dimensions--including how the history of humans has changed the physical, cultural, and emotional landscape of the world through conquest, ecological ruin, killings, torture, climate ruin, and so much more.
How do humans live in such a world without some utopian climate-controlled cult where drugs and sex help one to forget? And that's how the story begins. But Sol's estranged mother comes to her to let her know about her real father, that he's alive, in Japan--and it's a missing life's puzzle piece that has haunted Sol forever. Because of climate catastrophe, planes are soon being outlawed, and she and Kit catch one of the last planes to Japan.
The crazy, raw descriptions of Japan are just miraculously beautiful at times, full of Japanese myth and animal spirits, yet also horribly accurate and impactful when exploring the aftermaths from Americans' history of dumping waste and using the islands from WWII onward--and now the islands are sinking due to rising seas. There are no safe places.
Welby dives us into this haunted world of the future, to lost worlds and oneiric places, which are in ruin, screaming of the past, present, and a very questionable future. Everywhere are ghosts, memories, mutations, and consequences filtering into the present. Disease and pollution make the world a place where the only way to forget is to get inebriated somehow, but to truly rise above might just mean facing harsh truths, strengthening one's will and spirit, and finding love.
September 13, 2022
A solid four and a bit for sure... A compelling read, rolling in climate change dystopia (feels all too real), and a swathe of drugs, booze, cats and robots. All in all, my perfect cocktail!
Engagingly written, with just the occasional jarring moment that threw me out of my reverie. Then again, that could well be my brain, and not the prose... Maybe you should give it a try and then tell me :D
Engagingly written, with just the occasional jarring moment that threw me out of my reverie. Then again, that could well be my brain, and not the prose... Maybe you should give it a try and then tell me :D
October 9, 2021
This is a really compelling read.
Set in a dystopian (but all too plausible) near future where the "fight" (if only) against climate change has been lost, it follows Sol from Arizona to Okinawa in search of her long lost US marine father.
Featuring lots of drugs, booze, robots, Okinawan folklore and cats, and trying to highlight the terrible history (and present) of Okinawa, this was right up my alley (maybe helped by having visited Okinawa and Ishigaki twice before, but I think anyone who finds this description interesting would like it).
Set in a dystopian (but all too plausible) near future where the "fight" (if only) against climate change has been lost, it follows Sol from Arizona to Okinawa in search of her long lost US marine father.
Featuring lots of drugs, booze, robots, Okinawan folklore and cats, and trying to highlight the terrible history (and present) of Okinawa, this was right up my alley (maybe helped by having visited Okinawa and Ishigaki twice before, but I think anyone who finds this description interesting would like it).
October 4, 2021
4.5 stars for this one really. A brief, haunting but staggering novel about ecological collapse and personal trauma.
Here's my full review: https://highriseandink.wordpress.com/...
Here's my full review: https://highriseandink.wordpress.com/...
October 12, 2022
Even rommelig als de setting
Ik weet niet goed wat ik van dit boek moet vinden. Het had veel elementen om goed te zijn, maar ik voelde me nooit volledig in het verhaal. Ik bleef op een afstand in plaats van in het verhaal gezogen te worden.
Het verhaal gaat over Sol, een verschrikkelijk irritant personage en Kit, waar ik totaal geen band mee voelde. Gaande weg komen ze verschillende karakters tegen die eigenlijk weinig tot niets bijbrengen aan het boek, op enkele na.
Het broek probeert aan de hand van verschillende twists de lezer te verrassen, dit lukte voor mij niet omdat de personages me koud lieten.
Net als met de personages, had ik moeite met een beeld te vormen over hoe de apocalyptische wereld eruit zag. Ik denk dat Welby teveel wou vertellen op een te korte tijd. Hierdoor werd de informatie te veel en ging er veel verloren.
Vaak wist ik niet wat realiteit, fantasie of VR was. Het verhaal voelde soms heel wazig aan. Dit geeft een gevoel dat je totaal niet weet waar je zit in het verhaal en daardoor gewoon verloren loopt.
Tot slot vond ik het einde heel abrupt. Ik kreeg het gevoel dat Welby gewoon geen zin meer had om te schrijven en het maar voor bekeken viel. Een gevoel dat mij na het lezen blijft bijhangen. Met veel ambitie begonnen maar geen zin om dit verhaal af te werken.
Ik heb zeer lang gedacht om dit boek 2 sterren te geven. Naar het einde toe werd het beter, maar 3 sterren lijkt me toch iets te ruim gerekend.
Ik weet niet goed wat ik van dit boek moet vinden. Het had veel elementen om goed te zijn, maar ik voelde me nooit volledig in het verhaal. Ik bleef op een afstand in plaats van in het verhaal gezogen te worden.
Het verhaal gaat over Sol, een verschrikkelijk irritant personage en Kit, waar ik totaal geen band mee voelde. Gaande weg komen ze verschillende karakters tegen die eigenlijk weinig tot niets bijbrengen aan het boek, op enkele na.
Het broek probeert aan de hand van verschillende twists de lezer te verrassen, dit lukte voor mij niet omdat de personages me koud lieten.
Net als met de personages, had ik moeite met een beeld te vormen over hoe de apocalyptische wereld eruit zag. Ik denk dat Welby teveel wou vertellen op een te korte tijd. Hierdoor werd de informatie te veel en ging er veel verloren.
Vaak wist ik niet wat realiteit, fantasie of VR was. Het verhaal voelde soms heel wazig aan. Dit geeft een gevoel dat je totaal niet weet waar je zit in het verhaal en daardoor gewoon verloren loopt.
Tot slot vond ik het einde heel abrupt. Ik kreeg het gevoel dat Welby gewoon geen zin meer had om te schrijven en het maar voor bekeken viel. Een gevoel dat mij na het lezen blijft bijhangen. Met veel ambitie begonnen maar geen zin om dit verhaal af te werken.
Ik heb zeer lang gedacht om dit boek 2 sterren te geven. Naar het einde toe werd het beter, maar 3 sterren lijkt me toch iets te ruim gerekend.
September 25, 2021
Review to follow tomorrow.
October 2, 2021
My review for this incredible book is on my blog https://thefallenlibrarian.wordpress.com
September 23, 2021
This book is such a unique experience, it takes you to a place where you have to hand yourself over to the narrative, and trust that you will, more or less, return.
It has a narcotic effect as it transports you to a near future, and the final ceremony that Dreamtime are putting addict, Sol, through before she is considered 'cured' and is released to the world beyond the dome, to the arid ,dry deserts of Arizona. But the last gift that this place gives her, is an unasked for, and , to be frank, unwanted reconnection with her mother who, during a rebirthing process, tells Sol that the person she grew up thinking was her father, actually isn't.
The sweet and bitter irony of this one act, the mother making the birthing task which is meant to free Sol from this state of false belief, all about her, and sending Sol headlong into another truth that she longs to be true, is poignant as hell.
With the constantly threatened climate change and natural disasters actually happening, and changing the world we currently know, it has been decided that people will no longer be allowed to travel , commercially, around the world. Sol has one last chance, she is the centre of the world post recovery for her childhood companion, Kit, and so they both take off for Tokyo before they are stuck, wherever they land, forever.
The juxtaposition of reality, dreams and achievement of that wishful thinking which we work through in our subconscious, is so well reflected by the East versus West comparison that Venetia makes so very well. The dry nature of America, representing the West, where dreams are literal ash and dust that cannot wash off, is exchanged for that of Tokyo, wet, damp, and oppressively built into sky high cities. The contrast is literal and metaphorical, forcing a sea change in Kit and Sol, both raised in the Dreamtime 'cult' (though they do not recognise it as such, not really) and who have used addiction to escape those experiences. And yet, somehow, they both end up in that peculiar space between want and need.
I loved the way that my perceptions of what I was reading were toyed with so succinctly, it is not a book you can pick up and drop, it is a story to which you surrender to. I would hesitate to pigeonhole what kind of book this is, except to say that it takes you on a journey of self recovery, self determination and self control, in a world where that has been shut away, hermetically sealed or Eastern philosophies such as yoga and cleansing rituals, are bastardised to bring Western people out of their drug addled apathy and aversion to life , strikes home very hard indeed.
It is another superb example of Salt Publishing's fearless approach to printing that which defies explanation or neat conclusions. Thinking, ruminating and turning this story of Sol and her life over in your mind is to be allowed to wallow in a world not so far from our own.
It has a narcotic effect as it transports you to a near future, and the final ceremony that Dreamtime are putting addict, Sol, through before she is considered 'cured' and is released to the world beyond the dome, to the arid ,dry deserts of Arizona. But the last gift that this place gives her, is an unasked for, and , to be frank, unwanted reconnection with her mother who, during a rebirthing process, tells Sol that the person she grew up thinking was her father, actually isn't.
The sweet and bitter irony of this one act, the mother making the birthing task which is meant to free Sol from this state of false belief, all about her, and sending Sol headlong into another truth that she longs to be true, is poignant as hell.
With the constantly threatened climate change and natural disasters actually happening, and changing the world we currently know, it has been decided that people will no longer be allowed to travel , commercially, around the world. Sol has one last chance, she is the centre of the world post recovery for her childhood companion, Kit, and so they both take off for Tokyo before they are stuck, wherever they land, forever.
The juxtaposition of reality, dreams and achievement of that wishful thinking which we work through in our subconscious, is so well reflected by the East versus West comparison that Venetia makes so very well. The dry nature of America, representing the West, where dreams are literal ash and dust that cannot wash off, is exchanged for that of Tokyo, wet, damp, and oppressively built into sky high cities. The contrast is literal and metaphorical, forcing a sea change in Kit and Sol, both raised in the Dreamtime 'cult' (though they do not recognise it as such, not really) and who have used addiction to escape those experiences. And yet, somehow, they both end up in that peculiar space between want and need.
I loved the way that my perceptions of what I was reading were toyed with so succinctly, it is not a book you can pick up and drop, it is a story to which you surrender to. I would hesitate to pigeonhole what kind of book this is, except to say that it takes you on a journey of self recovery, self determination and self control, in a world where that has been shut away, hermetically sealed or Eastern philosophies such as yoga and cleansing rituals, are bastardised to bring Western people out of their drug addled apathy and aversion to life , strikes home very hard indeed.
It is another superb example of Salt Publishing's fearless approach to printing that which defies explanation or neat conclusions. Thinking, ruminating and turning this story of Sol and her life over in your mind is to be allowed to wallow in a world not so far from our own.
September 26, 2021
First of all, let me say how much I love the cover of this book, it’s astonishing, perfect to make you dream of a different world… But not the world we’ll read in Dreamtime, it’s a future I would not like to live, where the world is almost ending; no happiness or nature to enjoy, the Earth disintegrating behind the human’s feet.
This is a book you’ll read quickly, but so full of emotion and interesting topics that you’ll want to re-read as soon as you’ll finish.
Dreamtime talks about the future, in 15 years, where there are no animals, just dangerous insects and big insects that can kill you in no time. But this is just the background of the story, told between two different voices; one American one Ryukyuan. The search from one young woman to find her father while discovers the real live of the people living in Okinawa, how they have suffered all their story while the world looked to another side.
This is not an easy read, as I said, there’s a lot of information that once you’ll start thinking you’ll be afraid of how unscrupulous is our society, where in the end, the only thing that seems to matter is money and power.
There were some details about the Japanese tales that are always present in their traditions and day to day life, interesting and intriguing at the same time!
This book talks about racism, rape, cults and drugs; they are not connected and will not leave the reader indifferent, believe me.
Are you ready to discover the “Dreamtime”?
This is a book you’ll read quickly, but so full of emotion and interesting topics that you’ll want to re-read as soon as you’ll finish.
Dreamtime talks about the future, in 15 years, where there are no animals, just dangerous insects and big insects that can kill you in no time. But this is just the background of the story, told between two different voices; one American one Ryukyuan. The search from one young woman to find her father while discovers the real live of the people living in Okinawa, how they have suffered all their story while the world looked to another side.
This is not an easy read, as I said, there’s a lot of information that once you’ll start thinking you’ll be afraid of how unscrupulous is our society, where in the end, the only thing that seems to matter is money and power.
There were some details about the Japanese tales that are always present in their traditions and day to day life, interesting and intriguing at the same time!
This book talks about racism, rape, cults and drugs; they are not connected and will not leave the reader indifferent, believe me.
Are you ready to discover the “Dreamtime”?
October 26, 2021
Interesting twist on climate apocalypse, examining cultural difference, based on a lot of research in Japan - the post-War imposition of American militarism being an interesting lead into abandonment of populations on racist grounds.
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