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Deadly Lucidity
Caught in a tangled web of dreams and nightmares, Marie Reilly is being hunted by a psychopath in the dream world she can't escape. Her single ally, a Ranger named Murphy, may be her only hope. He must help her reach the great Fortress, where they've been told there is a way back to her reality. Together, they fight their way through the twists and turns of Marie's mind so she can have her life back. But what of their burgeoning passion for each other? How can she leave the man she has come to love behind in this nightmarish world he has called home as far back as he can remember?
158 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2010
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 23, 2010
Schopenhauer said that life is like a dream in that the reality a person creates is merely a reflection of mind. Kant said it, too. Probably, Kant said it first... Anyway, this is the philosophy that drives Deadly Lucidity. It is the story of a woman whose actual dream state becomes a tumultuous but also romantic journey that might become, the reader thinks, her reality. At times, I wanted her to escape; at times, I wanted her to stay. The question that drives it all, of course, is what is real? Her dreams or the life she left behind, which becomes a sort of dream in of itself. A great book by a fellow author at All Things That Matter Press. I'm honored to be in such good company.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2010
Deadly Lucidity – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat
‘If only she could remember her true real life and what had happened in it to cause her to be stuck in her dreams. Was she even a writer? That thought struck her hard. She could have just created that fiction from her imagination, too. She was having an identity crisis. Who was she really? Was she any more real than any of the other dream images that played through her mind? Then she focused on one of the main themes of her recent dreams – the bad man who had kidnapped her. Maybe that kept popping up because it had a grain of reality to it. Maybe she had truly been kidnapped. Maybe she was still unconscious in this guy’s basement. Oh, God. That must be it, she thought. But she had gotten away from him in every dream scenario, too, hadn’t she? Maybe she had escaped, but was brain dead. No. She wouldn’t be able to dream if that were the case. The only other possibility was that she was in a coma? If so, for how long? Her intuition said that felt right, that she was in a coma. If only she could remember what happened.’
Dreams take us to other worlds and dimensions. But what brings these dream about? Are they pieces of memory from our past? And how much do we actually contribute to what happens when we dream? Are we able to add and delete characters. Even during a nightmare, are we able to defend ourselves by conjuring up defense weapons?
In the case of Marie, where is she? Who is she? Who is Murphy? How did he get into Marie’s dream? Is everything really a dream or is she simply lost in another world? How will she find her way out of her dream and back into the real world? Can Murphy go with her? What is she trying to accomplish and why is everyone telling her she has to wake up?
They say you dream nightly but only remember a few. I have no idea if that’s true but I do know that after reading Deadly Lucidity I’ve found myself wondering more and more about the dreams I do have and do remember. And as with the character Marie, wouldn’t it be nice to start a dream, wake up, go back to sleep and restart that dream? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.
Review Stir, Laugh, Repeat at Amazon.com Stir, Laugh, Repeat
Labels: Book Reviews, comas, cookbooks, Deadly Lucidity, Dreams, Julie Achterhoff, Martha A Cheves, Stir Laugh Repeat
‘If only she could remember her true real life and what had happened in it to cause her to be stuck in her dreams. Was she even a writer? That thought struck her hard. She could have just created that fiction from her imagination, too. She was having an identity crisis. Who was she really? Was she any more real than any of the other dream images that played through her mind? Then she focused on one of the main themes of her recent dreams – the bad man who had kidnapped her. Maybe that kept popping up because it had a grain of reality to it. Maybe she had truly been kidnapped. Maybe she was still unconscious in this guy’s basement. Oh, God. That must be it, she thought. But she had gotten away from him in every dream scenario, too, hadn’t she? Maybe she had escaped, but was brain dead. No. She wouldn’t be able to dream if that were the case. The only other possibility was that she was in a coma? If so, for how long? Her intuition said that felt right, that she was in a coma. If only she could remember what happened.’
Dreams take us to other worlds and dimensions. But what brings these dream about? Are they pieces of memory from our past? And how much do we actually contribute to what happens when we dream? Are we able to add and delete characters. Even during a nightmare, are we able to defend ourselves by conjuring up defense weapons?
In the case of Marie, where is she? Who is she? Who is Murphy? How did he get into Marie’s dream? Is everything really a dream or is she simply lost in another world? How will she find her way out of her dream and back into the real world? Can Murphy go with her? What is she trying to accomplish and why is everyone telling her she has to wake up?
They say you dream nightly but only remember a few. I have no idea if that’s true but I do know that after reading Deadly Lucidity I’ve found myself wondering more and more about the dreams I do have and do remember. And as with the character Marie, wouldn’t it be nice to start a dream, wake up, go back to sleep and restart that dream? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.
Review Stir, Laugh, Repeat at Amazon.com Stir, Laugh, Repeat
Labels: Book Reviews, comas, cookbooks, Deadly Lucidity, Dreams, Julie Achterhoff, Martha A Cheves, Stir Laugh Repeat
August 17, 2010
There are spoilers in this review If you don't want to have them revealed you better stop reading this article right now and go buy the book. It's worth it.
Deadly Lucidity by Julie Achterhoff is about dream lives. The concept of this book starts out as intriguing and eventually reaches a higher level than that. The narrator, Marie, jumps from one life to another starting at the very beginning of the story. Throughout the rest of the book she is surrounded by real people who are dreams and threatened by other real people who are nightmares. She is chased by an evil baron who wants her in his harem. This baron is always a threat because he can jump between all of Marie's dreams. She is also threatened by clowns, wild animals, and gangs of evil men who try to rape her. She is protected by a “ranger” named Murphy, a marksman who always keeps his six-shooters ready.
Achterhoff's novel really gets going when it is revealed that Marie is in a coma in her non-dream life. Her mother is getting ready to take her off life support. The only way she can come out of her coma is by finding a way out of her dream world and back into reality. She needs to do that before her mother pulls the plug.
Then the book gets even better when Marie discovers that Murphy is also in a coma. He and Clarice, a young girl who is a third coma victim, are all in the same room of the same hospital and all hooked to life support. The dream isn't just Marie's. They are all dreaming it.
Deadly Lucidity is a love story and an adventure. But it is the unusual ideas behind the story that make it such a wonderful read.
Deadly Lucidity by Julie Achterhoff is about dream lives. The concept of this book starts out as intriguing and eventually reaches a higher level than that. The narrator, Marie, jumps from one life to another starting at the very beginning of the story. Throughout the rest of the book she is surrounded by real people who are dreams and threatened by other real people who are nightmares. She is chased by an evil baron who wants her in his harem. This baron is always a threat because he can jump between all of Marie's dreams. She is also threatened by clowns, wild animals, and gangs of evil men who try to rape her. She is protected by a “ranger” named Murphy, a marksman who always keeps his six-shooters ready.
Achterhoff's novel really gets going when it is revealed that Marie is in a coma in her non-dream life. Her mother is getting ready to take her off life support. The only way she can come out of her coma is by finding a way out of her dream world and back into reality. She needs to do that before her mother pulls the plug.
Then the book gets even better when Marie discovers that Murphy is also in a coma. He and Clarice, a young girl who is a third coma victim, are all in the same room of the same hospital and all hooked to life support. The dream isn't just Marie's. They are all dreaming it.
Deadly Lucidity is a love story and an adventure. But it is the unusual ideas behind the story that make it such a wonderful read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2010
The Interpretation of Dreams...Smash Mouth Style, October 25, 2010
By R. Rubenstein "RJR" (looking for a place) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Deadly Lucidity (Paperback)
Sigmund Freud did not know Marie when he wrote the seminal work above. In neat, logical compartments, the master traced the lives of hysterics and gave us unconscious truths realized. Then came Julie Achterhoff with a futuristic vision as intense as Existenze. While reality holds the key to survival, the earth is too unsettled and the dangers too real. There is no separation from the waking and the real in this video game drama for high stakes. Deadly Lucidity is the closest we can get to the sheer terror of our uncertain footsteps. Sometimes, when we cross the streets, do we not wonder whether, despite our most rational intentions,that we may not make it to the other side? It is not a sudden auto that may smash our lives and our dreams away. Perhaps it only a breath, a voice in the wind that paralyzes our steps? A waking dream or a dream awake,Ms. Acterhoff has wrestled with the nightmares Herr Freud more easily imagined. She has taken the terror of the unconscious, brought it to light, to give us greater capacity for horror than we ever want to comfortably imagine, and with heroes like Murphy, himself a mystery, and gremlins and goblins of would be evil men lurking, brought us out of our hot air balloon for a landing safe and worth taking. Wow..Brava, lady. What a ride!
Robert Rubenstein, Author:Ghost Runners
By R. Rubenstein "RJR" (looking for a place) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Deadly Lucidity (Paperback)
Sigmund Freud did not know Marie when he wrote the seminal work above. In neat, logical compartments, the master traced the lives of hysterics and gave us unconscious truths realized. Then came Julie Achterhoff with a futuristic vision as intense as Existenze. While reality holds the key to survival, the earth is too unsettled and the dangers too real. There is no separation from the waking and the real in this video game drama for high stakes. Deadly Lucidity is the closest we can get to the sheer terror of our uncertain footsteps. Sometimes, when we cross the streets, do we not wonder whether, despite our most rational intentions,that we may not make it to the other side? It is not a sudden auto that may smash our lives and our dreams away. Perhaps it only a breath, a voice in the wind that paralyzes our steps? A waking dream or a dream awake,Ms. Acterhoff has wrestled with the nightmares Herr Freud more easily imagined. She has taken the terror of the unconscious, brought it to light, to give us greater capacity for horror than we ever want to comfortably imagine, and with heroes like Murphy, himself a mystery, and gremlins and goblins of would be evil men lurking, brought us out of our hot air balloon for a landing safe and worth taking. Wow..Brava, lady. What a ride!
Robert Rubenstein, Author:Ghost Runners
March 21, 2010
A wonderful read that sucks you into alternate worlds and realities!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews