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The Faustus Hexagram #1
The Dreaming Dragons
Book by Damien Broderick
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Damien Broderick
148 books32 followersDamien Francis Broderick was an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 74 books. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction credits him with the first usage of the term "virtual reality" in science-fiction, in his 1982 novel The Judas Mandala.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 2, 2026
Hovering, he considered his pulsing heart, atria and ventricles, relaxing in diastole, contracting fiercely in systole, the striated muscles of interdigitated acting and myosin filaments, the resting membrane potential at 84 millivolts. He observed the twin syncytiums, and the impulses surging across the A-V bundle. He waited for the depolarisation plateau, watched the calcium ions diffusing inward through the cardiac membrane , its permeability to potassium ions falling. The depleted tissues outside the membrane sucked hungrily at the calcium suspended in the enclosing extracellular fluids.
Want to read over two hundred pages of that? Yeah, me neither.
March 12, 2026
Check out my full, spoiler light, video review HERE.
This was a challenging yet rewarding novel. Broderick has a unique writing style that can feel fragmented at times and straight forward at other times. His prose is dense and full of complex language that mostly worked but sometimes felt like he was showing off.
In this one Broderick combines Australian aboriginal myth (other myths as well), alien artifacts and technology, altered states of reality (including out of body experiences and drugs), religion, the origin of life and consciousness and the illusion of time, all into a mind-bending novel.
Alf is an anthropologist from Australian aboriginal decent and goes to investigate a mythical site that may have information about the Rainbow Serpent. His nephew Mouse, who has mental disabilities, goes with him. They discover a gateway that leads to a vault, when Alf enters he is rendered unconscious and Mouse goes in to save him. It turns out that a joint military operation has already discovered this Vault and has been monitoring it, Mouse seems to be the only person that can function inside this strange place of alien origin. We then learn that there was an alien compound discovered on the far side of the moon that has led to some technological advances. Then we meet delFord, who is an expert in altered states of consciousness and is brought on board to help unlock the secrets of the Vault.
The pay off at the end made up for the difficult sections of the book. There are some truly mind-boggling ideas presented in the conclusion and while the science might not hold up, the ideas were very imaginative and made sense to the plot. I could see rereading this one in the future after I read more from Broderick. This could end up being a five-star read if my feeble mind could comprehend everything he packed into it. B
This was a challenging yet rewarding novel. Broderick has a unique writing style that can feel fragmented at times and straight forward at other times. His prose is dense and full of complex language that mostly worked but sometimes felt like he was showing off.
In this one Broderick combines Australian aboriginal myth (other myths as well), alien artifacts and technology, altered states of reality (including out of body experiences and drugs), religion, the origin of life and consciousness and the illusion of time, all into a mind-bending novel.
Alf is an anthropologist from Australian aboriginal decent and goes to investigate a mythical site that may have information about the Rainbow Serpent. His nephew Mouse, who has mental disabilities, goes with him. They discover a gateway that leads to a vault, when Alf enters he is rendered unconscious and Mouse goes in to save him. It turns out that a joint military operation has already discovered this Vault and has been monitoring it, Mouse seems to be the only person that can function inside this strange place of alien origin. We then learn that there was an alien compound discovered on the far side of the moon that has led to some technological advances. Then we meet delFord, who is an expert in altered states of consciousness and is brought on board to help unlock the secrets of the Vault.
The pay off at the end made up for the difficult sections of the book. There are some truly mind-boggling ideas presented in the conclusion and while the science might not hold up, the ideas were very imaginative and made sense to the plot. I could see rereading this one in the future after I read more from Broderick. This could end up being a five-star read if my feeble mind could comprehend everything he packed into it. B
January 5, 2015
‘TO THE PLACE WHERE SECRETS LIE SLEEPING…
Alf Dean, an aborigine trained as an anthropologist, knew that his tribesmen, for centuries beyond memory, had warned of a dreadful secret in the mountains of Australia.
His ‘slow-witted’ nephew led him to the secret spot – the same spot where men were claimed by deaths that were secret to the world.
As secret as the knowledge the scientists now share which compels them to press deep under the mountain… deep where the aborigines never go… through the nuclear shield, through the collective unconscious, deeper and deeper toward the center of the earth, closer to exploding the myths of time and space, closer to rousing THE DREAMING DRAGONS’
Blurb from the 1980 Pocket paperback edition.
It is often refreshing to read SF that is written in, and for, a different society. British and American SF, although springing from different roots, have come together by a process of convergent evolution. Eastern European SF, by contrast, existed in isolation for quite a while and one can see, from the work of the Strugatsky brothers and Stanislaw Lem, that stylistically, thematically and symbolically it is a sometimes quite alien, if beautiful, kettle of fish.
Australian SF is something of which I’ve not had a lot of experience. Damien Broderick’s work therefore comes as something of a pleasant surprise.
Alf Dean is an adopted aborigine, and is now an anthropologist. He and his white autistic nephew, Mouse, out on a field trip, discover a passage in an ancient cave which leads to another chamber. Here they discover a shimmering rainbow screen in a metal frame, settled in the dust of millennia. The frame turns out to be a teleport gate leading to an even more mysterious site, a vast white sphere underneath Uluru (known to the rest of us by the less exciting name of Ayers Rock).
This area, known as ‘the Vault’, turns out to be a top secret discovery already being investigated by an international team of scientists and the military. Proximity to the sphere causes madness or death and when Alf collapses he is rescued by Mouse who, unaccountably, seems to have some sort of affinity with the Sphere. When Alf describes an out-of-body experience, the controversial British scientist Bill DelFord is called in.
Between Alf, DelFord, Mouse and the astronaut Hugh, links are discovered between the ancient alien vault, the rainbow serpent of Aborigine mythology and the origins of Humanity itself.
It is oddly structured, setting itself in the present, and then we are taken off into a section where the child Mouse – who is in some kind of psychic rapport with the vault and is writing out information which the vault has somehow accessed. stored and is now retransmitting – transcribes the diary of a Russian scientist who has been infected with a sample of Soviet biological warfare.
Later, we travel to Deep Time to discover how and why the original feathered serpent aliens get here.
It’s a very complex but enjoyable novel, slightly flawed by some improbable dialogue here and there and an unaccountable dearth of female characters. The few that do appear on the page in the initial sections disappear pretty quickly once the novel gets underway. Certainly Alf and Bill leap off the page as fully-rounded characters and as Pringle points out in his ‘100 Greatest SF Novels’ it is a very Australian novel, steeped in the traditions of the Aborigines and very honest about their history and treatment in a white-dominated Australia.
There are some beautiful descriptive passages too, particularly in relation to the land around Uluru, and the novel is a breath of fresh air in a genre sometimes badly in need of it.
Alf Dean, an aborigine trained as an anthropologist, knew that his tribesmen, for centuries beyond memory, had warned of a dreadful secret in the mountains of Australia.
His ‘slow-witted’ nephew led him to the secret spot – the same spot where men were claimed by deaths that were secret to the world.
As secret as the knowledge the scientists now share which compels them to press deep under the mountain… deep where the aborigines never go… through the nuclear shield, through the collective unconscious, deeper and deeper toward the center of the earth, closer to exploding the myths of time and space, closer to rousing THE DREAMING DRAGONS’
Blurb from the 1980 Pocket paperback edition.
It is often refreshing to read SF that is written in, and for, a different society. British and American SF, although springing from different roots, have come together by a process of convergent evolution. Eastern European SF, by contrast, existed in isolation for quite a while and one can see, from the work of the Strugatsky brothers and Stanislaw Lem, that stylistically, thematically and symbolically it is a sometimes quite alien, if beautiful, kettle of fish.
Australian SF is something of which I’ve not had a lot of experience. Damien Broderick’s work therefore comes as something of a pleasant surprise.
Alf Dean is an adopted aborigine, and is now an anthropologist. He and his white autistic nephew, Mouse, out on a field trip, discover a passage in an ancient cave which leads to another chamber. Here they discover a shimmering rainbow screen in a metal frame, settled in the dust of millennia. The frame turns out to be a teleport gate leading to an even more mysterious site, a vast white sphere underneath Uluru (known to the rest of us by the less exciting name of Ayers Rock).
This area, known as ‘the Vault’, turns out to be a top secret discovery already being investigated by an international team of scientists and the military. Proximity to the sphere causes madness or death and when Alf collapses he is rescued by Mouse who, unaccountably, seems to have some sort of affinity with the Sphere. When Alf describes an out-of-body experience, the controversial British scientist Bill DelFord is called in.
Between Alf, DelFord, Mouse and the astronaut Hugh, links are discovered between the ancient alien vault, the rainbow serpent of Aborigine mythology and the origins of Humanity itself.
It is oddly structured, setting itself in the present, and then we are taken off into a section where the child Mouse – who is in some kind of psychic rapport with the vault and is writing out information which the vault has somehow accessed. stored and is now retransmitting – transcribes the diary of a Russian scientist who has been infected with a sample of Soviet biological warfare.
Later, we travel to Deep Time to discover how and why the original feathered serpent aliens get here.
It’s a very complex but enjoyable novel, slightly flawed by some improbable dialogue here and there and an unaccountable dearth of female characters. The few that do appear on the page in the initial sections disappear pretty quickly once the novel gets underway. Certainly Alf and Bill leap off the page as fully-rounded characters and as Pringle points out in his ‘100 Greatest SF Novels’ it is a very Australian novel, steeped in the traditions of the Aborigines and very honest about their history and treatment in a white-dominated Australia.
There are some beautiful descriptive passages too, particularly in relation to the land around Uluru, and the novel is a breath of fresh air in a genre sometimes badly in need of it.
July 13, 2023
The language is dense, and the plot is a little jumpy. It follows the tradition of older sci-fi in being more about the tech and concept than about plot and characters (much to the detriment of its plot and characters). Despite this, it doesn't really dig into the tech until the last couple chapters, and even then I found it choppy. I almost rated this book 3 stars but I can't deny there's charm and beauty in the conclusion that will stick with me, earning it a 4th star.
May 4, 2009
Virtually unreadable. If there is a great Aboriginal fantasy novel to be found, this book is not it.
Read
September 10, 2022Hallucinatory.
September 24, 2025
I read this many years ago, and it still stands out as one of the most intriguing stories I have read. The science in it is dated now, since it predates the discovery by Alvarez et al. that an asteroid led to the end of the dinosaurs. However, the ideas in it are so interesting it has just stuck with me. I won't say much about it. It is a short read set in the 'modern day' of Australia. The protag is a man of aboriginal descent, a scientist, doing research in the Tanami desert of WA. He accidentally discovers what appears to be an alien portal that he steps through and appears in a secret facility underneath Ayers Rock (Uluru), which is at least a thousand kilometres away. The secret facility is human, the thing they are studying is not. That's how it starts.
July 10, 2025
I hesitated for a long time before diving into this novel. What ultimately convinced me to give it a try was its reputation — selected by David Pringle as one of the 100 best science fiction novels of the 20th century.
An unusual Australian novel, The Dreaming Dragons blends anthropology, time travel, and Aboriginal mythology, following the quest for the mysterious Rainbow Serpent closely tied to the sacred Uluru rock formations.
Despite the originality of its premise, the reading experience was a disappointment. I couldn’t connect with the story. It simply didn’t resonate with me. 😕
An unusual Australian novel, The Dreaming Dragons blends anthropology, time travel, and Aboriginal mythology, following the quest for the mysterious Rainbow Serpent closely tied to the sacred Uluru rock formations.
Despite the originality of its premise, the reading experience was a disappointment. I couldn’t connect with the story. It simply didn’t resonate with me. 😕
February 25, 2018
Pretty good - starts off quite strong, with a rich Australian vibe to it. I thought it lost a bit of oomph around the middle, though I still enjoyed the themes it wove through.
September 24, 2018
One of the niftiest SF novels in some time.
August 8, 2016
Damien Broderick's The Dreaming Dragons begins with a simple premise; Alf Dean Djanyagirnji, an Australian anthropologist and his nephew are exploring caves in an attempt to find ancient representations of the Rainbow Serpent, a creator god in traditional Australian Aboriginal mythology. What they find instead leads to a secret military base, alien technology and the history of humanity itself.
Having read a lot of Science Fiction over the years, I have to say I haven't read a lot from Australia - Max Barry's Jennifer Government (an excellent book!) and a few fantasy novels by Sarah Douglass are the only ones that come to mind, so I was quite intrigued when I realized how focused this book was going to be on the region.
Although the book has a few flaws; not really any female characters of note, and extensive dream sequences (that do move the plot forward, but were often a little confusing to read), it's portrayal of the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Australia's history is both harrowing and factual.
In the end, I found the book to be an interesting read, and like all good science fiction, a read that left me thinking a lot about who we are, and where we come from.
Having read a lot of Science Fiction over the years, I have to say I haven't read a lot from Australia - Max Barry's Jennifer Government (an excellent book!) and a few fantasy novels by Sarah Douglass are the only ones that come to mind, so I was quite intrigued when I realized how focused this book was going to be on the region.
Although the book has a few flaws; not really any female characters of note, and extensive dream sequences (that do move the plot forward, but were often a little confusing to read), it's portrayal of the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Australia's history is both harrowing and factual.
In the end, I found the book to be an interesting read, and like all good science fiction, a read that left me thinking a lot about who we are, and where we come from.
March 7, 2008
Ok, I admit, my reasons for giving this bk a 4 star review are flimsy. On page 51 he uses the word "anarchist" in a manner I approve of. THEN, on page 58, he describes a Mark Boyle photograph in a character's foyer. Mark Boyle's an English artist who did light shows for The Soft Machine & other very interesting things. Very few people seem to know who he is. That sort of detail in a bk perks my little mind right up.
November 24, 2017
Not bad. Premise was fairly interesting and it's always interesting to read a story set in Australia (where i have always wanted to visit) but the writing was fairly pedestrian.
Read
June 26, 2017At the time, I thought it was really cool that this book had an Aboriginal central character and included Dreamtime stories.
Now, I wince at the misappropriation.
Now, I wince at the misappropriation.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews