Slaves of Sleep & The Masters of Sleep

Slaves of Sleep #1 & 2

by L. Ron Hubbard

Jan Palmer wakes from a deep sleep, into a living nightmare that seems to be a parallel universe of evil Jinn, deadly secrets and beautiful but dangerous dancing girls. While trying to figure out the meaning of his dreams, he finds humankind’s fate resting in his hands. If you have ever suffered from sleepless nights or insomnia, this is a tale that might just open your eyes.

Slaves of Sleep is an L. Ron Hubbard tale of parallel universes—one of the first in modern fantasy writing. Cursed with "eternal wakefulness" by an evil Jinn, never-ending nightmares and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Jan Palmer is living hell in two worlds—or is this just lucid dreaming? On Earth, he is a prisoner of his own insecurities, and in the land of the Jinn, he is "Tiger," the swashbuckling rogue—but in both, he faces death at every turn. Unless he can discover the meaning of his dreams, before it's too late.

“I stayed up all night finishing it. The yarn scintillated.” —Ray Bradbury

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction

Hardcover

First published October 15, 1993

About the author

L. Ron Hubbard is universally acclaimed as the single most influential author and humanitarian of this modern age. His definitive works on the mind and spirit—comprising over 350 million copies in circulation and more than 40 international bestsellers—have resulted in a legacy benefiting millions and a movement spanning all cultures.

Reviews

[Q. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slaves of Sleep (3.5/5)
The Masters of Sleep (2/5)

[James Mourgos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slaves of Sleep & Masters of Sleep

This novel combines the two part serial by L Ron Hubbard, meshing the Arabian Nights with a new interdimensional story that is thought-provoking and very much reflects the silliness of the pulp era of storytelling.

Jan Palmer is a bit of a wimp. When crossing an ifrit named Zongri, Jan is cursed with Eternal Wakefulness and finds himself living two lives – one, named Tiger in a land where the Jinn rule and the time of the Arabian Nights never left, and the world of Jan as a Seattle-based shipping magnate who would like nothing more than to forget his duties and go fishing at Puget Sound!

Overall the story keeps you going in Part I, but Part II is more of a commentary on the fakery of the “solution” that psychiatry brings – electro shock therapy & prefrontal lobotomy – and how the Two World Diamond rekindles Jan and brings about a freedom for the humanity slaved by the Jinn.

Slaves of Sleep was originally published in 1939 and Masters of Sleep in 1950.

Good storytelling in the early pulp fiction style. Recommended.

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Slaves of Sleep" (1939), from Unknown, strikes me as ill-written pedestrian pulp fare, despite its popularity. To my mind William P. McGivern and others did this semi-serious Arabian Nights stuff better. "Masters of Sleep" (1950) is another matter. Hubbard is in top form here, brisk, sardonic, and sometimes hilarious, less interested in Orientalism than in deftly satirizing psychiatry and Communism (a characteristic moment: Hubbard briefly retells the history of Soviet Communism as the story of two pirates, Lenny, who meant well, and Stahlbein, who didn't). The plotting of "Masters" is delightfully complex and ingenious. Dianetics had come out a few months earlier and Hubbard was plainly bursting with energy and confidence (the satire is more fun if you read a quick overview of Hubbard's theory, elements of which turn up in a number of throwaway gags). So—two stars for "Slaves", four for "Masters".

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This multi-volume work contains two excellent fantasy fiction stories. They are the classic Slaves of Sleep and its sequel Masters of Sleep. Both are awesome, and both star the mild-mannered shipping executive Jan Palmer, who when he falls asleep has adventures as a pirate called Tiger in an Arabian Night-inspired fantasy world. Considering isekai or portal fantasy in general rarely involves jinn or Arabian Nights elements, I appreciate these really old stories from the thirties and forties.

In Slaves of Sleep, Jan Palmer is cursed by a genie to remember what happens when he falls asleep. So now Jan Palmer is conscious of the adventures of his alter ego Tiger, a roguish anti-hero from an Arabian Night-inspired world populated by humans who are oppressed by jinn. The question “when we all fall asleep, where do we go?” is answered by this story. They go here. Jan/Tiger keeps seeing versions of people he knows in this world, because when they are sleeping, their versions here are awake. It’s a bit strange, but highly philosophical. It would work except my half-remembered dreams are all sci fi.

In the Masters of Sleep, the sequel published after WW2, the story gets even more interesting. Jan gets ahold of a device that allows him to switch bodies with anyone else. He makes great mileage out of this device. This book explains where the jinn come from. The jinn are evil humans in this world, and when they fall asleep, they have a second life as jinn in the dream world. The author has become anti-colonialist, so Tiger’s modus operandi here is to liberate humanity from jinn oppression. This sequel is roughly equal to the original, with parts that are better and some that are worse. Both are superb stories of pulp fantasy.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was two stories in one book. They had a lot in common: same characters, same plot, and same constant use of unnecessarily specific nautical terms. I feel like the author dissected a boat and tricked me into reading about it by promising jinnis.

[Sir Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiger a down on his luck meth addict
Who never sleeps
Needs money for dope
He solicits a millionaire
Who tiger uses a cheap whore
To bilk for meth money
After his fortune runs out
He is killed and they fake his death
Tiger and a fat rube
Later escape to sale the seas
With his lover the cheap whore

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slaves of Sleep and Masters of Sleep by L. Ron Hubbard provide a look at an alternate universe where djinns rule the world and humans are their slaves. Millionaire Jan Palmer gets a sealed jug that, when opened, starts a series of events that transports him between worlds and a different view of what a djinn is. These stories are very representative of the pulp era, and quite entertaining. The audio is very clear and the reader is excellent.

[Bruce Deming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent mix of fun, romance and arabian lore. I found this very very enjoyable and a quick fun read. Jinni's magic and romance. Nicely spun tale for fun.

Story plot twists are creative and clever. Held me to the end.

[Michael Albanese · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like these two. I feel that they would have been better without the psychology if the worst thing ever, but let me bog you down with sailing jargon because sailing is the greatest thing ever.

[Jeff]

How to sleep like a man

[Brigid · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is super pulpy and rather fun in an old-style way, all about one spineless young man's strange and circuitous route to assertive yet brainy manhood, romance and revenge.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

used audiobook

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and action-packed; Hubbard makes it easy to separate the dichotomy of the waking and dream worlds.

[Cws]

SF-Hub