The Dream Master
By Roger Zelazny

When you read a book with "dream" in the title, you have to be prepared for some strange stuff and you'll find that in this short novel by the science-fiction author Roger Zelazny. This is my first time reading him.

In The Dream Master, Charles Render is a therapist who works by participating in his patients' dreams, controlling them in order to find the source of problems they have. He does this using a machine, a technological interface between himself and his subject. He is an expert at this sort of treatment but much care is required due to the risks of being so closely entwined at such a low-level of consciousness. Zelazny uses the process to explore aspects of our emotional and psychological state, neurosis and mental condition. Perhaps also the danger of over-confidence. There's potential for some imaginative sequences which he does well.

As I say, this is a short book and one I found hard to understand in a few places. Things were not necessarily clarified but it was clear that some scenes unfolded inside a dream world somewhere. What was actually happening, and why, was not easy to fathom. Such is the nature of the dream world but it can be frustrating in a novel. Zelazny seems to be an intelligent and cultured writer, making many references to classical or mythological themes, as well as themes of the unconscious. Clever stuff but you need to see the references he makes and, at times, perhaps he is too clever. The conclusion is not a great surprise but handled well. A certain sense of dread.

I am considering having a look at the novella the book is based on: He Who Shapes. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (a very good and intelligent resource) has a useful paragraph on The Dream Master in its main article about Zelazny :

"In The Dream Master – for one of the few times in his career – Zelazny presented the counter-myth, the story of the metamorphosis which fails, the Transcendence which collapses back into the mortal world."