Tuesday, December 29, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt

 

Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on January 12, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book. 


Doors of Sleep is the latest book by author Tim Pratt, whose work I've previously enjoyed quite a bit (see his "The Axiom" trilogy or his most recent tie-in The Fractured Void).  Those novels were all fun space operas featuring fun casts of misfit characters having enjoyable relationships, quirks and smart interactions with dangerous enemies, and for the most part I really liked the results, even if none of the books were truly tremendous enough to fall into my "must read" category.  Doors of Sleep is the start of a new series which isn't quite space opera, so I was curious to see how it would read compared to those others.

And Doors of Sleep is very fun and entertaining, which reminds me of a number of other stories, from Marie Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent in writing style to well, Doctor Who, in that it features a man traveling through different worlds accompanied by occasionally changing companions and trying to do good on as many of those worlds as he can.  And yet it's not Doctor Who, in that our protagonist is not some mad genius but just a well meaning accidental traveler, who is far more human and thus breakable than that show's classic hero.  The result, aided by Pratt's solid entertaining writing, is a rather fun (although not comedic unlike his other works) and well done novel that ends on a satisfying point while promising more to come.  

-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Zax Delatree has seen hundreds of worlds since that fateful day years ago, when he went to sleep one night and woke up not in his own home...but in a whole other world entirely.  Since that date Zax has learned his curse: whenever he falls unconscious, be it through sleep or some other method, he will leave his present world and wake up in a whole new one, elsewhere in the multiverse...and never the same world twice.  Some worlds are happy good ones, especially for humans, whereas others are harsh and unforgiving, where Zax would be lucky to survive, nevertheless enjoy himself.  The only thing Zax has been able to take with him between worlds are the things that are attached to him, as well as any individual he might be holding onto when he falls asleep.  

Zax has had a few companions over this time - people who have chosen to leave their own worlds and be carried by him to others.  Some have left voluntarily, happy with where they ended up, whereas others have not, and Zax grieves for their loss.  All but for one, the scientist known as the Lector, who at first seemed to provide Zax with the most help possible, before betraying Zax for the sake of his own ambition.  But just as Zax beings to enjoy himself again with a new companion, he is surprised to discover that the Lector has found a way to follow him between worlds, and is seeking not just revenge, but Zax's very being for his own evil purposes.....
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As I mentioned before the jump, in a way Doors of Sleep reminds me of both Marie Brennan's "The Memoirs of Lady Trent" and Doctor Who.  Like the Lady Trent books, the story is told from the perspective of a journal written down slightly after the fact by Zax, with each entry/chapter headed by quick descriptions of what will happen in that entry/chapter, and like Lady Trent, Zax has learned to write in an observational tone as to what is going on, even if he's not quite as much a scientist as his companions/former companions.  And Like Doctor Who, Zax not only travels to many different worlds and tries to help where he can, but he takes along companions for company and assistance in such work.  

Which is not to call Doors of Sleep any more derivative than the usual book these days, as Pratt manages to make this book definitely its own thing.  Take Zax for example, who may pine for his old home and for some chance someday to go back, and yet remains good hearted pretty much throughout his experiences, no matter how bad (although he has moments of utter despair, they never can drive him to do evil).  Some of Zax's companions have apparently been unable to do the same, seeing the fact that Zax can never stay in a single place and thus can never do more than just a little good - and that there is no end to it - to be exhausting, but for Zax these are core parts of him that he never forgets.  But Zax isn't some genius or technologically super advanced person - his world was well off, but nothing super special, and thus its only through his experiences and the assistance of his companions, who wind up being far more capable than he himself, that he's able to accomplish what he has.  

This makes Zax just so incredibly likable, and his companions in this book, whose identities I won't spoil, form such great complements to him in both ability and temperament - they're more willing to compromise themselves ethically than Zax, but they love him for his attitude and don't think him naive, just principled.  The comradery makes for great reading, especially against the threat posed by both the major antagonists and minor ones they may find on individual worlds.  The result is a plot that may not be as humorous, or at all as romantic, as some of Pratt's other works, but is still tremendous fun and enjoyable to read from beginning to end.  And since this book is kind of short, it never outstays its welcome either.

And while the book does contain a satisfyingly ending (to go along with some surprising plot twists), it also contains a pretty strong sequel hook for future books in this series to follow up on, although that sequel hook does sound a lot like what he did with the Axiom trilogy.  Again there's nothing here that's really must read - it's not tremendously funny like the Axiom sometimes was, and the characters aren't mindblowingly good (nor is there any significant message/theme here), but it's a book that's done really well in pretty much all facets and is very enjoyable as a result.   I'll be back for book 2 for sure.

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