This early K.W.Jeter from the mid 70s is a largely forgotten sci-fi novel. And I guess Jeter will be happy for it to remain forgotten. It starts off quite intriguing with a sort of dreamlike, paranoiac, surreal quality established even before the Dreamwatch Ops enter the Dreamfield but he only manages to maintain it for the first chapter or so. He has the initial idea summed up by a secondary character called Stimmitz:
"Now, when you were recruited for Operation Dreamwatch, how did they explain it to you? Therapy program, right? A hundred hard-core recidivist juvenile delinquents, already been through every correctional program in the state, and they've got 'em all over there at the Thronsen Home now. And the therapists in charge of the program put the kids into a common, shared dream state every night and that creates this dreamfield, right? The therapists control the settings, control everything that happens to the kids when they're dreaming - all the different sequences, which are designed to get to the kids' psychological problems when their psychic defenses are lowest, catharsize their traumas and everything. And over here at the base, the watchers -us- are projected into the field through the line shack, so we can observe and report on the kids' reactions to the dream sequences."
So far so good. Makes you question who is being tested - the kids or the ops. But then Jeter drops all that in favour of starting off a massive cover up, piled on top of conspiracy theories and layers of blinds, all of which seem to be added, discarded, added to again, discarded again etc. The main character Ralph Metric, heads off to L.A. for a very dull interlude trying to investigate the cover up, gets bored of that, gets chased about lots. One odd scene has Metric drinking cans and cans of beer with one of the other Dreamwatch Ops in his truck. He gets showed a C.B. Radio and Metric uses it to ask the ether, "What the Hell is going on?" He doesn't know, we don't know and if we did know we'd probably die laughing. Eventually he decides to wrap it all up by crow-barring what's left of the plot (or one of the plots) around the original dreamfield concept. Now I like some of Jeter's other work, I really like his Bladerunner sequels, but this one should have stayed in the shoe box. Serves me right, I suppose, for being lured by the pulpy cover. It's a short read though and I guess it might amuse some folks who are impressed by high levels of guff, just for the sheer chutzpah of the author for getting it past the editor, pulp or not. ( )

Despite its title, this book is light on dream-related material, which was something of a disappointment to me. The premise of Watchers entering into other people's dreams is a good one, and has been used to better effect at times, but that is not the focus of this book. (Fun fact, the cover shows a nightmare creature on the corner of Main and Elm street. Whether or not this influenced Wes Craven or is just a coincidence, who knows?) Instead the book roams about with the sort of paranoid military-political conspiracy shenanigans that is familiar from his other books and those of his friend, Philip K. Dick. But the plot moves too far away from the basic premise, and main character Ralph Metric just slumps his way from one place to another without much volition. Bottom line: not Jeter's strongest showing, but there are some good ideas in here and if the story is not satisfying, at least it shouldn't take you too long to breeze through it. ( )