In writing class, all aspiring writers are told to avoid 3 big clichés. Never describe your main character by having them look at themselves in a mirror. Never make your character a perfect Mary Sue. And never base your stories around dreams.

The Book of Dreams is an eloquent "up yours!" by Nick Gevers to that last piece of advice; a short chapbook composed of 5 stories, all of them based in (if not entirely composed of) the realm of Oneiros. It's an excellent short collection and I highly recommend it.

*** - "The Prisoner" by Robert Silverburg - The first, and probably weakest, of the bunch. Silverburg's short story about a man plagued by nightmares of another man trapped in his dreams is well written and fun to read, but the payoff is predictable and a bit of a letdown. For all the buildup, the revelation should have been something more.

**** - "Dream Burgers at the Mouth of Hell" by Lucius Shepard - A cynical story about an up and coming screenwriter who discovers the true source of Hollywood's success and inspiration, and the price he'll have to pay to get it. Extremely well written, funny, and totally unpredictable.

**** - "Testaments" by Jay Lake - A bleak tale of the dreams of prophecy of conquerors throughout history, and of their victims, including the conquerors themselves. A good story with excellent, but deliberately oblique prose. Not exactly sure of the author's theme by the end. Felt like a story I'd need to read a few times to fully understand. Not that that's a bad thing.

***** - "Rex Nemorensis" by Kage Baker - The best of the bunch. A story that is both horrifying and heartbreaking at once, about an old veteran of the Vietnam war who searches and finally finds a new purpose, and a new god, in his dreams of the jungle. This is my first exposure to Baker's work, and short as it is, it still makes me lament the fact that she died suddenly of cancer earlier this year. A real loss to the field.

***** - "86 Deathdick Road" by Jeffery Ford - Runner up for best of the bunch. A story that begins with a visit to the smartest man in the world and then somehow devolves into a battle with killer owls, before ending with a lament to lost love. An excellent choice for wrapping up the anthology. By turns hilarious, horrific, bizarre, and forlorn, it's almost like a--well, do I really need to say it? ( )