 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2008) |
 First edition | |
| Author | Christopher Priest |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published | 1977 (Faber and Faber) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 199 |
| ISBN | 0-571-11118-1 |
| OCLC | 3706713 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.P9487 Dr PR6066.R55 |
A Dream of Wessex is a 1977 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest. In the United States it was released under the title The Perfect Lover.
A Dream of Wessex can be read as a straightforward story about a group of twentieth-century dreamers who create a consensus virtual-reality future. Once they enter their imaginary world they are unable to remember who they are, or where they are from. On another level, the novel is itself an extended metaphor for the way in which extrapolated futures are created.
The year is 1985. The Wessex Project, a privately funded project based beneath Maiden Castle, [1] discovers a method to transport the collective unconscious of some of England's most brilliant minds into an illusory and ideal society. The object is to gather information vital to human survival on earth. But in the process, power, deception and love join to jeopardize the philanthropic program.
In a critical essay on islands in British science fiction, Paul Kincaid discusses A Dream of Wessex and compares it with other novels.
At roughly the same time Cowper was working on The Road to Corlay, Christopher Priest was creating a similarly drowned Britain in A Dream of Wessex. In this case, however, the island is not a prison but a fortress, a place of warmth and light and joy that is a defense against the cold and forbidding character of his near-future Britain. When a representative of this heartless aspect of post-war Britain [i.e., Paul Mason] invades the sunny, rural island it becomes, briefly, as grey, polluted and miserable as the realm from which the dreamers are trying to escape. Wessex is also, literally, a dream island, a piece of the Mediterranean that has been misplaced in southern England, and in this Priest's islomania is on a par with the intellectual mood of post-war Britain... I don't think any English writer has so consistently weaved islands into the structure of his fiction as Christopher Priest. These are usually exemplars of islomania rather than insularity: he does not want to cut his characters off from society because engagement with others goes to the core of how they reveal their psychology (one reason, perhaps, why twins and doppelgangers feature so frequently in his work). [2]
A Dream of Wessex was nominated for the Ditmar Award in 1978 for Best International Long Fiction.
Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. Dystopian fiction offers the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Some novels combine both genres, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take depending on its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other types of speculative fiction.
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to Britain in 1960 with his parents when he was five.
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Sam Youd, was a British writer, best known for science fiction written under the name of John Christopher, including the novels The Death of Grass, The Possessors, and the young-adult novel series The Tripods. He won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1971 and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1976.
Christopher Priest is a British novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, The Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige, and The Separation.
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George Reginald Turner was an Australian writer and critic, best known for the science fiction novels written in the later part of his career. His first science fiction story and novel appeared in 1978, when he was in his early sixties. By this point, however, he had already achieved success as a mainstream novelist, including a Miles Franklin Award, and as a literary critic.
Kathleen Ann Goonan was an American science fiction writer. Several of her books have been nominated for the Nebula Award. Her debut novel Queen City Jazz was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and her novel In War Times was chosen by the American Library Association as Best Science Fiction Novel for their 2008 reading list. In July 2008, In War Times won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Her novel This Shared Dream was released in July 2011 by Tor Books.
The Separation is a novel by British writer Christopher Priest, published in 2002. It is an alternate history revolving around the experiences of identical twin brothers during the Second World War, during which one becomes a pilot for the RAF, and the other, a conscientious objector, becomes an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. The author introduces a deliberate confusion by giving these brothers identical initials – J.L. Sawyer – one known as Jack and the other as Joe.
There have been many attempts at defining science fiction. This is a list of definitions that have been offered by authors, editors, critics and fans over the years since science fiction became a genre. Definitions of related terms such as "science fantasy", "speculative fiction", and "fabulation" are included where they are intended as definitions of aspects of science fiction or because they illuminate related definitions—see e.g. Robert Scholes's definitions of "fabulation" and "structural fabulation" below. Some definitions of sub-types of science fiction are included, too; for example see David Ketterer's definition of "philosophically-oriented science fiction". In addition, some definitions are included that define, for example, a science fiction story, rather than science fiction itself, since these also illuminate an underlying definition of science fiction.
The Extremes is a 1998 science fiction novel by the English writer Christopher Priest. The novel received the BSFA Award.
The Affirmation is a 1981 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest. The book follows the story of Peter Sinclair, who begins creating fantasy fiction, only to find his life merging with that of protagonist. The novel eventually earned praise among reviewers as one of Priest's best works.
Paul Kincaid is a British science fiction critic.
City at the End of Time is a 2008 science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. It was published in August 2008 by Del Rey in the United States, and Gollancz in the United Kingdom. The story follows three drifters in present-day Seattle who are tormented by strange dreams of the Kalpa, a city one hundred trillion years in the future. The Kalpa is attempting to ward off the Typhon, an inexplicable entity that has consumed the rest of the ancient universe and broken down the laws of physics.
Inverted World is a 1974 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest. The novel's basic premise was first used in the short story "The Inverted World" included in New Writings in SF 22 (1973), which had different characters and plot. In 2010, the novel was included in the SF Masterworks collection.
An Infinite Summer is the second collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Christopher Priest and the first of his books to collect stories set in the Dream Archipelago. The stories had all previously been published in various anthologies and magazines; they may be described, somewhat interchangeably, as science fiction, fantasy literature, metafiction and macabre.
The Islanders is a 2011 science fiction novel by British writer Christopher Priest.
The Glamour is a novel by Christopher Priest published in 1984.
Too Like the Lightning is the first novel in a science fiction quartet called Terra Ignota, written by the American author Ada Palmer. It was published on May 10, 2016. Its sequels are Seven Surrenders (2017), The Will to Battle (2017), and Perhaps the Stars (2021). The novel won the 2017 Compton Crook Award. It was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award.