Wine of the Dreamers (original 1951; edition 1951)

This is a thought-provoking, surprisingly modern science fiction story that MacDonald wrote in 1951 and that is one of his two works of science fiction. Didn't know exactly what to expect, and this greatly exceeded my expectations. It has its awkward moments in alternating between Earth, where a scientist and a psychologist are key players in building an interstellar spaceship, and a distant world whose inhabitants enter "dream machines" where they can inhabit and take over the bodies of men and women on Earth (and visit a couple of other planets as well.) These two threads become closely entwined, of course, and the story is surprisingly moving in places as we see the violence inflicted on Earth by these alien dreamers, who don't consider any of their dreams to be real. In his excellent afterword, written in 1968, MacDonald talks about why he allowed the book to be republished and why he didn't change a word of it, even though he was tempted. All in all, this book, despite some very dark and cynical passages, and a few stock bad guys (generals, politicians, broadcasters--the usual suspects) succeeds in being one of MacDonald's more hopeful works. ( )

This book makes me wish John Dann MacDonald had written much more science fiction. We have a dying mother race of humans who have seeded three worlds and controlled them through their dreams. Unfortunately, the good use of those controls has denigrated along with the population (now less than 1,000), and when a brother and his ister find out the three worlds are not just fun and games, but filled with real people, they begin a plan to liberate the worlds from the dreamers, as many of the dreamers are causing random acts of violence in the worlds. (That's the truth behind "Son of Sam" Berkowitz. The dreamers took over his mind and did the shootings!). Seriously, the characters are drawn deeply, and the theme of love and care flows throughout the book. If it is not the best that MacDonald has written, it surely is in the top five. ( )