Here’s a collection of the reviews I’ve found for the first-ever dreampunk short fiction anthology Mirrormaze. Great reception so far on Amazon and Goodreads, just not enough readers. Please help me change that!
Heather Miller
A Fever Dream Like No Other
It’s hard to write a review when you’re not quite sure you've touched back down in reality yet, but here goes…
Mirrormaze is an anthology unlike any other. I’m not sure I can form many coherent sentences after reading it, so here’s some words and phrases:
Fever dream
Bad drug trip
Good drug trip
Hallucination
Past life experience
Waking dream
Heatstroke mirage
Semi-conscious mind-drifting
The stories in this collection take place in that vague, shadowy land halfway between waking and dreaming. There are strange things here, bizarre things, feelings of panic and helplessness but also of dream-quest clarity. The books starts out by addressing the reader directly, informing you that you've just accidentally introduced a strange new drug into your bloodstream and then run for safety into a mirrored funhouse in the midst of an abandoned amusement park. It then allows you to progress through the stories in choose-your-own-adventure style, which adds wonderfully (horrifically) to the feeling of disorientation and outright weirdness that flows through the entire book.
The stories are all well-written, beautifully written, actually, and the writers obviously have some crazy stuff happening in their imaginations. I'll be happy to recommend this book to lovers of the strange and unusual, as soon as my eyes uncross and the room stops spinning.
Elias Pell
An awesome anthology of short stories from an incredibly talented collective of authors. It has been a real pleasure to explore (and lose myself within) this Mirrormaze. Each story is a fantastically imaginative, seductively bizarre, and yet hauntingly familiar journey beyond the questionable surface reflections that we like to call Reality.
These spinning dreamscapes will keep the reader guessing, and often lingered in the back of my mind long after the book was closed. Personal “stand-out favourites” include:
“The Future Is Milk” by Courtney LoCicero
“Origin” by Yelena Calavera
“A Bottle of Jinn” and “So Long” by Cliff Jones Jr.
“Kiss of Fire” by Anna Tizard
“Thatcher Maugden and the Dream Witch” by Dez Schwartz
(*Hugely important to note that this is my second attempt at compiling a list of favourites—my 1st ended up with nearly all 29 stories from the Contents section being listed! The quality is simply that good.)
I would highly recommend this dreampunk collection, and will be following many of the authors with a great interest for future publications!
Jennifer on Goodreads
Finally, a fantastic book filled with truly wonderful dreampunk stories. Described as a “nascent genre,” dreampunk has all the elements I could ever want and more. It’s extremely difficult to spotlight specific stories in this collection because each and every one of them is so good, but I will choose a top six:
“Origin”
“Alice Under Marmalade Skies”
“Thatcher Maugden and the Dream Witch”
“Visual Snow”
“The Mirror Cracked”
Honestly, every story shines in its own right, and I have no complaints about any of them.
The “choose your own dream adventure” style of navigation while reading the book is really fun and clever, invoking feelings of being in an actual maze as you read. I fought against my urge to read the stories in order and followed the prompts instead, and I’m very glad I did.
Five stars, definitely. Awesome cover art and stories of speculative fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, and even some horror all with the common theme of dreams and the subconscious. I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve never heard of the genre and are intrigued by it. I will be seeking more works by these authors.
Matt Watters
Is it real? Dreampunk lives!
Mirrormaze: A Dreampunk Anthology by Cliff Jones Jr. and company has been my favourite read this year. I love the structure of the book, with cues to guide you through the maze. The stories come in varied flavours, but always laced with that central dream theme.
There are standout stories that I found very intriguing in their structure and content, but I won’t give you any spoilers and influence your choices, you have to decide your own favourites. The stories are very well written, entertaining, they make you think and with 29 stories, there are many perspectives of what a “dream” means.
It took me a few weeks to work my way through the maze, like many of you, I’m time poor. So, I’d jump into the maze every time I had some free time. That’s why I love short story anthologies so much, you can read a few, be swept away to an imagined time and place, fall back to reality, until it’s time to “dream awake” again when you open the book or device.
I highly recommend Mirrormaze: A Dreampunk Anthology to all readers, because everyone dreams, so everyone can relate to the fascinating journey dreams take us on.
Eli Gregory
A deliciously eclectic collection of interconnected stories. Each one is so passionate and wild, and the veins of the related themes that wind into all of the chapters is amazing and supremely well done. A visual journey for the written word!
Sonya Deulina Williams
Great Read, Trippy, Atmospheric
I really loved this anthology. I liked how after a story ended, the narrator guided you to choose the next, like a choose-your-own-adventure book! So many different voices and trippy, atmospheric settings. It definitely helped me forget about the craziness of reality for a while. A great read and escape!
Alex Neyman on Amazon
Intriguing and thought provoking stories!
Not only are the stories interesting and unique, with “Milk” being one of my favorites, the structure was really cool to go through and gave the feeling of being in a real maze.
TxM on Amazon
Great read!!
The stories are interesting and intriguing, have really enjoyed “A Bottle of Jinn”—hooked by first paragraph, which reminded me of a real life experience. Great job on book… Mr. Jones Jr.
DonV on Amazon
Loved the stories!
I loved all of the stories in Mirrormaze! They're all so unique and the way it’s set up like a real maze is so cool!
Kelly on Amazon
Good stuff
Really good stories. This is a fun genre!
Claire Olivia Golden
My review is only for L.B. Shimaira’s short story in this anthology, as it’s the only one I’ve read. But I want to read the rest when I get my hands on this!
Shimaira’s story is about visual snow, an actual medical condition—but it takes a fantastical, spooky turn. I hadn’t heard of visual snow, and I imagine a lot of readers won't have either, so this story does a great job educating people about the condition. Thankfully, in real life, I'm pretty sure it doesn’t take the turn that it does in this story… which is very eerie and nicely done.
Hugh Mann on Goodreads
My review is only for the story by Alex Pilalis. Great story, rich expressive characters. Very engaging read.
Amazon Customer
Fantastic book but please don't buy it on Amazon if possible, support small booksellers.
Organized like a maze, the book is a wonderful collection of 29 short stories by 22 authors. The writings are housed in rooms, in which readers can dwell for a while. On the way out, hints are found on how to navigate further through the structure.
Hardly none of the stories feels like overly engineered. Language flows like in dreamscape, where an innate force is taking over to reveal the essence of everyday’s complexity. Asleep, one is closer to the real than in a certain state of consciousness, where the body is fully occupied with scanning and reacting to its surroundings. The book evokes the positive spirit of fine TV series, like The Twilight Zone from the sixties or Black Mirror, which show the struggles between natural and artificial technology through a magnifying glass. The close-ups allow, without prejudiced commentary, for an actual exploration of uncomfortable truths.
“Thatcher Maugden and the Dream Witch” addresses feminism in most entertaining traditional ways, whereas women are true characters in “Transmigration,” which further deals with LGBT issues and transhumanism. Headaches, one of the unintended side-effects occurring from the latter, are also described in “The Dragon’s Nest,” where we get to re-cognize the human in the introduction of extra-terrestrial lifeforms. “Flight of the Universe” is about mental health problems and schizophrenia in the cyber age, suggesting remedy through materiality. In “Buffering” and “Drifters,” we get clues on the puppet masters of this hell, who exercise their powers by a combination of advanced simulation technology and psyops. The idea that something else takes total control over one’s life becomes even more terrifying when valid reasons are denied. With this in mind, “Hidden Features” focuses on the seductive powers of technology.
A surprising twist awaits in “The End of Michael Clement,” culminating in the hopeless battle between good and evil, which features an amusing mix of old and new religious figures from the Marvel universe. In “Nightmare’s End” we identify with another protagonist who is coming to terms with time and who has to accept that the boundaries of different states of being are actually fluid. Contemporary literature would be incomplete without folklore and cultural heritage, which is found in “Origin,” “Angel in the Cave,” and “Teacup Koi,” envisioning the world with a pinch of animism. “So Long” is a pitiless philosophical conclusion of the book, where stoplights are an allegory of life and the perennial new beginning.
This book would make great reading group material, as it illustrates philosophical issues without openly revealing them and leaves plenty room for critical reflexion and discussion. And among the many things I like about Mirrormaze, it just adds pure enjoyment to my daily lunch break.
Are you convinced yet? Read it for yourself!