Snooze: A Story of Awakening by Sol Luckman

Title: Snooze: A Story of Awakening
Author: Sol Luckman
Read Type: Indie Author
Stars:

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From acclaimed author Sol Luckman comes SNOOZE, the riveting, coming-of-age tale of one extraordinary boy’s awakening to the world-changing reality of his dreams. Join Max Diver, aka “Snooze,” on a mesmerizing quest to rescue his father, astronaut Thomas Diver, from a fate stranger than death in the exotic, perilous Otherworld of sleep. An insightful look at a plethora of paranormal subjects, from Bigfoot to levitation to telepathy and beyond, SNOOZE also shines as a work of literature featuring iconic characters, intense drama, breathless pacing, and a steady stream of offbeat humor that will stir you wide awake!

Strong language: None

Drugs: None

Violence: Some, mild

Sexual content: None

I received a free copy of this book from the author in return for an unbiased review

Many of the reviews I have seen have treated this as a spiritual, or awakening guidebook. Personally, while I am interested in theories in what we call supernatural (for example I find it hard to believe that civilisation thousands of years ago who'd never met all developed myths of creatures such as vampires, as can be seen from their paintings),  have primarily treated this as a fiction novel with some thought provoking themes. As there were many changes in pace and theme, I will review it in the four parts the author divided it into.

Part 1: Dreams – 5 stars

The story started with a misfit of a boy, son of an astronaut, and military pilot. Max is twelve and has an unusual ability: he has real life dreams! This means that he has been able to not only control his dreams, but bring items back.

This part was a fun adventure, learning what Max could do, seeing him get into trouble as he tried to prove what he claimed was true, then finally making a friend who understood and guided him.

This section was written in simple language, suitable for somebody his age, but didn't talk down to the reader.

Part 2: Reality – 3 stars

At first this section threw me. There had been a large time jump to when Max was at university. Not only that, but he had changed beyond recognition in is personality and beliefs. This was understandable given an event in the story, but it disconnected me from the reading. With no adventures during dreams, or other breaks from his new attitude I was unsure where the story was going.

Finally, Max broke down and started to get on the road to his previous self. I felt this was the reconnection I needed. However, upon this rediscovery it stepped into territory of looking at both scientific and mythic theory as to why he could do what he could. I didn't mind short sections of this, but at times it felt like page after page of theoretical discussion.

How many times must one feel one has learned everything, Max wondered, only to find out later one has hardly learned anything?

I felt like this many times. Had the theory been broken up more I probably would have been able to take more in, but for me, with limited knowledge or history in such matters, a lot of it went over my head.

Part 3: Otherworld – 4 stars

I think this was my favourite section. Max travels into the alternate world to our where everything works differently (think taking a step forward means you go backward etc). In this section you really saw Max struggle and have to pull himself together to keep going in this world. There were mythical and historical creatures to deal with, patterns to learn and all round fun. Despite Max being the same age as the previous section he seemed to have been set free to be his younger self inside.

Once again here there were many theories covered and rehashed, but this time, split with adventure and danger, not to mention more straight forward examples a lot more of it sunk in. I felt the spiritual talk was written very well, I felt more at ease reading it.

Part 4: Reunions – 3.5 stars

This section was a switch up of genres yet again, to a certain extent. Max meets the mirror images of many people he knows in his world, this becomes an emotional journey for him, having to deal with seeing lost loved ones, while preparing for the main reason he came to this world.

Again, there was a lot of adventure, but I felt the story had hit its high in part 3 and left no room to go up. It largely streamed along on the one level when in adventure, and pulling at your guts when dealing with emotional issues. Eventually he managed to complete is mission and return home.

I would have liked to have seen an epilogue, or maybe a novella set several years in the future showing if what Max had learnt had been applied and set the wheels in motion for change.

I feel the primary audience for this book may have been people already looking at spirituality, lucid dreaming and many other pseudo science subjects, but overall as an adventure novel I enjoyed it.