You can tell from its Dick-scented title that Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep isn’t the kind of sci-fi novel that hides its ambition. Paul Tremblay’s latest novel is full of all sorts of literary tricks, from authorial intrusions to House of Leaves style text art. I expect it will gather a huge and ardent following online devoted to parsing all the references and solving all the mysteries in the text.
What’s most interesting about Dreaming is that while the writing is packed with experimentation, the plot is incredibly straightforward. It’s about a gamer who gets hired to transport a corpse, only the catch is that the body is still alive (albeit braindead and comatose) and the mind has been wired up with all kinds of technology that lets her pilot the body through the world with a high-tech joystick.
Rarely have I read a book with such a simple narrative drive—literally, the goal is to get from point A to point B—paired with such a complex execution. And I’m not entirely convinced the two halves of Dreaming actually work well together. I was so invested in the story that I desperately wanted to skim some of the more highfalutin experimental tricks of the book, though I’m glad that I resisted the urge to jump ahead.
On a narrative level, Dreaming left me a bit frustrated as the taut story grows flabby and weird at the end. But on a stylistic level, I want to read the thing again to see what kind of mysteries I can solve. This was the first Tremblay novel that I’ve ever read, and it was so technically accomplished and inventive that I’m excited to read another from him very soon.