Agents of Dreamland (2017)

by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Series: Tinfoil Dossier (1)

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391	19	69,367	(3.71)	17
A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation, but which haunts the Signalman. In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible-the Children of the Next Level-and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in. A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from 'other' sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA's interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact. And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 17 (next | show all)

There's the signalman, a disillusioned federal agent assigned to the case of a cult, There's Chloe, the down and out teenager rescued from the streets by a cult leader. And there's Immaculata (!), a British agent with information to share or not. And there's the horrific demise of the cult members, explained only in part by mycology. A discovery supposedly made after the Vermont flood of 1927 and Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" show up in this novella. (

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sleahey | Oct 15, 2024 |

This was great. I could read books made from each of the stories/chapters/times of this collection and still want more.

It's hard to explain though. (

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rabbit-stew | Dec 31, 2023 |

Reason read: it was a shared read, involves aliens, TIOLI challenge #7.
A Novella length book, setting Winslow, Arizona. Time 2015.
Structure: narrative hops from one time period and location to another, following three characters on very different (and yet directly related) journeys.
The novella is similar to the classic 1931 short story “The Whisperer In Darkness” of a terrifying alien conspiracy at work in rural Vermont, and the then-newly-discovered Pluto. So may appeal to lovers of Lovecraft.
Characters include a government operative (grumpy), Chloe (occult group), and Immacolata Sexton, outside time and space, also creepy.

There is so much that happens in a few pages and I found myself not really getting into the story. I didn't like it and the amount of profanity was excessive.
Rating 2.2 (

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Kristelh | Sep 6, 2023 |

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-of-agents-of-dreamland-by.html (

)

HanJie | Mar 2, 2022 |

An intriguing and surreal dive into weird currents where the truth hides like a phantasmic shadow. (

)

AngelaJMaher | May 2, 2021 |

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Is contained in

Reimagining Lovecraft: Four Tor.com Novellas: (The Ballad of Black Tom, The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe, Hammers on Bone, Agents of Dreamland) by Victor LaValle

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Bram Stoker Award (Nominee – Long Fiction – 2017)

Locus Award (Finalist – Novella – 2018)

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Top 10 strangest alien invasion novels

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Canonical title

Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Les agents de Dreamland

Original title

Agents of Dreamland

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Winslow, Arizona, USA

Important events

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Epigraph

Eventually you've got to understand that an answer isn't the same thing as a solution, and a story is sometimes only an excuse.
-NIC PIZZOLATTO

Dedication

For Kathryn

First words

HERE'S THE SCENE: It's Thursday evening, and the Signalman sits smoking and nursing a flat Diet Dr Pepper, allowing himself to breathe a stingy sigh of relief as twilight finally, mercifully comes crashing down on the desert.

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Last words

Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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English

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▾Book descriptions

A government special agent known only as the Signalman gets off a train on a stunningly hot morning in Winslow, Arizona. Later that day he meets a woman in a diner to exchange information about an event that happened a week earlier for which neither has an explanation, but which haunts the Signalman. In a ranch house near the shore of the Salton Sea a cult leader gathers up the weak and susceptible-the Children of the Next Level-and offers them something to believe in and a chance for transcendence. The future is coming and they will help to usher it in. A day after the events at the ranch house which disturbed the Signalman so deeply that he and his government sought out help from 'other' sources, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory abruptly loses contact with NASA's interplanetary probe New Horizons. Something out beyond the orbit of Pluto has made contact. And a woman floating outside of time looks to the future and the past for answers to what can save humanity.

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