That the things that made us what we were, that made our lives worth living, were always intangible and insubstantial, at least by Human standards … that if we didn’t realize that, too often our lives wound up nothing but a refuse heap of half-glimpsed futures, half-formed relationships, broken hearts and dreams. That in the end, our lives were all dreamfall. The best we could hope for was that someday, somewhere, some random cast-off dream of ours might ease someone else’s pain, or live on in someone else’s memory.…
I held the lenses pressed against my eyes for a long time, long past the time when the cloud-whales had drifted beyond sight, long past the time when my eyes had stopped seeing. Long past the time when unshed tears left me too blind to watch the starport slowly expanding to fill my vision, as it swallowed the sky and the land that had once belonged to a different people … a world as green as the memory of her eyes.
The world was called Refuge, but I couldn’t imagine why.
Books by Joan D. Vinge
The Snow Queen Cycle
The Snow Queen
World’s End
*The Summer Queen
*Tangled Up in Blue
The Cat Novels
*+Psion
*Catspaw
*Dreamfall
*+Heaven Chronicles
Phoenix in the Ashes (story collection)
Eyes of Amber (story collection)
The Random House Book of Greek Myths
*denotes a Tor book
+forthcoming
Praise for Joan D. Vinge’s Cat Novels
Dreamfall
“Vinge displays her potent imagination in the creation of a world that remains fascinating. She also displays virtuoso quality in her delving into the emotional torments of her characters, so that one emerges at the end feeling very satisfied.”
—Analog
“A powerful book … Cat (of Catspaw and Psion) is back, and he’s as tough and streetwise as ever.”
—VOYA
“Another well-written SF novel from the Hugo Award–winning author of The Snow Queen. Enjoyable and engaging.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“A tense, lyrical human drama in a complex future setting. Vinge has created a world that is exotic and, more important, believable. Her characters come alive through masterly writing.”
—Ontario Whig-Standard
Catspaw
“A rich tale of palace intrigue that is both crisp and captivating. Catspaw also comes with enough plot twists to keep you on edge.”
—Providence Journal
Psion
“Ambitious, effective science fiction adventure.”
—Booklist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joan D. Vinge has been described as “one of the reigning queens of science fiction” by Publishers Weekly and is renowned for creating lyrical human dramas in fascinatingly complex feature settings. She has won two Hugo awards, one for her novel The Snow Queen. Vinge is the author of World’s End, Tangled Up in Blue, and The Summer Queen, sequels to The Snow Queen.
Also in her series about the character Cat are Psion, in which the character is introduced, and Catspaw. “Psiren,” a novella about Cat, is one of her numerous shorter works. She also wrote the original bestselling Return of the Jedi Storybook plus other film adaptations, as well as The Random House Book of Greek Myths. Ms. Vinge is currently working on a major revision of Psion, and also on Ladysmith, a novel set during the Bronze Age in Western Europe. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
DREAMFALL
This edition of Dreamfall has been revised by the author.
Copyright © 1996, 2004 by Joan D. Vinge
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vinge, Joan D.
Dreamfall / Joan D. Vinge.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 0-765-30342-6
EAN 978-0765-30342-4
1. Life on other planets—Fiction. 2. Telepathy—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3572.I53D74 2004
813'.54—dc22
2003071151
eISBN 9781466829787
First eBook edition: September 2012
P1
Joan D. Vinge, Dreamfall
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