https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FYR41ZTM
Editorial Review For The Dark Side of Dreams
In The Dark Side of Dreams, a future after death
industry has turned into a trap. SEINI sells mind uploads and runs programs
tied to the Social Security Virtual New Deal, yet people vanish and contact
with families stops. The story follows Mira Holden as she works inside SEINI while
trying to bring down Donovan Hosseini, who rules a virtual realm like a tyrant
and feeds on fear. Mira uses a copy of Gunter Holden as a spy, sending him
through fenced human enclaves as a sim tax collector so he can witness what is
happening and record proof. Alongside that, we see workers like Andi Sukawati
and Setia stuck on an island research center built on secrecy, guilt, and
survival, while Setia hides a timed crystal meant to help them get out.
The book’s big win is how it makes the virtual world feel
like a system, not just a setting. You get procedures, roles, and controlled
narratives, plus the constant pressure of being watched. It also keeps tension
high by switching between personal stakes and large scale fallout, so the story
can move from a private holo call to public hearings and legal aftermath
without feeling like a genre costume change. Also, Hosseini is written with
enough ego to power a small city, and yes, he really does show up with a llama
god angle. That choice should not work, yet it does.
This fits cleanly in dystopian science fiction that digs
into mind uploading, corporate control, and the afterlife as a product. The
book leans into the current appetite for stories where tech promises comfort
but delivers consent forms, surveillance, and a bill you did not read. It also
plays in the same sandbox as virtual prison narratives and whistleblower plots,
but it keeps its own shape by using “records” and witness style memory logs as
part of the engine.
Readers who like sci fi about virtual worlds, identity, and
institutional harm should click with this. It will also work for readers who
want a plot built around evidence gathering, hidden files, and careful moves
inside a powerful organization. If you enjoy stories where the hero tool is not
a gun but a record button, you are in the right place.
I recommend The Dark Side of Dreams for readers who
want high stakes sci fi with a bite, plus a thread of accountability that
actually lands. The ending leans into restoration and fallout, and it feels
earned, even if parts of the world are the kind of “normal” that makes you want
to log out.