“To Build a Dream” By Greg Hickey – Review

He could be dead, dreaming, or painfully alive. Does he really want to find out which?

Timothy Smit is sick. He’s stuck in middle management at a second-rate news aggregator when an intense coughing fit causes him to pass out at his desk. Tim wakes up in the ICU to a diagnosis of a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer and the news that he likely has no more than a few months left to live.

Confined to a hospital bed with his health deteriorating, Tim finds himself immersed in a series of vivid dreams. As he becomes increasingly captivated by this enigmatic fantasy world, he realizes his dreams just might be keeping him alive.

But can Tim discover a real life worth living before it’s too late?

To Build a Dream is a mesmerizing psychological sci-fi novel that blurs the line between dreams and reality. If you like lone heroes fighting to survive, visionary quests, and a race against time, then you’ll love Greg Hickey’s enthralling dream world.

Get your copy instore and online: To Build A Dream

My rating: *****

My review:

Tim is your average thirty-something and is coasting through life. He has a pretty good job, a nice car, a cosy, rented apartment and is enjoying his single life as much as anyone of that age does. He is happy enough but has reached that age where he needs to assess what he really wants from life. 

Then he gets sick. Really sick. He contracts an aggressive form of cancer and is not expected to live. Tim starts having a recurring dream, but it is not like any other dream. It is more an on-going narrative than a recuring dream, as the story picks up where he left off, each time he sleeps. Are the obstacles in his dream a reflection of his health? Is it his subconscious attempting to process the gravity of his situation? Or is the dream somehow prophetically, directly impacting on his health in the real world? 

Hickey’s descriptions of Tim’s life, the torturous cancer and associated medical treatments, and the magic of the dreamscape are brilliant, sensitive and bring the reader into the world of the protagonist. Both visually and emotionally rich, the prose adds volumes to the reader’s experience and takes them on a captivating journey from start to finish. Hickey has managed to be graphic, sincere, and sensitive in his delivery of this incredible story. 

A wonderful read. Highly recommended.

About the Author:

Greg Hickey was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1985. After graduating from Pomona College in 2008, he played and coached baseball in Sweden and South Africa. He is now a forensic scientist, endurance athlete and award-winning writer. He lives in Chicago with his wife.