Young Army nurse Mary Damico dreams the deaths of soldiers before they happen, but cannot save them. Only when she is recruited for a secret unit of other “esp talents”–one run by a rogue CIA psychiatrist who may be a “talent” himself–can she become the psychic commando she needs to be to stop the psychiatrist’s insanity and save those she loves.

While Dream Baby sits firmly in the speculative fiction genre, at its heart it is a story about war.  For most people in the United States the reality of the Vietnam War was long ago replaced by the mythology.  Vietnam is all gruff old men, cool tv shows and Oscar winning movies.  It has been pulled apart, torn down, discussed and put back together with as much distance from the real events as possible. 

Dream Baby eliminates that distance and drags the reader right into the middle of the conflict.  Bruce McAllister did years of extensive research and  interviewed hundreds of soldiers before he wrote the book.  This research along with his talent for place writing combine to produce a vivid and powerful story that can often be overwhelming to read.  Whether they are in the field hospital or walking down a jungle path, everywhere McAllister took the characters looked and felt like it existed.  I had no trouble visualizing the characters in the jungle, on a boat or deep within a hidden cave.   His images were so vivid I could not only see the jungle, I could almost feel the heat and smell the rain.

In fact, McAllister does such a good job building his world it was very difficult to distance myself from it.  This war is violent, bloody and most of all unrelenting.  I was with the characters in a nightmare and it often felt like I was taking the hits along with them.  The worst part was I had to keep reading;  once I got into the story I was hooked until the bitter end. It was worth every bruise because while Dream Baby was brutal it was also absolutely brilliant.  When people say they ‘got lost in a book’ they are talking about stories like this one.

You can pick up a copy of Dream Baby on Amazon.  There is a version available for Kindle and other reading devices and you can preview the first chapter online.  You can also watch a trailer for the book on the Dream Baby webpage.

Dream Baby – Bruce McAllister – ISBN – 9781453880937

- Kit