Reviews

Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan

desert_side_notched's review

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mysterious

3.0

sanjpreads's review against another edition

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3.0

this was required reading for my weird fiction class and it really was weird but also really interesting.

jervonyc's review against another edition

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5.0

Holy shit, this was awesome. Only wish it wasn't so short; would've loved another few hundred pages of this story.

pecarr's review against another edition

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3.0

While enjoyable I wish it was longer, if I’m being honest. The world building was interesting but I feel we didn’t get enough time with the characters. I know this was all most likely intentional given how short it was but I can’t help feeling that some additional character work or delving more into what the “baddie” was doing could have been so much fun.
Black helicopters already seems to fix some of those issues with its length but we will see how it all plays out.

rockwell_books's review against another edition

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3.0

NOTA: 3'5/5

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Agentes de Dreamland es una novela corta escrita por la irlandesa Caitlín R. Kiernan en 2017, nominada al Bram Stocker Award del mismo año y al Locus Award de 2018. Siendo para mí una autora desconocida (apenas hay traducciones de sus obras al castellano, siendo la más reciente "La joven ahogada", editada por Valdemar en 2014), es bastante prolífica. Ha escrito novela, relatos cortos, guionizado cómic e incluso novelizado el guión de la película de Robert Zemeckis, Beowulf.

La historia que nos compete nos lleva al sud de EE.UU., a un caluroso día en Winslow (Arizona), donde el agente gubernamental, conocido por el apodo del Guardagujas, espera reunirse con la misteriosa agente de Y, Immacolata Sexton, para un intercambio de información. Por otro lado, una joven ex-drogadicta nos explica como Drew, líder de la secta de los Hijos del siguiente Nivel, la rescató de las calles de Los Ángeles para darle la oportunidad de formar parte de algo grandioso que está por venir.

La historia se cuenta a tres bandas y en diferentes líneas temporales. Comenzamos la historia desde los ojos del agente Guardagujas, un hombre cansado con ganas de retirarse, que investiga los hechos ocurridos unos días atrás en el rancho Luz de Luna y al líder de una secta llamado Drew Standish. Por otro lado vamos conociendo a Chloe, la última persona en recabar en la nombrada secta, que desea más atención por parte de su líder y aspira a ser la primera en "florecer". Y por último conocemos a Immacolata, una misteriosa mujer capaz de moverse por el espacio-tiempo sin necesidad de moverse de su asiento.

A pesar de ser una historia corta (128 pág.), he de confesar que hacia la mitad de la misma tuve que volver a empezar. La novela tiene un inicio muy confuso, y las historias se van poco a poco entrelazando. Gracias a esa segunda lectura pude empezar a unir cabos y a medida que iba avanzando la cosa iba teniendo más sentido. Fue una lectura entretenida, aunque algo confusa en su inicio, que gustará a cualquier amante de Expediente X y/o las conspiraciones (Área 51, los hombres de negro, Tunguska...) y con un cierto regusto lovecraftiano.

Destacar también la cantidad de referencias que hace la autora (y que la traductora ha incluido en numerosas notas al pie) a la cultura americana, así como a canciones o a poesías.

taylor_hohulin's review against another edition

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5.0

Creepy, weird, and incredibly absorbing. This book was 1000% FOR ME.

qalminator's review against another edition

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4.0

Odd nearly hallucinatory novella. If you took Twelve Monkeys, crossed it with Slaughterhourse 5, then sprinkled liberally with Lovecraftian themes, you might get something like this, but not as lyrically written. Impressive.

eacolgan's review against another edition

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5.0

This one knocked it out of the park. Creepy, Lovecraftian, gross, spooky, full of nostalgia and mystery and some kind of time travel, and left me desperately wanting more. I'll be buying the entire Tinfoil trilogy in hard copy as soon as I can get my lil hands on them, and diving into as many delicious shivers as Ms Kiernan sees fit to deliver.

transbianismo's review

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fast-paced

4.0

glimnore's review against another edition

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5.0

I want to dock a star, because this novella left me with more questions than answers, but I am afraid I can't bring myself to. I loved this little neo-noire story. It was haunting. It was beautiful. It was...something.

Kiernan paints atmosphere like Bob Ross paints Trees. Woven through a landscape as if they were meant to be there all along, with details so very intricate that you wouldn't even notice them at first glance. Agents of Dreamland is a lot like that. Read it to fast and you wont catch the nods, the subtle references, and fractal-like nature of the story. It's a love-letter to dark, lovecraftian horror, with a modern-Kiernian twist. It's a bit of a masterpiece that leaves me only craving more.