{"id":412,"date":"2017-04-13T16:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T22:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=412"},"modified":"2017-09-10T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T22:02:08","slug":"book-dreamlync-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/13\/book-dreamlync-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: DreamLync (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1447156213l\/27781156.jpg\" alt=\"DreamLync\" width=\"220\" height=\"352\" \/><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>DreamLync<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nYear: 2015<br \/>\nAuthor: K.A. Black<br \/>\nLength: 122 pages<\/p>\n<p>I initially had my doubts about this book.\u00a0There have been plenty of stories written about the challenges and cautions of a simulated society. From <em>The Matrix<\/em> (1999) to <em>Sword Art Online<\/em>, the blurred lines between the real world and a digital one are well within our reach as a global community. And while books like <em>Ready Player One<\/em> certainly have a nostalgic feel to their plotlines, <em>DreamLync<\/em> manages to flip the concept on its head and show how hard it is to pull oneself from a heavily digital social experience.<\/p>\n<p>While I would argue that the timeline for this book would be in the next 20-30 years, instead of more than 100 away (just look at <em>Her<\/em> (2013) for example), the same interpersonal problems will likely still exist. Told via the almost forgettable &#8220;everyman&#8221; John Adams (not to be confused with either U.S. President), <em>DreamLync<\/em> shows the reader a world that could easily be ours (without the physical &#8220;plugging in,&#8221; that is). At times being a tad preachy about paying attention to the real world around us, the consequences of ignoring the people around us for the fake relationships of the internet is a lesson all too real right now.<\/p>\n<p>Relatively well-paced in its storytelling, <em>DreamLync<\/em> takes a unique and original look at what would happen if we gave up our hours sleeping to be more &#8220;productive.&#8221; Aside from the very rare homophone proofreading errors, the biggest thing that kept me from giving this novella was the unsatisfying ending. I got to the end and wondered, &#8220;Is that it?&#8221; There was still plenty of room to flesh out an ending with a world changed for the better, but for some reason, the author chose to leave it at an anti-climactic cliffhanger.<\/p>\n<p>An original idea about our ever-increasing reliance on digital relationships, I give <em>DreamLync<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h1><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<\/strong><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<\/strong><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<\/strong><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DreamLync Year: 2015 Author: K.A. Black Length: 122 pages I initially had my doubts about this book.\u00a0There have been plenty of stories written about the challenges and cautions of a simulated society. From The Matrix (1999) to Sword Art Online, the blurred lines between the real world and a digital one are well within our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,54],"tags":[33,55,516,515,58,8,517,512],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-book","tag-33","tag-book","tag-dreamlync","tag-k-a-black","tag-ready-player-one","tag-review","tag-sword-art-online","tag-the-matrix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}