U DREAM, INC.

Rahal offers a collection of short stories and spiritual contemplations addressing God, creation, and the day-to-day distractions that distance people from these ideas.

In another galaxy, the company U-Dream Inc., develops photon-based computers—mind-reading machines that blur the lines between games and dreams and make any fantasy seem real. But NIAM, the artificial intelligence that U-Dream employs, has been infected with a virus that snares its users in a nightmarish world while stealing their memories. The only hope is the company’s specially trained group of operatives, who seek to reveal the falsehoods of NIAM’s parasitic fantasies and awaken those trapped. The collection’s eponymous story is accompanied by others depicting those who fail to challenge perceived truths, including “A Pit Stop,” which features a lone seeker trapped in a hellish, absurdist pit reminiscent of The Divine Comedy(“As you reflected on your situation, your ears picked up the reverberations of wailing howls and piercing shrieks. These seemed to come from the far depths of the tenebrous cavities of the pit”). The fantastical explorations of the concepts of God, creation, fear, and self-control focus on the importance of questioning those in power who maintain illusory systems around themselves and others. Along with these original stories are retellings of parables about figures both real and fictional, including Bar Daysan and Baba Yaga, as well as essays, letters, and a hymn. Rahal uses simple stories with straightforward morals, often set in timeless places, and the characters and settings are mostly archetypal, presented in an ethereal manner. The result is a collection of stories structured like basic, effective fables, which remains true even when the pieces follow SF plotting tropes (imagine Philip K. Dick as part of the oral tradition). In comparison, the sermon-like essays are at times overwhelming with the sheer number of ideas they introduce, although they still fit well in the collection by virtue of their shared themes.

A sometimes-inaccessible collection; the metaphysical tales shine when they stick to allegory.