Lincoln's Dreams
"A novel of classical proportions and virtues...humane and moving."–The Washington Post Book World
"A love story on more than one level, and Ms. Willis does justice to them all. It was only toward the end of the book that I realized how much tension had been generated, how engrossed I was in the characters, how much I cared about their fates."–The New York Times Book Review...more
"A love story on more than one level, and Ms. Willis does justice to them all. It was only toward the end of the book that I realized how much tension had been generated, how engrossed I was in the characters, how much I cared about their fates."–The New York Times Book Review...more
ebook, 256 pages
Published
December 23rd 2009
by Spectra
(first published 1987)
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I have a few issues with this book. I enjoyed it but it is probably my least favorite Willis.
Things she did right:
The historical research, as always, was top notch. The Civil War scenes felt real and immediate and personal. Of all of the characters in the novel, it was Robert E Lee that resonated with me the most. And Traveller, of course.

The book is well written and has a fascinating semblance of action despite the presence of the usual Willis running-back-and-forth business and the usual ship...more
Things she did right:
The historical research, as always, was top notch. The Civil War scenes felt real and immediate and personal. Of all of the characters in the novel, it was Robert E Lee that resonated with me the most. And Traveller, of course.

The book is well written and has a fascinating semblance of action despite the presence of the usual Willis running-back-and-forth business and the usual ship...more
Mar 22, 2008
Myridian
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
historical-fiction
I read this book out on the strength of its Amazon reviews. I was sadly disappointed. Perhaps it's just that I don't find anything about the Civil War particularly compelling. Perhaps it's that the female character was too much of a shadow figure. Perhaps (and I favor this explanation) it's just that this book wasn't well written. The main character is a researcher for a man who writes novels about the Civil War. He meets a young woman who is having the dreams of Robert E. Lee and is immediately...more
I had just come from "To Say Nothing of the Dog" as was vastly dissapointed. Too many bland characters. Too many unexplained motives or actions---what was the deal with Richard? Why did he do what he did? And Annie had no life at all. Very flat. Jeff was good. He redeemed the book. Well, Traveller actually redeemed the book. I caught on to the sentiment and shed a brief tear at the end, but it could have been told much better. I think the concept would have been better portrayed in a poem. I und...more
Connie Willis continues to climb up my list of favorite authors. And I might have never read any of her work, had it not been for the Science Fiction/Fantasy reading group right here on Goodreads!
Lincoln's Dreams is not about the Civil War. Or at least that's what the author claims. It's about dreams. It just happens to heavily involve the war. And for the most part of the book, it seems to be more about Lee's dreams than Lincoln's.
I was slightly confused at the ending, though. I may have to go...more
Lincoln's Dreams is not about the Civil War. Or at least that's what the author claims. It's about dreams. It just happens to heavily involve the war. And for the most part of the book, it seems to be more about Lee's dreams than Lincoln's.
I was slightly confused at the ending, though. I may have to go...more
I've gone back and forth on the rating since finishing. Ultimately, it is a flawed book. About 3/4s of the way through, I paused and realized how very little we know about the two main characters. And yet, somehow, it didn't really matter. I cared about them, I could sympathize in their manic but misguided quest to find answers. And, ultimately, these are Connie Willis' characters, with shades of people she would write later.
And then there's the ending. We never officially know what has happened...more
And then there's the ending. We never officially know what has happened...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I rated this a five having read it years ago and having liked it. It's hard to see why now. It has the usual Connie Willis hallmarks--missed communication, messages, meetings, etc., but those things didn't bother me as much as they did in Passage. In fact, I have to wonder if that wasn't an element in my initial positive impression of this book. Unlike Passage, it did not spend half the book solving a mystery, and then wash, rinse, repeat, have a different set of characters spend the second half...more
Having read and loved Bellwether, I was looking forward to reading more Connie Willis. I had started Doomsday Book last year, but was distracted and not able to get into it. So finding Lincoln's Dreams for $2 at my favorite used bookstore last week seemed like a good investment.
The story revolves around Jeff, a historical researcher for a Civil War fiction author. Jeff meets Annie, the maybe girlfriend/patient of his former college roommate. In a couple of quick exchanges it is revealed that An...more
The story revolves around Jeff, a historical researcher for a Civil War fiction author. Jeff meets Annie, the maybe girlfriend/patient of his former college roommate. In a couple of quick exchanges it is revealed that An...more
Lincoln's Dreams didn't quite measure up to my other three Willis reads, Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Blackout, which were all solid fives. The historical part of the book was absolutely amazing, and that's what earned it a four for me. I loved the Civil War facts, major and trivial. I just thought the plot lacked a little polish that Willis carries off so flawlessly in her later works. The ending was a little unfinished(?) for me. However, Willis still shines through in her abi...more
Not being a student of the American Civil War, I was pleased to have some of it fleshed out in this novel. I was even motivated to do a little online research to give me some perspective on the big picture. I love it when that happens! So many historical novels that I have read over the years have resulted in a passion for further nonfiction research. I can always count on the accuracy of historical detailing that Connie Willis weaves into her novels. For that, and for her superbly readable styl...more
Jeff Johnston works as researcher for a Civil War novelist, and his former roommate, Richard Madison, is now a psychiatrist. The two are reunited at a book signing party, and as Richard consults with the novelist about the prophetic dreams Lincoln is supposed to have experienced, Jeff keeps company with Richard's girlfriend, Annie. The next morning, Annie appears at Jeff's door, asking him for help with the vivid, frightening dreams she's been having about the Civil War. Jeff quickly realizes th...more
This generally disappointing book started out with a misleading title and went downhill from there. Since the book isn't about Lincoln's dreams, it's about Robert E. Lee's dreams, I can only surmise that some editor made the author change the name because people would be more likely to buy a book with the name Lincoln in the title. Strike one. Strike two is basing any story on the work of a researcher who spends his/her time in libraries looking up information in the indices of really old refere...more
Connie Willis's novel Black Out, and it's second part All Clear, are among my all time favorites, and I also loved The Doomsday Book, so I was excited to read more of her work. I was disappointed, however, in Lincoln's Dreams. The book starts quickly--the main character Jeff meets Annie within a dozen pages and is instantly in love. The rest of the book follows Jeff and Annie as they try to decipher Annie's dreams, which seem to be following General Lee's Civil War campaign. The problem I had wi...more
Oh Connie Willis, you delight and disappoint me so. I love love love "To Say Nothing of the Dog" and "Doomsday Book" but I find myself less than impressed by some of her other work, ESPECIALLY "Passage." I loved her focus on the Civil War in this book. It reminded me of how much I used to like reading about the Civil War and her words describe perfectly how deeply traumatic it was for our nation. However, I found the actual plot of this book to be unwieldy and unsatisfying. I think I should perh...more
This book is a great example of how an author grows in ability over time. It was Connie Willis' first novel. I had enjoyed her Bellwether when all of Oak Harbor read the same book together, and found it impossible to put down. So I tried to get her most recent book from the library, and Lincoln's Dreams was the only one availabble. This one was also very gripping, although some of the plotting seemed implausible. She just didn't have the mastery yet that she displays in later novels.
What if some...more
What if some...more
I have really enjoyed every Connie Willis I've read in the past (okay, the two I've read), and so I was disappointed that Lincoln's Dreams was just not as good. It lacked the emotional punch of the stories in Fire Watch, and is far too similar to Passage, which is simply a better book.
But Passage really does seem to be a reworking of the same ideas - dreams/near-death experiences take people to historical places (The Civil War/the Titanic) where they struggle with the meaning of their experience...more
But Passage really does seem to be a reworking of the same ideas - dreams/near-death experiences take people to historical places (The Civil War/the Titanic) where they struggle with the meaning of their experience...more
Not my favorite Connie Willis book, but still full of all the stuff I love in her stories. She is the best writer I know for exploring the absolutely uncanny and purely biological human brain. This book was her second, written about 14 years before Passage, possibly my favorite of all her books, and you can really see that she has been thinking about these same ideas for a long time. What is especially cool to me is that she can provide that purely biological effect and still not lose any of the...more
Jan 12, 2011
Meghan R.
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-speculative,
fiction
I can imagine that if I could go back and read this book, fresh, when it was published in 1987, that it might be a breath of fresh air; a revelation, even. The blurbs from people that I respect attest that this might well have been the case.
As it stands, though, I am reading it now, and not only has this story been done better, more convincingly, in a way that leads you to its central conceit so artfully that not only do you buy it, but you feel like you had a hand in discovering it, it has been...more
As it stands, though, I am reading it now, and not only has this story been done better, more convincingly, in a way that leads you to its central conceit so artfully that not only do you buy it, but you feel like you had a hand in discovering it, it has been...more
What do dreams mean? That's a question people have been trying to answer for years, and we really are not any closer to knowing, though Important People are full of Important Ideas.
In this book, one of the characters is having dreams about the Civil War, dreams that seem to mirror the known facts about what Robert E. Lee suffered during the war. So is Annie dreaming Lee's dreams? It seems so, and they are exacerbated by the nearness of the various battlegrounds and historic sites around Washingt...more
In this book, one of the characters is having dreams about the Civil War, dreams that seem to mirror the known facts about what Robert E. Lee suffered during the war. So is Annie dreaming Lee's dreams? It seems so, and they are exacerbated by the nearness of the various battlegrounds and historic sites around Washingt...more
I read two Connie Willis books before I read Lincoln's Dreams. They were To
Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. Both dealt with time travel.
To Say Nothing of the Dog was a fresh book for me and I recommended it to
others. The Doomsday Book, an older book of Willis, was very similar and I
did not like it as much..
I did look forward to reading Lincoln's Dreams. Very disappointing. I did
not want to finish it. I kept wondering why this book was published. It
seemed poorly edited. Lots of probl...more
Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. Both dealt with time travel.
To Say Nothing of the Dog was a fresh book for me and I recommended it to
others. The Doomsday Book, an older book of Willis, was very similar and I
did not like it as much..
I did look forward to reading Lincoln's Dreams. Very disappointing. I did
not want to finish it. I kept wondering why this book was published. It
seemed poorly edited. Lots of probl...more
This was a fun read. Both topics were interesting -- both the dreams and the Civil War background. It is chock full of Civil War history.
Jeff Johnston, an historical researcher, meets Annie, who is having vivid nightmares about the Civil War. She claims she is dreaming dreams for Robert E. Lee so he can rest.
However, the dreams are portents of deeper conditions and that is a fascinating psychological concept, too.
Lincoln's Dreams is also a love story. The book contains listings of books an...more
Jeff Johnston, an historical researcher, meets Annie, who is having vivid nightmares about the Civil War. She claims she is dreaming dreams for Robert E. Lee so he can rest.
However, the dreams are portents of deeper conditions and that is a fascinating psychological concept, too.
Lincoln's Dreams is also a love story. The book contains listings of books an...more
Nov 19, 2012
Susie
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction-fantasy
This author was recommended to me by an enthusiastic fan. I am not an enthusiastic fan.
This is the second book I've read of hers. They really do have such potential, but they are just not well written. I keep reading hoping it will all make sense and become interesting. It was disappointing. And to top it off, this book (and the other I read) has a less than happy ending. I got done and wondered why I read it.
The one plus to this book is the historical content. My own education in history is rea...more
This is the second book I've read of hers. They really do have such potential, but they are just not well written. I keep reading hoping it will all make sense and become interesting. It was disappointing. And to top it off, this book (and the other I read) has a less than happy ending. I got done and wondered why I read it.
The one plus to this book is the historical content. My own education in history is rea...more
I was incredibly excited to read this book after being introduced to Connie Willis with Doomsday Book, but unfortunately Lincoln's Dreams left me feeling confused and unsatisfied.
The idea of the book is very intriguing (especially considering the fact that I am a history nerd of sorts) and I absolutely love it when authors integrate historical facts into their story lines, but this book fell short. The plot was slow moving and not compelling, so the copious amount of Civil War facts were overpow...more
The idea of the book is very intriguing (especially considering the fact that I am a history nerd of sorts) and I absolutely love it when authors integrate historical facts into their story lines, but this book fell short. The plot was slow moving and not compelling, so the copious amount of Civil War facts were overpow...more
Jul 23, 2012
Elizabeth
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi-and-fantasy
This was a very good read.
It explores the role that dreams play in time travel. Is Annie having Robert E. Lee's dreams or is she going back in time each night that she dreams?
I thought all the discussion about the meaning of dreams was so interesting! Apparently Abraham Lincoln had a few very prophetic dreams before he was killed. One of the plot lines explores the meaning of those dreams and whether they were a symptom of a health condition that Lincoln had where Lincoln felt his health was get...more
It explores the role that dreams play in time travel. Is Annie having Robert E. Lee's dreams or is she going back in time each night that she dreams?
I thought all the discussion about the meaning of dreams was so interesting! Apparently Abraham Lincoln had a few very prophetic dreams before he was killed. One of the plot lines explores the meaning of those dreams and whether they were a symptom of a health condition that Lincoln had where Lincoln felt his health was get...more
Jeff Johnston, a researcher who assists a Civil War historical novelist, is looking into the matter of the nightmares Lincoln had before his assassination, when he meets Annie, a young woman who is herself having disturbing dreams about the Civil War. As Annie's dreams become more intense, Jeff and Annie travel through the South looking for answers. This is very different from To Say Nothing of the Dog (the first Willis I read): short, lovely, and bittersweet. I particularly loved the final reve...more
Feb 08, 2013
Sandra Strange
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy,
historical-fiction
What would happen if someone were dreaming the dreams of a great historical figure--and reliving his vivid experiences, all medically induced in a way to prove or disprove near death experiences? That's the premise of this Willis novel. It's not my favorite because it lacks much of the gentle, satirical humor of the others I have been reading and because it's not as positive (though it is overall, positive, with good, positive values). By the way, the history--civil war!! I really admire Willis'...more
Like all Connie Willis' books I've read, I found this one very entertaining but its premise is among the strangest. Without too many spoilers, it offers some wild loose-science ways of dreams that reach across time. While the title is "Lincoln's Dreams" and is what one of the characters, an author name Broun is experiencing, the book actually mostly involves Robert E Lee's dreams, which are being experienced by sleep-starved Annie, the female lead. Willis uses an unusual plot structure mixing th...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Oct 24, 2012
Jenn Estepp
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sciency-fictiony
I burned through this one and it made me more curious about the Civil War than some solid non-fiction on the subject has. I would've liked Annie to have had a little more depth and I think it's super interesting to come at this early-ish Connie Willis after being so familiar with her later stuff. You can definitely trace a line from one work to the other, even when they aren't immediately dealing with the same topics. Bonus: this disproves my recent statement that I will *always* skip over dream...more
Dec 11, 2010
Andrew Breslin
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Andrew by:
Herbivorous
After several excellent non-fiction works stimulated my interest in the subject, I watched Ken Burns' entire Civil War mega-mentary from start to finish in just a couple of days. With visions of Pickett's charge, Antietam, and Appomattox now dancing gorily in my head, it seemed an eerie augur of fate when, shortly afterward, my good friend Scott emailed me out of the blue (or possibly gray) to recommend that I read this book. It would be nice if I could report that the novel brought my personal...more
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Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis is an American science fiction writer. She is one of the most honored science fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s.
She has won, among other awards, ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for All Seated on the Ground (August 2008). She was the 2011 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the Science Ficti...more
More about Connie Willis...
She has won, among other awards, ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for All Seated on the Ground (August 2008). She was the 2011 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the Science Ficti...more
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