Eddie Raven and his girlfriend, Lisa, find their afternoon shopping trip interrupted when a shoot out occurs wounding Lisa and sending another bystander to the hospital. Before Eddie can find his girlfriend at the hospital, he is transported to a strange version of Casablanca that has been given a sci-fi treatment. The nightclub's patrons come in a wide variety of aliens and the goal is to escape to the moon Europa. Eddie finds himself in Bogart's role and he soon meets Ingrid Bergman's character, Ilsa, but she appears to Eddie as his Lisa. Eddie must navigate the strange waters of his favorite movie in order to escape, else, as he learns, he could be trapped in this odd Casablanca forever.
Without going into too many details so as not to spoil the book more than its own dust jacket does, Eddie moves from one classic location to another when he finds himself in a distorted version of The Wizard of Oz where he has to help Dorothy, once again appearing as Lisa, go to see The Wiz along with a scarecrow, a soccer-playing lion and a robot that wants a bit more freedom. As they travel down a brick road (that is decidedly not yellow), the group will have to contend with all manner of strange enemies including a collection of irate munchkins, a dinosaur, and flying apes (not monkeys). Before they get to the Sapphire City [sic], they will also learn that not everyone traveling with them is as they appear to be, and that The Wiz is a force to be reckoned with.
Eddie's strange journey doesn't stop with Oz though. He will find himself at King Arthur's Court, in Wonderland, and even a couple of other unexpected locations. Each time he makes his way to a new world, he has to quickly learn the rules and, with some help, hopefully track down and defeat the enemy that is intent on harming Eddie, The Master of Dreams.
I'm interested to see where The Dreamscape Trilogy goes after the events of The Master of Dreams. Eddie's fight is long from over, and there are many questions left unanswered, the least of which is why he finds himself the focus of these strange attacks.
