Dream Phaze - Germination is about the inception of engineered dreams and the evolution of indulgence. Set at the crossroads of alternative realities in the near future, it plunges into a world where every human desire, no matter how heroic or evil, can be fulfilled…
Dream Phaze - Germination won the Bronze Award at the 2021 Global Ebook Awards in the Science Fiction category.
Ebook and paperback available. Audiobook to be released second half of 2022.
Readers will delight in the world Watters has created. They will long to be one of Saxon’s customers, who can experience soaring through an asteroid belt, drinking molten lava from a Mars volcano, or literally tasting a rainbow. The standoff with the Fundamental Purists’ is high tension; it threatens the life of Saxon’s son Hugo while illuminating secondary characters such as Saxon’s strong-willed wife Margo, her father Walter, and Hugo’s mysterious fiancée Christine. A glossary makes it easier to decode the technical jargon of the opening chapter, and soon the mechanics of immersive dreaming take a backseat to the nail-biting action of Saxon’s personal and professional dilemma.
Watters masterfully pits Saxon’s most closely held values against one another for a page-turning thriller. The novel also considers the broader social implications of the technology, such as individuals manipulating the program to fulfill their own perverse desires, but the heart of the story is Saxon and his desire to create a beautiful dream experience. Science fiction fans will revel in this high-stakes, character-driven thriller that careens through an imaginative future of manufactured dreams.
Takeaway: This high-stakes science fiction thriller will win over readers with its dynamic characters and unforeseen plot twists.
Great for fans of: Roger Zelazny’s The Dream Master, Christopher Priest’s A Dream of Wessex.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
The meticulous narration of the futuristic virtual world experienced by the users of Dream Immersion makes the story exhilarating and quite intriguing. The novel's highly suspenseful and thrilling plot is backed by solid world-building and character development. The family drama genre wrapped around a science fiction core makes Dream Phaze - Germination particularly appealing to sci-fi lovers. 5-star review by Neckmen Caleb, February 15, 2022 on Amazon - Read the full review
An incredibly interesting plot, enticing characters, and definitely a hard sci-fi book for lovers of the genre. Watters' attention to detail and the ability to write with such fascinating ease to the genre made for a really enjoyable read. The addition of a futuristic dream technology made it feel very much like a less harrowing episode of Black Mirror. There was something about this book that felt very abstract and ephemeral (much like a dream itself) and I really think it worked.
Well-written and immediately engaging, ‘Dream Phaze’ clips along at an almost breakneck pace. The main narrative is broken up by a series of vignettes offering readers a glimpse into just how powerful a Dream Immersion experience can be. While the story’s length and dialogue-driven plot create the illusion of a ‘quick read,’ ‘Dream Phaze’ poses a ton of intriguing ideas and questions. All in all, ‘Dream Phaze’ is a solid sci-fi action/thriller that should appeal to a wide-variety of genre fans. Bonus points for offering a fresh, new take on a tried and true premise.
Dream Phaze - Germination is an enthralling Sci-Fi novel set a few decades into our future and kept me engaged throughout. Author Matt Watters employs a beautiful kind of descriptive writing style that thrusts the narrative into action while thrillingly captivating readers in immersive action-packed character dialogues.
5-Stars
“The Power of Dreams Made Real...! An intelligent and portentous read that will work as a wish-fulfilment fantasy for many science fiction fans. Far too many novels seem to come from the recycling bin these days but “Dream Phaze – Germination” does a difficult thing. It is wholly original, swarming with original ideas, and yet structured with Sci-Fi thriller basics so it feels wholly possible in a not far too distant future! In a breathless narrative that’s terrifically good, Watters not only entertains but sets out to explore how the prospect of lucid dreaming on demand might be received by subsets of society and his grasp on the labyrinthine machinations of his plot are impressive as he grapples with provocative ideas in thoughtful terms. Highly original and powerful Dream Phaze – Germination makes for a superb start to Watters’ series and is highly recommended!” Bookviralreviews.com, March 2019.
5-Stars
“An agile near-future science fiction novel pulsing with frantic energy, lurking danger and endless movement. Enthralling dream experiences that read like time-travel adventures are interspersed with the real-time movement of the plot, keeping the story shifting in unexpected locations and directions. Watters does an impressive job of building drama, suspense, international intrigue and the fun of dream manipulation into a sleek volume that packs a fierce punch. So buckle in tight and try to keep up, because Dream Phaze – Germination moves at breakneck speed with some dark, bizarre twists that are impossible to anticipate!” RC Gibson for Reader’s Favorite, June 2022
Matt Watters writes with unwonted clarity and in prose that is fluid and engaging, rendering complex scientific concepts readable and interesting to readers. Dream Phaze—Germination is a stunning work of great imagination, composed in excellent prose and featuring engaging plot points. This novel is a winner for fans of science fiction novels that stand out in originality and excellence.
5-star review by David Reyes, March 1, 2022 on The Book Commentary - Read the full review.
The next instalment of the award-winning Dream Phaze series, Imagination, has been released. Three years in the making, through a worldwide pandemic, bush fires and now floods, Imagination continues on where Germination left off. Along the way Germination picked up a Bronze award at the 2021 Global Ebook Awards in the Science Fiction category. Dream Phaze has been characterised as Black Mirror meets Westworld. Dream Phaze – Imagination introduction was written by Dr Keith Hearne (father of lucid dream research). "With great prescience, author Matt Watters has figured out the issues that will occur with mass public involvement in dreaming (of all things!) in the not-too-distant future. I salute Matt Watters' insightful revelations of times to come."Matt also has a short story, Nova, in the forthcoming dreampunk anthology, "Somniscope", due for release late in 2023.
