| Wake Up and Dream | |
| Author: | Ian R. MacLeod |
| Cover Artist: | Ben Baldwin |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Publisher: | PS Publishing |
| Release Date: | September 2011 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages: | 337 |
| Isbn: | 978-1-84863-194-6 |
Wake Up and Dream is a science fiction novel by British writer Ian R. MacLeod. The novel is set in an alternate version of the 1940s, where "feelies", a form of cinema that allows the audience to directly experience the emotions of the characters, are a primary form of entertainment, putting actors such as Clark Gable, the protagonist, out of work. This alternate Gable finds work as a Chandlerian private detective who uncovers a plot to use the feelies to turn the American public's attention away from the Second World War.
In addition to the trade hardcover, there was a signed, slipcased, limited edition of 100 copies. Also, purchasers of books from the PS Publishing table at Eastercon 2011 would receive a free chapbook, "Hector Douglas Makes A Sale" containing the story of the same name by MacLeod, along with a short afterword on the origins of the story and the novel and the links between the two. In 2013, Wake Up and Dream was published as an e-book by Open Road Media.[1]
Eric Brown, writing in The Guardian, received the novel favorably, adding that it was strong enough to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award.[2] Publishers Weekly praised MacLeod's eye for detail and dialogue skills, concluding that MacLeod "expertly hits all the hard-boiled beats".[3]
The novel won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Long Form in 2011.