Traumphysik is the first misfire in this Tor collection. This is from the POV of a female scientist crewing a guidance station for the US Air Force during WW2, on a lonely atoll in the Pacific. She is using her time to train herself in techniques of lucid dreaming, and drifting away from her (admittedly light) responsibilities.



While the prose is good, and the mixing of dream state and waking were promising - and brought to mind [a:Jeff VanderMeer|33919|Jeff VanderMeer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1522640540p2/33919.jpg]'s [b:Annihilation|17934530|Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403941587s/17934530.jpg|24946895] - the themes came to nothing and the story just ends without arriving anywhere. Rather than a story, we have snapshot of someone isolated from society becoming increasingly detached from reality. ( )