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Sleep Traveler is a full cast audiobook, meaning each character has a different voice actor and the sound effects of the story are included, adding a dimension to this audiobook that most others lack. At barely under two hours, Sleep Traveler is easy to listen to in one bite, but harder to truly understand in such a short time. Brenden, a moderately talented musician, has had a series of recurring dreams his entire life, one of a boy in the 1900s and the other of an amazing musical prodigy in the future year of 2020. He comes to believe that some entity is trying to communicate with him through these strange dreams.

With a wide and varying range of characters, Sleep Traveler can at times be difficult to follow. The voice actors do a superb job of displaying emotion through vocal reaction and expression, but the scene changes so often between Brenden's dreams, real current events, and side characters important to the story that sometimes the thread of the tale is lost. However, once you manage to pin down exactly what is happening in those dreams, it may just blow your mind.

The concepts introduced in the story are interesting as well as confusing. The ability to astral project the spirit while sleeping isn't new, but using that ability to cross time, change bodies, or even hold onto the spiritual fragments of another person is something few have thought of before. Brenden slowly begins to learn how to use this strange ability, and with that knowledge, starts to make some kind of sense out his dreams. The listener is gently guided through the learning and discovering process with him, as Brenden finally comes to realize what his true destiny and purpose is.

Sleep Traveler is a book that is hard to categorize or even explain, with its discussions of destiny, paranormal experiences, life after death, and the use of psychic abilities. It is more like an abstract work of art than a book, difficult to describe, with new aspects turning up with each listening. That abstractedness will turn some readers/listeners off, since it requires strict attention and some cognitive work to make sense of what's happening, and to whom, in the whirlwind story that Marcus Hame paints. If you're up for two hours of mental exercise, definitely check out Sleep Traveler.

With a love for all things Science Fiction and Fantasy, it's hard for Bonnie to decide between SF books and SF TV, but somehow, books always seem to win.