Dreamfall (Cat, #3)

Cat, the halfbreed telepath hero of Catspaw and Psion, joins a research team on Refuge, homeworld of his mother's people, the Hydrans. Immediately, he finds trouble when he helps a Hydran woman escape human pursuers.The decimated Hydran population of Refuge is confined to a bleak "homeland," by a huge corporate state, Tau Biotech. Tau also controls Refuge's one unique natural resource, "Dreamfall." The tangible residue of cast-off thoughts from beautiful, enigmatic "cloud whales," dreamfall forms vast reefs, sacred to the Hydrans, but mere exploitable data to Tau.Caught between Tau and desperate Hydrans who fight to reclaim their world, Cat must somehow forge the ruins of the past into a means to defeat Tau's brutality to save his people--and himself.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A science fiction adventure-thriller by Hugo Award-winner Joan D. Vinge. Cat, the popular anti-hero of Psion and Catspaw, tries to go home to a planet inhabited by Hydrans, the telepathic humanoid aliens from whom he gets his own mind-powers. Love, danger, and controversy all follow him as he tries to mine dreamfall, the physical embodiment of thoughts that accumulate in bizarre, fascinating deposits, like a mineral, but with far greater complexities, on the planet.

Publishers Weekly

Half human, half Hydran, Vinge's young protagonist, Cat, has always been an outcast in the world of the mid-21st century. In this richly detailed and suspenseful sequel to Catspaw (1989), Cat travels to the planet Refuge, home to the only surviving enclave of Hydrans, a once-powerful race of psions, or telepaths, whose nonviolent culture left them at the mercy of aggressive human expansion. As part of a research team sent to study the cloud-whales, aerial creatures whose lifecycle may hold the key to advances in nanotechnology, Cat also hopes to learn more about his alien heritage. When he inadvertently helps a young Hydran woman kidnap a human child, however, he is swept into a deadly conflict between the two races. Vinge deftly twists together multilayered plot strands as misguided loyalties and fanaticism, both human and Hydran, propel events toward inevitable disaster. Although the story loses momentum near the end, it deftly explores themes of family and loyalty. And, as always, Cat proves a sensitive and engagingly stubborn narrator. Author tour. (June)

Cat, the halfbreed telepath hero of "Catspaw and "Psion, joins a research team on Refuge, home-world of his mother's people, the Hydrans. Immediately, he finds trouble when he helps a Hydran woman escape human pursuers. The decimated Hydran population of Refuge is confined to a bleak "homeland" by a huge corporate state, Tau Biotech. Tau also controls Refuge's one unique natural resource, "Dreamfall." The tangible residue of cast-off thoughts from beautiful, enigmatic cloud whales, dreamfall forms vast reefs, sacred to the Hydrans but mere exploitable data to Tau. Caught between Tau and the desperate Hydrans who fight to reclaim their world, Cat must somehow forge the ruins of the past into a means to defeat Tau's brutality and save his people--and himself Cat, the halfbreed telepath hero of Catspaw and Psion , joins a research team on Refuge, homeworld of his mother's people, the Hydrans. Immediately, he finds trouble when he helps a Hydran woman escape human pursuers. The decimated Hydran population of Refuge is confined to a bleak "homeland," by a huge corporate state, Tau Biotech. Tau also controls Refuge's one unique natural resource, "Dreamfall." The tangible residue of cast-off thoughts from beautiful, enigmatic "cloud whales," dreamfall forms vast reefs, sacred to the Hydrans, but mere exploitable data to Tau. Caught between Tau and desperate Hydrans who fight to reclaim their world, Cat must somehow forge the ruins of the past into a means to defeat Tau's brutality to save his people--and himself. Cat, a halfbreed telepath, joins a research team on Refuge, home-world of his mother's people, the Hydrans. Immediately, he finds trouble when he helps a Hydran woman escape human pursuers. The decimated Hydran population of Refuge is confined to a bleak "homeland" by a huge corporate state, Tau Biotech. Tau also controls Refuge's one unique natural resource, "Dreamfall." The tangible residue of cast-off thoughts from beautiful, enigmatic cloud whales, dreamfall forms vast reefs, sacred to the Hydrans but mere exploitable data to Tau. Caught between Tau and the desperate Hydrans who fight to reclaim their world, Cat must somehow forge the ruins of the past into a means to defeat Tau's brutality and save his people--and himself A telepathic, half-human Cat travels to his mother's native world of Refuge, where he faces an ecological catastrophe caused by greedy humans.