We Are Dreams In The Eternal Machine by Deni Ellis Béchard

“I see now, in this prolonged solitude, that there has always been the impulse to connect myself to something larger. A conversation with another person is not just two people but two people within the vast linguistic and cultural systems they have inherited.”

These two lines, this one sentiment, embodies the entirety of this novel. Through haunting tales of destroyed civilizations, newfound hope through artificial intelligence, Béchard tells the tale of life with pure joy throughout. With the absence of harm, the reader is immersed in their own blue room as the tales of connected characters are weaved with curiosity, intelligence and relationships which have many layers.

Steeped in dreams, percolating through related, this artistic approach of pressing issues we deal with today creates something to absorb and contemplate long after the last chapter.

“That’s the answer,” he told her. “You must be harmless but essential.” Another powerful moment within a fictional story with realistic profound moments and lines that help ensure this story lives on outside of the fictional realm created by a team of intelligent characters on a mission.

The story, of many characters, takes us through the possibility of a future without need. One where our every desire is offered, where art is life and life is art, and eternity is something that is possible. Broken into sections that travel backwards and forwards, the writing quality is dreamlike in itself, honouring the entire package of the novel.

With relatable characters like Jae, Simon and Ava, along with others, it was easy to get wrapped up in their reality and understand their place in society through their jaded perspective. The way Béchard tells the story ensures the reader connects with the flawed characters, the twisted settings and immerses themselves in a plot that’s both terrifying and plausible with the rate of technological advancements.

It challenges the reader to think about their own desires, struggles and a world without objections. What, the author admits, started as a short story took on a well-researched and terrifically navigated journey of its own epic speculative fictional world.

DENI ELLIS BÉCHARD is the author of eight previous books of fiction and nonfiction, including Vandal Love, winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and Into the Sun, winner of the 2016 Midwest Book Award for literary fiction and selected by CBC/Radio-Canada and one of the most important books to be read by Canada’s political leadership. His work has received the Nautilus Book Award for Investigative Journalism and has been featured in Best Canadian Essays. He has reported from India, Cuba, Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan, and his writing has been published in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including Salon, the Los Angeles Times, the Paris Review, Pacific Standard, and Foreign Policy.

Publisher: House Of Anansi (January 28 2025)
Paperback: 8″ x 6″ | 424 pages
ISBN: 9781487013356

Sarah Butland

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I am a struggling artist, a challenging and challenged mother who always thinks she is failing, an emerging freelance writer and reporter, an author with my name on several books crossing genres and always hoping to find more readers who enjoy them.

I am also a successful artist, a wonderful and thriving mother of one, a reacher towards both people and dreams despite all of the turned backs and obstacles in my way. I am a thriving freelance writer and reporter, an author loved by enough readers to make it worthwhile and a discombobulated conundrum who loves to hear new music, tell new tales and meet new authors. And I’m doing something I always dreamed of doing – reviewing books to support others as well as myself and my family.