This collection of speculative stories feels like being in a vivid dream that you don't want to wake up from. Kij Johnson's imaginative narratives are utterly surreal and somewhat dark, yet laced with wit. Their language is highly literary, almost poetic, and draws the reader deeper into Johnson's world.

The only novella-length story in the book, "The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe," follows one of many full-time inhabitants of the realm of dreams, which people from the waking world visit when they sleep. When a student at the realm's women's college, where the main character teaches, runs away, the main character must journey to our world to retrieve her. This is a classic quest in the vein of The Lord of the Rings, complete with distinct societies of imaginary species. However, something that sets this story apart from similar ones is that the main character is an older woman. It ...