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'Aboriginal anthropologist Alf Dean Djanyagirnji, with his autistic nephew Mouse, seek evidence that the Rainbow Serpent is a desert myth sprung from the ancient skeleton of a dinosaur. Instead, they find a gate that teleports them into a vault miles beneath sacred Uluruh, the huge eroded monolith once dubbed Ayers Rock by the white invaders. They are not alone. American and Russian scientists and military personnel have drilled into the Vault, and only Mouse's damaged brain can communicate with the Vault intelligence.
'Elsewhere, in California's Big Sur, former hippie physicist and student of the occult Dr. Bill DelFord is commissioned to explain an equally ancient ruin on the far side of the moon. A non-human, extraterrestrial intelligence? A long forgotten intelligent dinosaur species destroyed at the apex of their civilization by the cataclysmic asteroid impact 66 million years ago? Or something worse?
'What these researchers and explorers find, step by incredible step, is a bond between that vanished species and human consciousness, mortal and post-mortem. The Dreaming (originally published under the misleading title The Dreaming Dragons) is a headlong cascade of mythology and advanced physics, hurtling toward an unexpected apotheosis.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Gateway edition)
Notes
-
Epigraph:
The melodramatic imagination is, then, perhaps a way of perceiving and imagining the spiritual in a world where there is no longer any clear idea of the sacred, no generally accepted societal moral imperatives, where the body of the ethical has become a sort of deus absconditus which must be sought for, posited, brought into man's existence through exercise of the spiritualist imagination ... The melodramatic mode of utterance is a victory over the repression and censorship of the social reality principle, a release of psychic energy by the articulation of the unsayable. One might say that the gothic quest for renewed contact with the numinous, the supernatural, the occult forces in the universe, leads into the moral self.
Peter Brooks
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
The Story of Norstrilia Press
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , April no. 98 2019; (p. 71-84)
— Review of The Altered I : An Encounter with Science Fiction 1976 anthology short story criticism poetry ; The View from the Edge : A Workshop of Science Fiction Stories 1977 anthology short story ; Moon in the Ground 1979 single work novel ; The Dreaming Dragons : A Time Opera 1980 single work novel ; The Stellar Gauge : Essays on Science Fiction Writers 1980 anthology criticism ; Lavington Pugh 1982 single work novel ; An Unusual Angle 1983 single work novel ; The Plains 1982 single work novel ; Landscape with Landscape 1985 selected work short story ; Dreamworks : Strange New Stories 1983 anthology short story ; In the Heart or in the Head : An Essay in Time Travel 1984 single work autobiography criticism -
The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 128-140) 'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii) -
Interview with Damien Broderick Part Three
Russell Blackford
(interviewer),
2010
single work
interview
— Appears in: Climbing Mount Implausible : The Evolution of a Science Fiction Writer 2010; (p. 164-172) -
Introduction to the Fiction of the Early 1970s
2010
single work
essay
— Appears in: Climbing Mount Implausible : The Evolution of a Science Fiction Writer 2010; (p. 134-135) -
National Identity in Australian Science Fiction and Damien Broderick's 'The Dreaming Dragons'
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction , Summer vol. 33 no. 91 2004; (p. 55-71)
-
Norstrilia Press Catalogue
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: Scratch Pad 15 , April 1996; (p. 1-2)
— Review of The View from the Edge : A Workshop of Science Fiction Stories 1977 anthology short story ; In the Heart or in the Head : An Essay in Time Travel 1984 single work autobiography criticism ; An Unusual Angle 1983 single work novel ; Dreamworks : Strange New Stories 1983 anthology short story ; The Plains 1982 single work novel ; The Dreaming Dragons : A Time Opera 1980 single work novel ; Moon in the Ground 1979 single work novel ; Landscape with Landscape 1985 selected work short story -
Forms of Power in Recent Australian Science Fiction
1982
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 41 no. 2 1982; (p. 277-286)
— Review of Beloved Son 1978 single work novel ; Displaced Person 1979 single work novel ; Rooms of Paradise 1978 anthology short story ; The Dreaming Dragons : A Time Opera 1980 single work novel ; The Moon Baby 1978 single work novel ; The Altered I : An Encounter with Science Fiction 1976 anthology short story criticism poetry ; The View from the Edge : A Workshop of Science Fiction Stories 1977 anthology short story ; A Passage in Earth 1978 single work short story -
Games of Mouse and Dragon
1981
single work
review
— Appears in: Science Fiction : A Review of Speculative Literature , vol. 3 no. 2 (Issue 8) 1981; (p. 79-80)
— Review of The Dreaming Dragons : A Time Opera 1980 single work novel -
The Story of Norstrilia Press
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , April no. 98 2019; (p. 71-84)
— Review of The Altered I : An Encounter with Science Fiction 1976 anthology short story criticism poetry ; The View from the Edge : A Workshop of Science Fiction Stories 1977 anthology short story ; Moon in the Ground 1979 single work novel ; The Dreaming Dragons : A Time Opera 1980 single work novel ; The Stellar Gauge : Essays on Science Fiction Writers 1980 anthology criticism ; Lavington Pugh 1982 single work novel ; An Unusual Angle 1983 single work novel ; The Plains 1982 single work novel ; Landscape with Landscape 1985 selected work short story ; Dreamworks : Strange New Stories 1983 anthology short story ; In the Heart or in the Head : An Essay in Time Travel 1984 single work autobiography criticism -
National Identity in Australian Science Fiction and Damien Broderick's 'The Dreaming Dragons'
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction , Summer vol. 33 no. 91 2004; (p. 55-71) -
The Fiction of the Future : Australian Science Fiction
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Sold by the Millions : Australia's Bestsellers 2012; (p. 128-140) 'According to Russell Blackford 'commercial science fiction is the most international of literary forms.' He observes that 'Australian SF continues to flourish, even if it trails heroic fantasy in mass-market appeal.' Australian SF writers although published internationally, with a dedicated fan followings in USA, UK and Europe, were overlooked for a very long time by Australian multinational publishers. The international editions had to be imported and were then distributed in Australia (Congreve and Marquardt 8). Blackford in his chapter throws light on the history of Australian SF and observes how Australian SF writers, with their concern for the future, achieved a powerful synthesis in form and content. The progress of Australian SF, maturity of style in the work of younger writers, and massive worldwide sales make Blackford optimistic as he asserts that 'the best Australian writers in the genre will be prominent players on the world stage.' (Editor's foreword xii-xiii) -
Introduction to the Fiction of the Early 1970s
2010
single work
essay
— Appears in: Climbing Mount Implausible : The Evolution of a Science Fiction Writer 2010; (p. 134-135) -
Interview with Damien Broderick Part Three
Russell Blackford
(interviewer),
2010
single work
interview
— Appears in: Climbing Mount Implausible : The Evolution of a Science Fiction Writer 2010; (p. 164-172) -
Literary Liar : The Writing of Damien Broderick
1989
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Age Monthly Review , September vol. 9 no. 6 1989; (p. 10-11)
Awards
- 1981 winner Ditmar Awards — Best Novel
- 1981 second John W. Campbell Memorial Award
- Bush,
- Uluru, South West Northern Territory, Southern Northern Territory, Northern Territory,
- Central Northern Territory, Northern Territory,
