Through the gates of the sun lies the land of dreams, and beyond that...the realm of the lost.
In a private hospital room, motionless and still beneath a sheet, lies Joseph Caldwell. His surgery has passed, to all intents and purposes, successfully. The doctors offer no explanation for why he hasn't awakened from the medically induced coma. The stream of visitors trickles down to nothing, and still he lies in endless sleep. Nearly everyone has given up any hope for his recovery.
Anaesthesiologist Oliver Gideon is racked with guilt and confusion. Could he have somehow done something wrong? His superiors assure him he is not at fault, the science he reviews tells him his dosages were correct, but the longer Caldwell sleeps the more Oliver is haunted by the loneliness of the figure in the bed. He spends every possible moment with the patient, reading, talking, trying to fill the little room with sound, to stir a response that science isn't sure is possible.
Morpheus, King of Dreams has welcomed Joseph to his realm. Some dreams, he explains, are true, and some are false. There's only one way tell. Joseph loves the dream world Morpheus has woven for him, for in it, he's found something he never found in reality-a soul mate. For the first time, his life is perfect.
In the end, he has to choose. He cannot stay in the Realm of Morpheus forever. It's either back to the land of the sun, and potential loneliness or on to the realm of the lost.
Autorentext
My family moved a lot when I was young. A constant stream of new schools, new locations and new people made my family and my books my only constant companions. As a child I was swept away into incredible worlds with the turn of every page, from Camelot to Sherwood Forest, the deck of a whaling ship, or the frigid Alaskan tundra. Every book I read spurred new adventuresif only I were there to turn left when Lancelot went right, or some such.Even before I started putting my what if's on paper, I was telling myself stories. As I grew, the stories changed, and the focus changed from wild adventures and feats of daring to simpler, more enduring themes. Today I write about what I believe is one of the most basic of human needsthe need to love and be loved.