. This is the first book in a trilogy, of which I have not read the last two. If you want to read this, plan to read all three since it ends with a cliffhanger.Overall, I thought this was a decent book with a good basic premise. The main character, Thomas, is living in two worlds. When he falls asleep in one, he wakes up in the other; the big question of the book being which is real (or are they both real). One world (the "normal" one) is essentially our world in the near future, with most events taking place in the US or Bangkok.
The other world is a vastly different world of magic and strange beasts, and a child-like population. Thomas has tremendous problems trying to convince anyone in either world that the other world exists.
To make matters worse, in the second world, he gets information about the first world. He hears that in the "past" of the world a deadly virus was released that devastated the population. So, now he has to try and prevent that from happening in the first world (on the assumption that our "normal" world is the ancient past of the magical world; even that assumption comes into doubt at some point, though it is obvious there is a connection).
There is a whole lot of stuff going on in this book, and I think that is what saves it. Any of the stories on their own would be kind of flimsy, but the sheer complexity of it and the fast pace keeps it entertaining. I tended to get really caught up in what was happening and then slightly disappointed when Thomas wakes in the other world; but that is part of what keeps you reading. The magical world does seem a bit simplistic, and that made it a little harder for me to buy in that it might be the real one, but since there are effects that carry through to the other world, it is still somewhat plausible.
So, if you are a fan of alternate reality stories, or fast paced fantasy, you'll probably find this book to be OK. I was certainly intrigued enough that I'll be looking for the other two books in the trilogy.
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