When does dream become nightmare? Steven Harper's answer is when a more powerful Dreamer reshapes reality into a murder weapon. Instead of waking out of a 900-year cryosleep to populate a new world, Australian aborigine Kendi Weaver and his family are sold by space pirates as slaves. The family is separated but the promise of future contact in the Dream keeps Kendi sane. Aliens and humans communicating via the Dream populate the universe, and when it's discovered that Kendi has that capability, his days of slavery are over.

Kendi is rescued by Mother Ara, a talented Dreamer, and taken to her planet for Dream training. Ara's Dream speciality is forensics; she can recreate the murdered Dreamer's last thoughts. When Kendi accidentally discovers evidence in a forensic dream, the serial killer makes him and Ara the next target.

(Oct., 368 pp., $6.99)

—Kelly Rae Cooper