Bridge of Dreams: A Speculative Triptych
By Kevin P. Keating
Iff Books (June 1, 2025)
Review by The Horror Zine Staff Reviewer Jon R. Meyers
Buy the book HERE
I read Kevin P. Keating’s Bridge of Dreams: A Speculative Triptych over the span of a few days, and I have to say that it’s hands down an absolutely fantastic piece of speculative fiction. It almost immediately became one of my favorite books I’ve read so far this year. From the author’s consistent, artful, and naturally powerful imagery accompanied by their overall masterfully skilled use of language here, the author has managed to create a highly memorable piece of work that boasts significant literary merit, leaving us as the reader a piece of speculative fiction that has the power to blur the lines between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy. With well-developed characters, beautiful imagery, and powerfully crafted and thought-provoking prose throughout the entirety of the book, the author has left us a memorable piece of work worth revisiting again in the future.
Keating’s Bridge of Dreams is not only a story, it’s also very much quite literally a speculative triptych. Triptych here meaning that it’s a piece of work that is divided into three very distinct, often related parts that form a cohesive entirety in focus of three explicitly related themes, events, and/or time periods. In short, a piece of work that offers a non-traditional way of overall structure to make use of crafting complex and abstract topics as seen historically in various other mediums such as in art, film, and writing. Where the author really takes us as the reader on an overtly unique adventure, deeply crafting and homing in on the overall depth of artistic value and literary merit whilst presenting a piece of definitive speculative fiction by definition of both the triptych and the literal definition of speculative fiction within itself. Keating here has crafted a masterwork full of beautifully surreal landscapes, alternate timelines, and a piece that is just as much the past as it is the future that is sure to leave a long, lasting impression that will linger well after we’re all dead and gone.
The book is told to us as the reader in three parts, in which the author states in the forward can be read in any order, and that the book is meant to be up for interpretation. Some may have different experiences depending on the order in which the three segments are read. I decided to go with the natural order of events as laid out by the publisher and presented here in this edition of the book. After the introduction there are three segments: Gwendolyn Greene and the Moondog Coronation Ball of 1957, Hilda Whitby and the Heavenly light of 1857, and IMPETUS 13 and the Constitutional Crisis of 2057.
In the first segment we as the reader are introduced to Gwendolyn Greene, retellings and accounts of a blossoming love story on the set of a charming, small historic town referred to as Heavenly Hill. Heavenly Hill is your stereotypical small, rural midwestern town here in the states. When an editor for a prestigious magazine arrives in town to write a historical piece on the town, and home of Gwendolyn Greene, we as the reader soon begin to learn the town’s history, and in this case rather odd history that centers around Greene’s majestic, mysterious, and rather loveable and charming dog, McKenna, who just so happens to be the annual centerpiece of the town’s uniquely festive Coronation Ball. I think this segment of the book was a fantastic way to kick things off here, as the author was able to introduce a unique setting, history, and timeline of the events that would ultimately change everything in the segments to come later. On one hand, we have this charming small town and loveable, almost laughable even story arc centered around a mysterious dog, but yet we have the depth and unique literary merit of a piece of fiction that reads like if J.G. Ballard and Michael Chabon wrote a piece of weird fiction with brilliantly crafted prose like, “Only after my adventure had ended did it occur to me that the Moondog Coronation Ball was also a simulacrum of nature, a hastily covered ritual intended to mimic our natural yearning for the ecstatic, the transcendent, the beautiful.” This segment was nothing short of brilliant.
In the second segment, we as the reader are introduced to the character Hilda Whitby in, Hilda Whitby and the Heavenly Light of 1857. As we go further back and discover an alternate timeline we are able to see a little bit more as to why maybe things are, or are not quite as they seem, like putting together a piece of a puzzle to overall story here in this segment which I found to be more reminiscent and adjacent to horror and weird fiction, think Lovecraft and Blackwood, as the piece starts out slow and builds suspense and tension and awe and wonder with fantastical language and imagery until a cosmic event transpires before our very eyes. It’s here in this very moment of reflection that we can begin to understand the true nature of the book. An excellent middle segment, in my opinion.
In the final segment presented here in this edition of the book, we as the reader embark on our final trip, IMPETUS 13 and the constitutional Crisis of 2057. IMPETUS 13 takes us as the reader well into the future of the alternate timelines prior, and well into the not-so-distant future of modern day as we currently know it by delivering a powerful message of not everything is always quite as it seems, not only in this story here, but also history in a historical sense and what we as humans think we know of it, and what better way than to center the segment around a mysterious U.F.O that lies dormant in the center of a beautiful valley. It’s here in this valley of beautiful flowers that we discover a modern-day tale of futurity, humanity, aliens, and mankind. I thought this segment was absolutely brilliant and think that reading this section last was a fantastic idea that ultimately made the entire book hit that much stronger. There are a few brilliant moments of, “well, I didn’t see that coming,” that were so powerful, unique, creative, and emotional, and is what ultimately made this one of my favorite books of the year.
Kevin P. Keating has managed to create a masterwork of speculative fiction here, a triptych if you will, leaving us as the reader a book powerful enough to withstand the hands of time.
Highly recommended.
