Due to the world building in Doors of Sleep, I have placed this novel in the just worth your time category. The plot and characters are not too flashy but the world building - it makes the novel shine. The worlds are extremely vibrant and will create these majestic (and sometimes terrifying) worlds in your mind and those images make this novel worth a read.

Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt is an easy novel to breeze through on a plane or discuss in book club as the personality of the characters, especially Zax's, causes interesting and therefore, very easy to discuss decision-making. This novel is worth an hour of your time and with the sequel Prison of Sleep set to publish in April 2022, you can rest assured another beautiful novel of world building will be available to take your imagination by storm.

The plot is convenient because of the characters. I cannot expand more upon that point without spoilers so know in Doors of Sleep, the characters are less ambiguous than you would expect and the world building is better than you think. And although the plot is convenient, it still creates a unique take on alternate realities that help shape the reason why the plot is such fun to read.

You may find the character slightly frustrating. Zax is a morally righteous person whose decision making in the face of pain, joy, or destruction is excruciating to read about, dependent on how you perceive Zax of course. Minna is a convenient character but absolutely my favourite one as compared to the other side characters who are predominately one-dimensional, she adds intrigue to situations. I think you should give these characters some grace though as there is a second novel coming and I feel their morales are going to change and present us as readers with a different look on multiple universes. That is my guess at least!

The ending fits perfectly with Zax's personality. Doors of Sleep is a rounded novel whose strength I feel is the world building but still has prominent characters and plot that it makes it worth a read. A read that is just worth your time.

Everything that occurred in Doors of Sleep was too convenient. Apart from the background statement of Zax travelling to a new world each time he falls asleep, the characters and locations he stumbles upon are exactly what is required for the plot to continue or for Zax to continue existing. I mean, Minna was the perfect individual for him to travel with and as the book progressed, her abilities continued to become more outrageous and I found her presence was only there to be a provider to Zax. I wish Minna had more constraint on her powers to show their survival success was based more on their prowess and cunning than simply Minna's abilities.

I think the overall convenience for me negatively affected how I perceived the novel and I would have rated it higher if there had been a touch more difficulty in the characters succeeding. I mean, they defeated Lector quite easily when you think about how he was meant to be a scientific mastermind. Also, Zaxony was a straight arrow morally. I did not mind that as I recognise certain people do not change when faced with dire circumstances and Zax was a representation of a person able to remain morally absolute in the face of dire circumstances, just like he was prior to obtaining his power, more like curse.  Except for when he took Lector through the portal while awake - yikes.

And although I griped a little about how convenient the characters and world jumping was, I still enjoyed this novel and am really excited for the sequel. I think this would have been a good standalone, the ending's ambiguity in itself is a good stopping point, but I am eager to visit new worlds and be immersed in wonderful descriptions again. If there had been a touch more obstacles and evident personal triumph, I would have enjoyed this more but the overall vibe was a yes and I cannot wait for new worlds in Prison of Sleep.