Dreck by Cliff Jones Jr.

Dreck Reviews

• 
  David Agranoff

  One of the best things about punk rock fandom, is that punk rockers have always felt that they were one step from their favorite bands. The fans are the creators have very little separation. Cyberpunk happened in part because creators like John Shirley were wearing dog collars to the punk shows he was playing at and at the Science Fiction conventions he read at.
  
  Philip K. Dick barely saw punk in his life, but many of his fans think of punk. Cyberpunk, hopepunk as an actual punk rocker my whole life I generally roll my eyes when yet another genre picks up the punk tag. As the author of punk rock-themed horror I have to point out that my books have actual punks, I know I may be a hypocrite here. Aynhoo here we have an author who defines his work as Dreampunk/ surrealist.
  
  Cliff Jones Jr. is an author whose inspiration comes straight off the pink beam as like many of us one of his favorite writers is one Philly K. Dick. That is how we met each other. I really enjoy Cliff’s company and talking with him. I was nervous I might not like the book my pet peeve about punk as genre tag aside I LOVED this book.
  
  Dreck has enough weird concepts in the slim 131 pages to out idea science fiction novels with triple the page count. For those of us looking for modern works of SF that have that pink beam feeling of a story just a few beats away from reality, this is a great novel to dig into. Smart glasses that learn you and create ghostly algorithms, Virtual hyperrealities, intense dreams, and higher realms of thought to combine modern technology with surrealist spiritual musings. The narrative is carefully crafted to give a neurodivergent view of the spectrum, at least that is the sense I got.
  
  There is a sense that Flip and the characters in this novel are constantly slipping inches from everyone else’s reality and the technology that is weaponized to learn us and exploit us through capitalism is ever-present. I wondered if the insect on the cover of represented tiny things crawling on us leaving little bites. There is a trade-off to all the knowledge the internet puts at our touch, the Faustian deal is the vast knowledge we have access to is used against us.
  
  Was this the mission statement of Dreck, at least it seemed so to me. If I made it sound preachy or depressing it is not. The book is fun, routinely hilarious, and made me laugh multiple times. Each chapter has little pieces of art that I believe are meant to represent the big data system learning about the characters. That of course is at the heart of the concept.
  
  “Lots of Companies pay MeFirst, but not for that. And not just private companies but political groups, government agencies…they pay for your information…”
  
  Wayne frowned. He felt more comfortable ignoring this obvious downside to Big Data. He’d have to tamp down his enthusiasm around Flip, ever the idealistic hacktivist. The guy knew his stuff, but he was kind of a buzzkill.”
  
  MeFirst is a fictional technology but it works like most of the real stuff. Data collection meant to figure out what we need to buy, is the abyss staring back at us. It could be played for horror, and you are having fun so much of this zooms past without a thought to consequences.I love that about effective Sci-fi satire.
  
  In the second half of the book, the technology is escalated with second-sight lenses/ glasses that project data in ghost memories. Is it the technology or are people losing their minds?
  
  “Second Sight is a scam,” Laila snapped back at her. There are no ghosts! It is all in the lenses. They show you shadows and then give you a shock just to keep you scared, well I am not falling for it anymore.”
  
  Dreck blurs the lines. “Dreck: Part Drug, part nanotech, part biological material…all the taste and appearance of blackstrap molasses.” It may be that I know Cliff is a PKD fan but there sly easter egg-ish references to a fictional Phil. I am not complaining this is a feature, not a bug. I would say Dreck: Part Surreal, Part humor, part science fictional material… all the taste and appearance of a PKD nightmare all wrapped into a unique and modern voice. Is it dreampunk? If Cliff says so I can live with the label because I was a big fan of this novel.
• 
  Cliff Jr.

  This is my book, so it doesn't mean much if I talk it up. So don't take my word for it... Here's what Jeff Noon had to say:
  
  “Dreck takes the reader on a journey through layers of narrative, each chapter having its own exciting logic, but be prepared for slippage and landslides along the way. Cliff Jones Jr. revels in a fragile world, where ghosts haunt your smart lenses, virtual reality intersects with dreams, and even life and death are more states of mind than physical processes. A brilliant exploration of technology’s strange new borderlands.”
• 
  Torusbrane

  Dreck is a journey from beginning to end; in an interweaving of dreams, technology, romance, and comedy. It keeps you on your toes, not fully ready for what's truly around the bend. Full of ideas and concepts that humans have contemplated for millennia, in present times, and even novel ideas of our future that have yet to come. Getting lost in this book is sort of a "norm", so you get comfortable with it eventually as the book reads on. But you're meant to get lost and find yourself, as you follow along the growing list of colorful characters that, oftentimes, personally surprise me. The conclusion of this book, at the end of its winding, yet defined path, is something that you need to read, and experience, for yourself. The intellectual play is like the ancient game Go, it's something anyone can read, but even masters will contemplate its concepts.
  
  I really liked this book all the way through, I couldn't put it down. It's something that could be read in a weekend, but could also easily be read again and again. I just started to get into Cliff Jones Jr's work; he will send you on a journey through time, space, and dreams. Cliff being a multitalented individual, also did the cover artwork for this book, so his talents run beyond just being a prolific author. Highly recommend this if you're just getting into Dreampunk or Sci-Fi, or even if you're a Sci-Fi veteran (like me), this book stands out against the monotony of stories that are in our current landscape. There's also a mystery in this book that I haven't quite cracked yet...
• 
  Geetha Krishnan

  I'm still thinking of how to describe this. It is a dreampunk/irrealist genre, as per the author's bio. The whole thing reads like an acid trip.
  
  The characters are in simulations where some end up dead, some end up seeing things, some have things happen that aren't nice, some end up killing others or in jail. Apparently, they're all students and education is through these simulations where they live a different life every night. There are a lot of cool technology and all in the sims and probably they're available in real life for them too. Dreck is the name of a drug sort of thing which is part nano tech, part living cell and seems to be sentient.
  
  Overall, I was very confused by the book, but it was still very engaging. Acid trips can be engaging.
  
  Anyway, if you like irrealistic/dreampunk which adjoins Sci Fi and fantasy/ Horror (there are ghosts in one simulation), you might enjoy this.
  
  It wasn't for me, but I'm still rating it high because it was well written and engaging.
• 
  Matt Watters

  Dreck is a ‘trip’ where multiple layers of complexity are peeled away to reveal the core. I enjoyed the formatting of Dreck, where storylines and characters are blurred, and you’re not entirely sure what’s going on. As you put the future tech puzzle together, you gain a deeper understanding of characters and situations. The journey is fascinating.
  
  Well written, entertaining and always intriguing.
  
  Dreampunk at its best!
  
  
  Dreck
• 
  Aaron

  I met Mr Jones at a PKD Festival in 2024 and bought his books. He has created the Dreampunk genre, but after reading this novel, I'm not sure how it differentiates itself from bizarre or sci-fi. It has elements of punks but some of them are trying to create an establishment of new tech, or perhaps they are riding the wave of new tech, avoiding the 'real' world. My confusion aside, this is a great novel remeniscent of PKD's and Vonnegut's. It's well worth your time to read this head trip.