1. As the title for this book suggests, many of Macdonald's Archer novels deal with dreamscapes and recall Freud's analysis with what he called "dream work." How is this novel especially psychological?

2. Sleeping Beauty also suggests something about awaking or reviving out of sleep as in the fairy tale. How do these ideas work in the fiction as well?

3. Using an oil spill against which to set the story places it in a contemporary world and recalls similar disasters occurring at the time of the novel.

What does the plot say about such events and what does it say about modern life?

4. The events of this novel go back to the previous war and involve a ship which was destroyed by fire. How does this event provide the background against which the current events of the novel play out?

5. Parents and children again form a nexus of...