It's been a couple of months since the shooting that started Eddie's strange adventure, and since then, he has found himself in distorted versions of Oz, Casablanca, Wonderland, and even King Arthur's Court, but his next series of worlds and personas will have him in even more unexpected situations. In each world, he not only has to quickly figure out the rules and objectives in front of him, but he is also confronted with a slightly different version of his girlfriend, Lisa. He occasionally has the guidance of Rofocale, but as he learns more about that particular character's history, he starts to seriously question just how much he should rely on the wounded person's advice.
In The Mistress of Illusions, Eddie will find himself in the role of Alex Quartermaine on the hunt for King Solomon's Mines, Frankenstein's Monster in a world of horror creatures, and even a noir gumshoe hunting down clues about the nature of the adventures in which he keeps finding himself. Before his final trial, at least that's what Rofocale and the mysterious Mistress of Illusions keep calling these journeys, Eddie will even find himself in the Wild West as one of the members of the Clanton gang just before the fabled Shootout at the O.K. Coral.
Supposedly, each of these jaunts is to help train Eddie for some upcoming battle, and while he doesn't quite see how being Dracula or Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice could possibly help him in the future, the people that supposedly know better than he does insist that everything is going rather well and soon he will be ready to face ... something. Exactly what they are preparing him for is one of those details they are keeping from him.
By the end of The Mistress of Illusions, Eddie may have several of his questions answered, but it's clear that, even armed with that knowledge, he is still a long way from being in-the-know. Unfortunately, it seems he will soon even reach the limit of what Rofocale and The Mistress herself know. The next book promises to wrap up The Dreamscape Trilogy and it will be interesting to see where Resnick takes Eddie and his companions next.
