Alan Dreams of Giants

Near a great lake and very far from anything thrilling, Alan Hendershot is a cashier at a grocery store. Irritating customers and pesky management abound, and the recent death of his father has driven him to further isolation. His singular, tiny well of happiness is the reading of fantasy paperbacks and the forgetting of all else.

When he stumbles into a mysterious book about lucid dreaming at the library, things take a turn, as every night becomes an escape to a fantasy world as wild as he can imagine, with magic, a cyclops bartender, really hot peppers, and mythologies all about cheese.

When he's recruited by a ragtag group of adventurers hoping to save the world, Alan begins to realize that the end of this story might reach further than the confines of his imaginary world.