“The book was a small, octavo volume, bound in dark leather and held closed by a brass clasp. The cover was heavily stained. Bylot breathed deeply and ran his gnarled fingers over the rich tangle of words scrawled in a familiar script on its cover: This be the Sole and Onlie Jovrnall and Teftamente of Mafter Henrie Hudson, Maryner and Explorere in the Wyldernefs.” In the fall of 1669, the Nonsuch returns to London with a load of fur from Hudson Bay. It brings something else, too—the lost journal from Henry Hudson’s tragic search for a passage to Cathay in 1611. In the hands of a greedy sailor, the journal is merely an object to sell. But for Robert Bylot—a once-great maritime explorer—the book is a painful reminder of a past he’d rather forget. As Bylot relives his memories of a plague-ridden city, of the mysterious alchemist John Dee, and of mutiny in the frozen wastes of Hudson Bay, an age-old mystery is both revealed and resolved. Set against the thrilling backdrop of the quest for the Northwest Passage, The Alchemist’s Dream is a riveting tale of exploration, ambition, and betrayal.