| Author: George R.R. Martin | |
| Rating: 9 | Reviewer: Valashain |
| Publisher:Gollancz | |
| Pages: 1185 | Orig Pub Date: 2003 |
| Binding: Paperback | Cover Illus.: Dominic Harman |
In Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective George R.R. Martin looks back on his impressive writing career. It contains short fiction from all phases of his career, covering more than three decades. Dreamsongs consist of 34 stories in different genres as well as a number of introductions where Martin reflects on a particular phase in his career. Because of the sheer size of the work it is available in 2 parts as well. I read it in one volume. There is something to be said for splitting it up though. I can usually manage a decent sized book a week but it took me six weeks to read this collection. I can only read a couple of these stories in a row before I need a break. Not because it is boring or difficult. It is just the getting into a new story that I can't do too often. Martin's stories contain a lot, you need to let it sink in before moving on. On the other hand I can't really imagine getting started in part one and then having to stop to get part two. The structure Martin chose for this collection is very clever. Once you get into it you'll want to know what he came up with next.
There's simply too much in this book to go into detail on each of the works so I'll follow Martin's structure for this review. Dreamsongs is divided into 9 parts, more of less chronological, each covering a phase of his career. Part one deals with his earlies writings. Marin calls them his apprentice works. One story was published by an obscure fan magazine, the others weren't published until Dreamsongs appeared. None of them are particularly good, although you can see the developing writer shine through in some parts. It's an interesting view into his early career though and I think Martin shows nerve to publish this stuff. Although, with his reputation, I suppose you can afford to.
The second part is dedicated to the first stories Martin sold to some of the bigger magazines. There's a couple of gems there. I particularly enjoyed The Second Kind of Loneliness. A lonely and somewhat deranged main character from this story in a gloomy setting is something Martin excels at. In a way this section is Martin's career in a nutshell. Two science fiction stories, a (futuristic) fantasy and a blend of horror and science fiction.
Part three is dedicated to the science fiction he wrote for a number of magazines in the 1970s. It contains the award winning and heartbreaking story A Song for Lya, as far as I am concerned one of the highlights of this collection. A number these stories are set in the same universe and were intended to be part of a series that Martin never got around to writing. These stories are also related to Martin's first full length novel The Dying of the Light published in 1977.
In part four we take a closer look at some of Martin's fantasy. This section contains the original Ice Dragon story, which was recently reworked into a children's book (reviewed by Paul here). This version is obviously not suitable for children. Apparently the children's book version states that it is set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. It isn't mentioned in Dreamsongs and I can't find anything in the story to confirm that either.
Martin's horror stories are collected in part 6. This section contains his award winning story Sandkings, a horror story in a science fiction setting, but my favourite probably is The Pear-Shaped Man. An other award winning story in which Martin manages to created a creepy atmosphere just from the fact that one of the neighbours of the main characters is odd. None of Martin's horror stories are terribly original but all of them are very well executed.
One of the few science fiction stories that did get a sequel is the story about Haviland Tuf, an ecological engineer. Part 7 contains two stories about him. One is an early version of A Beast for Norn. This version was later rewritten for the collection Tuf Voyaging. In the second story, Guardians, we get to see a more sophisticated Tuf. Personally I found both the concept and the stories themselves very amusing but that may have something to do with my background in environmental science.
Martin's time as a screenwriter in Hollywood is covered in part 7. It contains 2 screenplays. The Road Less Travelled was written for Twilight Zone. A shorter version of this screenplay was aired but Martin himself felt that it didn't do the screenplay justice. He included the full version in Dreamsongs. The second screenplay, Doorways, was a pilot written for a series that was never produced. After reading so many short stories reading screenplays is quite a change of pace. There is only a brief description of actions and settings. Most of it is dialogue. It leaves a lot more to your own imagination in a way. I must admit it wasn't my favourite part of the book. Maybe I am lazy.
No overview of Martin's work can be complete without a look at the Wild Cards series, a series of novels set in a shared universe, co-written by different authors and edited by Martin. Section 8 contains two of Martin's own contributions to the Wild Card novels. The first dealing with the emergence of Turtle Boy, the second with a diplomatic trip of Xavier Desmond around the world. I am not familiar with the Wild Cards series beyond those two stories (for sample of a full Wild Card novel check out this review by Jeremy) but Martin chose two that are accessible without too much background information. Both these samples and Jeremy's review have made me decide to check out some of these in the not too distant future.
Part 9 contains a number of stories that don't really fit into the previous sections. This section is again a mixture of horror, fantasy and science fiction. For the fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, this section contains the novella The Hedge Knight. The Skin Trade and Portraits of His Children, both horror stories are the highlight of this section for me.
You have to wonder at the timing of this collection. When this book was originally published it had been several years since the release of A Storm of Swords. Fans were impatiently waiting for A Feast for Crows and this collection was pretty unlikely to satisfy them. It seems Marin is not happy if he isn't working on several projects at once. If you only know Martin from A Song of Ice and Fire this book is either a fabulous introduction into his other works or a complete disappointment.
For a reader like me, who has read several op Martin's older novels as well, Dreamsongs is a chance to get to read the best of Martin's short fiction. Most of it has been published in different collections, anthologies and magazines but this is the first work that gives us such an overview. It shows Martin's versatility as a writer containing horror, science fiction, fantasy and even a story that could be called historical fiction. All in Martin's dark, gritty style and all with realistic, well developed characters.
This collection is enormous. Maybe Martin went overboard just a bit when making his selection. On the other hand, there is so much good stuff here that I think I can forgive him this huge tome. It's a great collection by a master of the trade. Something every fan of speculative fiction should have on the to read list.
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