Dreamsongs: Volume II

(Review of both Book One and Book Two)
Got both of these anthologies from the library. Together, they're a great retrospective of Martin's career.
They're worth reading, for any Martin fan, even completists who've already read nearly everything in them, as Martin introduces and arranges the contents. His commentary on the stories is worth the price of admission alone.
It starts off with a hilarious (and, admittedly, hilariously bad) fantasy story first published in an independent fanzine when Martin was a teen... and quickly moves into his excellent sci-fi and horror stories, includes some TV scripts, and more recent short fiction. Nearly all of it is 5-star material, with, (in my opinion) the exception of the 'Wild Cards' material... but show more that's just me; I'm just not a fan of the superhero genre, even when it's well-done, socially relevant and gritty as hell. I just can't force myself to love it.
That's OK, though, because I love everything else here - and that's a lot to love - this collection is two big, thick books. Go read. show less

Where the first volume of Dreamsongs is arranged more-or-less chronologically, this second volume is divided into three thematic/form chapters and a catch-all final chapter: two Haviland Tuf stories in A Taste of Tuf, two screenplays in The Siren Song of Hollywood, two of Martin's Wild Card stories in Doing the Wild Card Shuffle, and six miscellaneous stories in The Heart in Conflict.

I found the contents of the second volume to be far more variable than the first... many 5-star stories, but a few 3- or 2-star ones. While I greatly enjoyed the Tuf and Wildcars sections, and four of the miscellaneous stories, the screenplay section seemed lacking. I think it's mostly due to not being used to the format: screenplays are a lot more stripped show more down than prose. As for the two miscellaneous stories, that was a matter of their subjects: the Finnish and chess tales didn't snag me.

Shortly after finishing the Wild Cards section, I was pleased to discover that the earlier books (which were out of print and notoriously hard to find) will soon be reissued. show less

GRRM shows some good writing range with this compilation. In this book he talks about the old views that people used to have on what makes "Science Fiction" and GRRM has talked before about putting fiction in Genres, making distinctions between SCI-FI and FANTASY, etc. His view on it is that they are all just stories and the difference is whether they happen in a mideival setting, in space, or the modern world. His collection here proved that to me. I enjoyed virtually all of these stories, some more than others to be sure, but he surprised me by making me really enjoy a Werewolf story which is something I've never been into and also my favorite story in here, besides the Hedge Knight, Portraits of his Children. If you don't want to show more read through this entire collection, I can't judge you because it is quite long, but you must read The Hedge Knight, Portraits of his Children, and The Skin Trade at minimum. I'm not generally a fan of short fiction, but GRRM has opened my mind with this book and I will now be looking for more compilations and anthologies than I ever would have previously thought. One last thought, not necessarily good or bad, but you can see some of the trends in GRRM's writing here compared to his other works, some similar characters, and even, you guessed it, sex and incest. show less

A bit of a letdown in its first half: the Tuf stories are predictable (but still entertaining), the scripts seemed only average (Doorways reminded me of Sliders) and the Wild Cards exerpts suffer for being taken out of context. The latter half makes up for it however, with six excellent short stories that each have something going for them. This volume contains more of those great autobiographical introductions to each section, but the first volume was superior.

Despite two annoying Tuf Haviland stories, I enjoyed this volume. Some stories I’d read before, but I liked the Twilight Zone script and the anecdotes surrounding it, ditto the pilot that never got picked up. And I got Wild Cards nostalgia from those stories. The volume is rounded out with a few other stories that never became series, including one about a seriously skeezy werewolf and the PI whose father was killed by a “wild animal” and one set several generations before Game of Thrones.

I loved almost all the stories except for the last one. This book is definitely worth reading, and I enjoyed discovering so many exciting characters. I did not care for the way he would jump in to explain or set up some of the stories, but those parts are easy enough to breeze past. All in all, a very good read.

I really enjoyed all the stories in this book. I bought it because of The Hedge Knight, which is set in the same realm as his Song of Ice & Fire series, and I wasn't dissapointed. The other stories just made me more interested in his other works. I have a Wildcard book, and though it's not the first in the series, from the way he presented his Wildcard stories in this book, I shouldn't have a problem keeping up. I am alos interested in the characters of other authors. I also really loved the Haviland Tuf stories, and his take on werewolves was interesting too. I'd have to say my least favorite story was the one about chess, but that's only because I have no interest in chess. Overall, the story itself was still compelling, and I enjoyed show more the twist, I just wasn't interested in the technicalities of the game. I definitely want to get Volume I, and this book has given me an appreciation for Martin's work outside Ice & Fire. show less