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A review by albon
Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective: Book One by George R.R. Martin
4.0
2019 review:
Dreamongs: A RRetrospective is a collection of short stories from George R. R. Martin, the author of A Game of Thrones. This is the first volume in a two-part collection. I already have the second volume on my shelf, and I hope to get to it soon.
Four things I liked:
+ The book showcases a lot of Martin's early writing. It went from some of his first stories, to some of his more popular stories. Seeing his writing develop over time was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. A few of the earlier stories were difficult to get through, but I really enjoyed his later stuff. In between the stories there were interludes where Martin describe the context behind the stories and how they fit into his life, and that was also really interesting.
+ I'm a big fan of A Song of Ice and Fire (duh, I'm sure most people reading this collection in 2019 are). It was fun to see different elements from the series appear in these earlier stories. Everything from names (with Robb and Lyanna), to concepts (like the seven gods), to straight up sentences (one of the stories had a "Winter is coming"-moment). It felt like a real behind-the-scenes look at the series.
+ There were some really great stories in here. My favorites were these ones: "A Song for Lya" (one of his most loved stories, and I definitely understand why), "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr", "Remembering Melody", and "Sandkings". I would definitely recommend "A Song for Lya" and "Sandkings" for any fans of Martin, because if you don't read them you're missing out.
+ My favorite section of the book was probably the horror section at the end. I am too stupid to understand the endings of "The Monkey Treatment" and "The Pear-Shaped Man", but I still thought they were great (and disgusting) stories.
One thing I didn't like:
- Not all the stories were my cup of tea (speaking of cups of tea, listen to kacey musgraves ok thanks). I especially didn't like "Meathouse Man", which is essentially about men who rape dead women, or at least that's what the first few pages I actually read were about. For my own sanity I decided to skip the rest of that story. In general I'm also just not very good with hard scifi, which makes up the majority of the stories in this collection. They were good, but it's not my genre. But if you like scifi and George R. R. Martin, this could be the collection for you!
Dreamongs: A RRetrospective is a collection of short stories from George R. R. Martin, the author of A Game of Thrones. This is the first volume in a two-part collection. I already have the second volume on my shelf, and I hope to get to it soon.
Four things I liked:
+ The book showcases a lot of Martin's early writing. It went from some of his first stories, to some of his more popular stories. Seeing his writing develop over time was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. A few of the earlier stories were difficult to get through, but I really enjoyed his later stuff. In between the stories there were interludes where Martin describe the context behind the stories and how they fit into his life, and that was also really interesting.
+ I'm a big fan of A Song of Ice and Fire (duh, I'm sure most people reading this collection in 2019 are). It was fun to see different elements from the series appear in these earlier stories. Everything from names (with Robb and Lyanna), to concepts (like the seven gods), to straight up sentences (one of the stories had a "Winter is coming"-moment). It felt like a real behind-the-scenes look at the series.
+ There were some really great stories in here. My favorites were these ones: "A Song for Lya" (one of his most loved stories, and I definitely understand why), "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr", "Remembering Melody", and "Sandkings". I would definitely recommend "A Song for Lya" and "Sandkings" for any fans of Martin, because if you don't read them you're missing out.
+ My favorite section of the book was probably the horror section at the end. I am too stupid to understand the endings of "The Monkey Treatment" and "The Pear-Shaped Man", but I still thought they were great (and disgusting) stories.
One thing I didn't like:
- Not all the stories were my cup of tea (speaking of cups of tea, listen to kacey musgraves ok thanks). I especially didn't like "Meathouse Man", which is essentially about men who rape dead women, or at least that's what the first few pages I actually read were about. For my own sanity I decided to skip the rest of that story. In general I'm also just not very good with hard scifi, which makes up the majority of the stories in this collection. They were good, but it's not my genre. But if you like scifi and George R. R. Martin, this could be the collection for you!