Dreamsongs (Unabridged Selections)

The mix of stories was engaging. Each section was previewed by a commentary read by the author and these were excellent as they helped to understand context for some of elements within a story. I read this book after reading the Game of Thrones series. After reading this book, I definitely want to continue to read the Game of Thrones (even though the TV series will now be ahead of the books.

Some of the stories were excellent.

The synopsis was quite long. A few stories dragged but overall the book was quite enjoyable.

No matter when you discovered G.R.R.M., whether it be early on in the pages of Analog and Galaxy or now as the mastermind behind Game of Thrones on HBO, this definitive collection showcases the stories that were the stepping stones that led from a young boy growing up in New Jersey to one of the most critically acclaimed authors in the world.

Separated into 9 thematic parts, each with its own introduction written and narrated by the man himself, you will find stories that tie into his Song of Ice and Fire series as well as Wild Cards and even his classic 1000 Worlds, all narrated by some of the best names in the business. Whether you are an avid G.R.R.M. reader or are looking to dive into his work for the first time, this collection will make him a staple of your audio library.

From Larrendor to the Stone City, I lived a thousand lives in as many worlds.

Editing. This guy (Martin) seems to never throw anything away, whether it is a bad idea, a bad sentence, or a bad paragraph. His approach is to write it once, then submit and resubmit every rejected story year after year while adding it to a huge collection of similarly unsuccessful stories. Now that Game of Thrones has made him famous, he feels entitled drop all of them on an unsuspecting audience.

This is a compilation of stories, most of them very bad, but mercifully short. The real pain exists between the stories when Martin rambles on about how he whipped these gems out like some kind of rapid-fire pulp machine, submitting and resubmitting them over and over again without editing or changing anything. As if the only thing that could be wrong was at the other end of the process. Of course, there is a sympathetic element: I felt very sorry for the people who had to read this stuff, including the readers for the audio version.

The performance by the story readers was as good as possible, given the material.

Disgust, impatience, a desire to stop listening.

I commute an hour each day and listen to many audio books. It usually makes the drive go by much faster. I have to say that Martin's stories made me wonder if the drive would ever end. I stopped about halfway through this long, long, audio book.

I never knew Martin's works other than GoT(+untoldstory) this book made him my favorite author.

This audiobook is many stories for the price of one and contains varied stories from throughout Martin's career. The fact that most of them came from the same universe, gave them more value than they have as individual stories. The early works arent good, but were written by a teenager/young adult, so dont give up on the audiobook until you at least get passed them. Some of the stories were excellent and worthy of purchase individually. My favorite was "A Song for Lya". The stories of people from different worlds give a lot of interesting environments for the listener to explore. The commentary gives a look at what it is like to be a pro fantasy/sci fi writer and is interesting as well.

Everyone else did a wonderful job!
Loved the stories. I immediately started looking for more Haviland Tuf stories and bought a Knight of the Seven Kindoms!

I loved every minute of this book! all of the stories the different voices. loved it! was so bummed when it was done.

Interesting overview of a writers career . Don't expect to enjoy all stories, just read( or listen ) to better understand the mind of the author.

I very much enjoyed Dreamsongs. It is interesting to hear the history what was happening in an authors life at the time certain stories written the influence that caused it to be written and the results of their effort. But perhaps the most telling for me is the fact that I now wish to learn more read more of George RR Martin's work this was a huge time commitment, and not a moment was wasted