Dreamsongs (Unabridged Selections)

By: George R. R. Martin

Narrated by: George R. R. Martin, Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice

Length: 51 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dubbed "the American Tolkien" by Time magazine, number-one New York Times best-selling author George R. R. Martin is a giant in the field of fantasy literature and one of the most exciting storytellers of our time. Now he delivers a rare treat for listeners: a compendium of his shorter works, collected into two stunning volumes, that offers fascinating insight into his journey from young writer to award-winning master.

©2003 George R. R. Martin; (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Fans, genre historians, and aspiring writers alike will find this shelf-bending retrospective as impressive as it is intriguing." (Publishers Weekly)

Kind of all over the place!

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.

Hungry for more

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

Good collection, thoug they aren't ALL winners....

A decent collection of stories, from differing genres.... some better than others. Martin includes some of his very first stories that he wrote when he was little more than a teenage (they are good, foreshadowing what was to come). Apart from the Game of Thrones continuity story (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which you can get as a novella separately with a second story). At the bookends, I loved The Skin Trade, though found that Wildcards apparently isn't my thing. Other good ones are there as well. And I found I really enjoyed Martin's intra-chapter narrations about his life and how he progressed in his career as a writer. Of note, this is the version you want to spend your credit on, as it incorporates all of the other smaller collections of the same name that you can order here on Audible. Overall, an enjoyable (and long!) collection of stories (even if I fast-forwarded through a couple of them...) and an interesting diversion for any fans of George RR Martin.

great value!

Great collection! Had a really great variety of stories! Well worth the 1 credit. There were a few that I didnt like but most were good!

Amazing

Great collection of stories from one of the finest authors of our time. Do listen!

multiple stories some good some i turned off

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

This is good for short stories some very very engaging and others were hard to site through but I think that had more to do readers than the writing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Loved the pear shaped man, very funny story.

Would you listen to another book narrated by the narrators?

I have.

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

Quantity over quality

What would have made Dreamsongs (Unabridged Selections) better?

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.

What was most disappointing about George R. R. Martin’s story?

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.

How could the performance have been better?

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

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disgust, impatience, a desire to stop listening.

Any additional comments?

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.

0 of 2 people found this review helpful

Nothing to do with GOT

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If it wasn't a collection of Sci-fi short stories

What could George R. R. Martin have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Nothing

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, it was a decent collection of Sci-fi short stories but it was not the type of writing I had anticipated.

Any additional comments?

Just a collection of old George R.R. Martin Sci-fi short stories.

0 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good, Bad and ehh

There is something for everyone here. I really liked the Sand Kings and the stories of the genetic animal space stuff. I also liked the religion stories and the odd twists it takes in space and in the future. But I hated the hard science stuff. I could care less about a lot of the stories. All but one of the horror stories where good. Can't complain.

The parts read by Martian are also good but god what a geek this guy is. I could just see him getting his @ss kicked all over school as a kid.
Even though I skipped a dozen or so storys at 50 plus hours I still found it well worth the credit.

0 of 4 people found this review helpful

Listening problems.

Where does Dreamsongs (Unabridged Selections) rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I like the timeline but have been unable to finish listening because it is now 'unavailable'. Why was I able to listen to ten hours or so and then it not be available?

0 of 4 people found this review helpful