Dreamsongs Volume I & Dreamsongs Volume II
by George R. R. Martin
Spectra Hardcover $27.00 per volume

This two volume set was originally published in a single-volume limited edition from Subterranean Press as GRRM: A Retrospective. If you missed out on that edition but still want to have a good career retrospective for George R. R. Martin, you'll want to give this two volume collection a good look. Before Martin had his big success with the "Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series, he was a very successful, award winning author with his short fiction, having success in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and as a TV writer. The stories collected in these volumes are grouped under different topics and each topic has a lengthy introduction and commentary by Martin, talking about his career at that time and about the stories collected. Sprinkled throughout the introductions are many anecdotes about things that happened to Martin, some funny, some sad, but all of them interesting, especially when Gardner Dozois is involved (who also wrote the introduction to the set). Each story also has an illustration done by Michael Kulata that helps to make the collection more special.

The first volume collects stories from the early part of his career starting with some examples of his earliest work writing for comic fanzines in the late 60's. In this section's introduction, Martin tells of how he got into writing and how it all started because of a fan letter he had published in issue #20 of Marvel's Fantastic Four comic. The next section covers his earliest published work and in the introduction details how he got started as a professional author and how his earliest sales almost didn't happen, especially his first sale to Galaxy. Once he was established and became a regular in Analog and other magazines (including a hilarious anecdote involving Gardner Dozois about what happens when you become a member of the Analog Mafia), he started to garner awards including his first major award, a Hugo for the A Song For Lya novella, included in section three, for which Gardner Dozois threw Martin out of the Hugo Losers Club. Martin recounts his inspiration for his early fantasy stories, a turtle castle he had as a kid, in the fourth section, and samples stories like The Ice Dragon and In the Lost Lands. However, in the 1970's there wasn't much of a market for fantasy-tinged fiction, so he stuck to science fiction for the most part. To close out the first volume, he details his excursions into horror-tinged work including Meathouse Man, The Pear-Shaped Man, and the Hugo and Nebula winning Sandkings. Volume two starts off with a section about his various attempts to start a series and how the only one that really got going were his stories about Haviland Tuf, the ecological engineer, and the series of stories that were collected in Tuf Voyaging, two of which he includes here including the original version of "A Beast For Norn" which was revised for the collection. He also talks about his novels as well, Fevre Dream, and The Armageddon Rag, which did not sell as well as was expected and led to a third novel that was never sold. The introduction to the section on his foray into Hollywood tells a tale of a writer drawn into Hollywood's vortex and how he managed to escape from it. Surprisingly, it was his novel Armageddon Rag which opened the door to Hollywood, having been read by producer Phil DeGuere and optioned for a film which never happened. However, when Phil was putting together the new Twilight Zone he invited George to submit a script for it and that lead to a staff writing job on The Twilight Zone, a showrunner gig on Beauty and the Beast and the chance to create his own series, Doorways, which was not picked up and ended his stint in Hollywood. He includes one of his Twilight Zone teleplays, The Road Less Traveled, and tells how the episode ended up ruined as The New Twilight Zone's run on CBS was ending. He also includes the first draft of the pilot episode for Doorways, a different version than what was filmed as a pilot. The next to last section details his Wild Card anthology series and how it came to be, how it has been resurrected a couple of times, and includes a couple of examples of Martin's work in that anthology series. The final section of the collection has as its introduction an essay on writing fantasy and science fiction and it collects various stories that he classifies as "Weird Stuff" along with The Hedge Knight, a prequel novella to his Song of Ice and Fire series.

Overall, these two volumes serve as an expansive (over 1400 pages total) sampling of Martin's career over the years, including many of his award winning and nominated stories along with a wealth of autobiographical information giving the reader insight on Martin's life and career so far. But what really makes the collection stand out are the introductions and commentaries that go with the stories. - Lee Whiteside