Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective
UK edition hardback
AuthorGeorge R.R. Martin
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy novel, Short stories, novellas
PublisherSubterranean Press (US)
Victor Gollancz Ltd (UK)
Publication date
August/September 2003 (US)
21 September 2006 (UK)
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages1286 pp
ISBN0-575-07905-3 (UK first edition, hardback)
OCLC67374681

Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective is a career-spanning collection of George R. R. Martin's short fiction. It was first published in 2003 as a single volume hardcover from Subterranean Press under the title GRRM: A RRetrospective and debuted in Toronto at Torcon 3, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention, where Martin was the Writer Guest Of Honor. The collection features 34 pieces of fiction (including two TV scripts), an introduction by Gardner Dozois, commentary by Martin on each stage of his career, a Martin bibliography, and original art for each story. Subterranean published the book in three formats: a trade hardcover, a signed, numbered, and slipcased deluxe hardcover, and a very limited, deluxe leather-bound, lettered hardcover. The Washington Post called Subterranean's single-author collection "the most ambitious volume ever to come from an American specialty press".

A UK first hardcover edition (right), running to more than 1,200 pages, was published three years later, in September 2006, by Victor Gollancz Ltd. Bantam then reprinted the collection in the United States in 2007 as a two-volume trade hardcover set. Both the 2006 UK reprint and 2007 USA reprint carry the new title Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective.

Contents

The collection is divided into nine thematic sections, with all the stories arranged in rough chronological order. The sections, and the stories they contain, are as follows:

A Four-Color Fanboy

# Title Year Note Previously published
1 "Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark" 1967 Previously uncollected
2 "The Fortress" 2003 Written in the 1960s Previously uncollected
3 "And Death His Legacy" 2003 Written in the 1960s Previously uncollected

The Filthy Pro

# Title Year Previously published
4 "The Hero" 1971 A Song for Lya (1976)
5 "The Exit to San Breta" 1972 A Song for Lya (1976)
6 "The Second Kind of Loneliness" 1972 A Song for Lya (1976) / Portraits of His Children (1987)
7 "With Morning Comes Mistfall" 1973 A Song for Lya (1976) / Portraits of His Children (1987)

The Light of Distant Stars

# Title Year Note Previously published
8 "A Song for Lya" 1974 Novella A Song for Lya (1976) / Nightflyers (1985)
9 "This Tower of Ashes" 1976 Analog Annual (1976) / Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977) / Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
10 "And Seven Times Never Kill Man" 1975 Novelette Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977) / Nightflyers (1985)
11 "The Stone City" 1977 Novelette Sandkings (1981)
12 "Bitterblooms" 1977 Novelette Sandkings (1981)
13 "The Way of Cross and Dragon" 1979 Novelette Sandkings (1981)

The Heirs of Turtle Castle

# Title Year Note Previously published
14 "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" 1976 Songs of Stars and Shadows (1977) / Portraits of His Children (1987)
15 "The Ice Dragon" 1980 Novelette Portraits of His Children (1987)
16 "In the Lost Lands" 1982 Portraits of His Children (1987)

Hybrids and Horrors

# Title Year Note Previously published
17 "Meathouse Man" 1976 Novelette Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
18 "Remembering Melody" 1981 Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
19 "Sandkings" 1979 Novelette Sandkings (1981) / Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
20 "Nightflyers" 1980 Novella Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983) / Nightflyers (1985)
21 "The Monkey Treatment" 1983 Novelette Songs the Dead Men Sing (1983)
22 "The Pear-Shaped Man" 1987 Novelette Previously uncollected

A Taste of Tuf

This section features two stories in the Haviland Tuf series, about an overweight space trader encountering various civilizations.

# Title Year Note Previously published
23 "A Beast for Norn" 1976 Novelette Tuf Voyaging (1986)
24 "Guardians" 1981 Novelette Tuf Voyaging" (1986)

The Siren Song of Hollywood

This section features two television screenplays by George R. R. Martin. The former is a script for an episode of The Twilight Zone, and the latter is a pilot for a never-made science fiction series similar to Sliders.

# Title Year Note Previously published
25 "The Road Less Traveled" 1986 Screenplay Previously uncollected
26 "Doorways" 1993 Screenplay Previously uncollected

Doing the Wild Card Shuffle

This section features two of George R. R. Martin's contributions to the Wild Cards shared universe.

# Title Year Note Previously published
27 "Shell Games" 1987 Novelette Previously uncollected
28 "From the Journal of Xavier Desmond" 1988 Novella Previously uncollected

The Heart in Conflict

# Title Year Note Previously published
29 "Under Siege" 1985 Novelette Portraits of His Children (1987)
30 "The Skin Trade" 1988 Novella Quartet (2001)
31 "Unsound Variations" 1982 Novella Portraits of His Children (1987)
32 "The Glass Flower" 1986 Novelette Portraits of His Children (1987)
33 "The Hedge Knight" 1998 Novella. Series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms #1 Legends
34 "Portraits of His Children" 1985 Novelette Portraits of His Children (1987)

External links

Works by George R. R. Martin
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