Martin, George R. Books

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse

Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, George R. R. Martin, Octavia E. Butler, Jonathan Lethem, Orson Scott Card, Gene Wolfe, Jack McDevitt, Tobias S. Buckell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A few really good...and a lot of so-so 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This was a collection of short stories all somehow themed around an apocalpyse - something has gone horribly wrong with the world. I picked it up after enjoying "Earth Abides" by George Stewart so much.

Overall some of the stories were good, some not so good, but on the whole I definitely like longer books as opposed to short stories. I'd rather really get to know characters and see a story unfold than the short stereotypes that are given in this type of collection with the "catchy" endings. I'd certainly prefer to read a good 5-book series as opposed to a collection like this. However it should give me some good ideas for future reading.

Here are my thoughts on each individual story:

Stephen King - The End of the Whole Mess - I liked it, good story, well done, etc... But I've always liked Stephen King so this was sort of a gimme.

Orson Scott Card - Salvage - This story did nothing for me. It's funny, Orson Scott Card is so highly regarded, yet I read "Ender's Game" and didn't love it like so many people do. This story did nothing at all for me.

Paolo Bacigalupi - The People of Sand and Slag - Good one. Deep apocalpyse stuff, and really thought provoking about some of our assumptions about the world. One of the best in the book I'd say.

M. Rickert - Bread and Bombs - This story was "Ok", not the best nor the worst. Interesting twist ending.

Jonathan Letham - How We Got In Town and Out Again - Very entertaining - not the deepest story but a good tale that really kept moving. I liked it.

George R. R. Martin - Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels - My favorite story in the collection. Thought provoking, tense, interesting. Brutal ending. Just really well done and I'll definitely check out something else by him based on this.

Tobias S. Buckell - Waiting for the Zephyr - Good one, not great. Short story (even within the collection) and more hopeful than many.

Jack McDevitt - Never Despair - So-so. Interesting use of a real historical figure, but I felt like the story gave me more questions than answers.

Cory Doctorow - When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - You know, being a programmer you'd think I'd have liked this more, but I didn't. I found it rather boring. Not one of my favorites. But I may check out some of his other stuff simply because of his knowledge on the topic of technology.

James Van Pelt - The Last of the O-Forms - Wow I don't even remember this one, after flipping through it. Clearly didn't make much of an impact on me.

Richard Kadrey - Still Life with Apocalypse - Short, but interesting. But only 3 pages.

Catherine Wells - Artie's Angels - Again, so-so. Painted a good picture and good imagry, but the story didn't really compel me. Still I liked the writing.

Jerry Oltion - Judgment Passed - Very, very good. Of course I like the questioning of the Rapture that's implied here, it meets with my own personal religious beliefs. So I really enjoyed this one.

Gene Wolfe - Mute - Didn't like it at all. Just didn't do anything for me.

Nancy Kress - Inertia - This one was pretty good, interesting. Definitely made you think a bit. She even tried to do some characterization in addition to just moving the story along.

Elizabeth Bear - And the Deep Blue Sea - I think this was a good story, but it was a bit hard for me to understand eactly what was going on all the same. I'd check out more by her though, it was that compelling at least.

Octavia E. Butler - Speech Sounds - Very good one, really made you think, and a good, hopeful ending. Also an author I'd check out more from.

Carol Emshwiller - Killers - Did nothing for me. Sort of interesting start but then got really flat.

Neal Barrett, Jr. - Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus - This was a good story, interesting and compelling, though it felt a bit like a deux ex machina ending.

Dale Bailey - The End of the World As We Know It - Another very good one - it really in its own way made fun of the apocalypse genre, which was entertaining near the end of this book. I liked the tone and style.

David Grigg - A Song Before Sunset - Another good one - thought provoking and deep while still a bit soft on the surface. Well done.

John Langan - Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers - By the time I started this story I was bored with the collection, and this story reads sort of like one long run-on paragraph, and it just didn't do anything for me. I stopped reading it, though it maybe would have been more interesting to me had it been earlier in the book, I don't know. I probably judged this one a bit unfairly.

And that's it. I'll take some notes on future reading based on authors I liked and some of the "for further reading" listed in the book.

Editorial Review:

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon - these are our guides through the Wastelands... From the Book of Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction, including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King, Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon.

Fevre Dream

George R.R. Martin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 73 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

When struggling riverboat captain Abner Marsh receives an offer of partnership from a wealthy aristocrat, he suspects something’s amiss. But when he meets the hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York, he is certain. For York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet. Nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York has his own reasons for wanting to traverse the powerful Mississippi. And they are to be none of Marsh’s concern—no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious his actions may prove.

Marsh meant to turn down York’s offer. It was too full of secrets that spelled danger. But the promise of both gold and a grand new boat that could make history crushed his resolve—coupled with the terrible force of York’s mesmerizing gaze. Not until the maiden voyage of his new sidewheeler Fevre Dream would Marsh realize he had joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare...and mankind’s most impossible dream.
Here is the spellbinding tale of a vampire’s quest to unite his race with humanity, of a garrulous riverman’s dream of immortality, and of the undying legends of the steamboat era and a majestic, ancient river.

Dark Visions

Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Dan Simmons

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Seven horror stories. Three lackluster entries by Stephen King. One great story by Dan Simmons and one by George R.R. Martin. 3 out of 5 stars.
46 of 60 people found this review helpful.

"Dark Visions" (2000) is a new edition of a 1988 anthology called "Night Visions 5: The Skin Trade."

It includes 3 short stories by Stephen King, 3 more by Dan Simmons, and one by George R.R. Martin.

King's contributions are "Reploids", "Sneakers", and "Dedication." Reploids is very short and goes nowhere. "Sneakers" is okay. Some parts are pretty cool. It's basically about a haunted men's room. (I kid you not.) "Dedication" is pretty gross. (As part of a black magic spell, a woman eats a man's congealing semen off of his sheets.) It gets points for the originality of its disgusting premise, but it's not a great story. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, all three stories are reprinted in King's collection "Nightmares & Dreamscapes."

Dan Simmons' contributions are "Metastasis" -- which is great -- "Vanni Fucci is Alive and Well and Living in Hell", and "Iverson's Pits." Metastasis is about supernatural slug-like creatures that cause cancer. They're usually invisible. Only one man is able to see them, and he invents a technique for drawing them out of their victims. "Vanni Fucci" is about a damned man and is slightly comedic. It's an okay story. A lot of Dan Simmons' fans think "Iverson's Pits" is the best of the three, but I liked it least. It's about Civil War ghosts, I think. (It's been a while since I read it.) Like Stephen King's stories, these three Dan Simmons stories were reprinted elsewhere. I think they're in the collection "Prayers to Broken Stones."

The best story is the last and also the longest. It's George R.R. Martin's werewolf story "The Skin Trade." I don't remember the whole plot, but I remember the story was *good*. And I don't think this story is available in another book.

Editorial Review:

Stephen King leads off with three stories, including 'Sneakers', about a very unusual haunting, and 'Dedication', one of the most powerful and unsettling of all his works. Dan Simmons pays homage to Philip K Dick with 'Metastasis', one of three highly accomplished stories. And George Martin rounds off the book with the brilliant werewolf novella, 'The Skin Trade'. Dark Visions is a brilliantly original showcase from three masters of the macabre.

Selections from Dreamsongs 2: Stories of Fantasy, Horror/Sci-Fi, and a Man Called Tuf: Unabridged Selections

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Editorial Review:

Dubbed “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine, #1 New York Times bestselling 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 readers: 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.

Whether writing about werewolves, wizards, or outer space, George R. R. Martin is renowned for his versatility and expansive talent, highlighted in this dazzling collection.  Included here in Volume II are acclaimed stories such as the World Fantasy Award winner “The Skin Trade” as well as the first novella in the Ice and Fire universe, “The Hedge Knight,” plus two never-before-published screenplays. Featuring extensive author commentary, Dreamsongs, Volume II, is an invaluable chronicle of a writer at the height of his creativity–and an unforgettable reading experience for fans old and new.

Night Visions: The Hellbound Heart

Clive Barker, Lisa Tuttle, Ramsey Campbell

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Skin Trade (Night Visions, 5)

Stephen King, Dan Simmons, George R. R. Martin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

GOOD SHORT STORIES 3 out of 5 stars.
13 of 16 people found this review helpful.

3 stories by Stephen King: "The Reploids", "Sneakers" and "Dedication".

3 stories by Dan Simmons: "Metastasis", "Vanni Fucci is Alive and Well and Living in Hell" and "Iverson's Pits".

1 story by George R. R. Martin: "The Skin Trade".

While the stories by King and Simmons are more or less short, the story by Martin is long, taking up almost half of the volume.

The only (almost) original story is "Metastasis" by Simmons, where a medical experiment lets a man see strange violet creatures (usually invisible) feeding on human beings like vampire slugs, causing cancer.

"Sneakers" is a ghost story, while "Dedication" is about urban witchcraft and "The Skin Trade" is a story about werewolves and investigation.

Editorial Review:

Douglas E. Winter presents a collection of all-new, tantalizingly terrifying stories by masters of horror. Features the work of Stephen King, Dan Simmons and George R.R. Martin. "Strong stuff, with good shudder potential . . . A success . . . You'll want to read this one!"--Locus. Published in hardcover as Night Visions 5. (Occult/Horror) Ctn Qty/50.

Night Visions 5 (Night Visions)

Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Martin. Goerge R. R., Martin. George R.R.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

GOOD SHORT STORIES 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

3 stories by Stephen King: "The Reploids", "Sneakers" and "Dedication".

3 stories by Dan Simmons: "Metastasis", "Vanni Fucci is Alive and Well and Living in Hell" and "Iverson's Pits".

1 story by George R. R. Martin: "The Skin Trade".

While the stories by King and Simmons are more or less short, the story by Martin is long, taking up almost half of the volume.

The only (almost) original story is "Metastasis" by Simmons, where a medical experiment lets a man see strange violet creatures (usually invisible) feeding on human beings like vampire slugs, causing cancer.

"Sneakers" is a ghost story, while "Dedication" is about urban witchcraft and "The Skin Trade" is a story about werewolves and investigation.

Dreamsongs, Section 5: Hybrids and Horrors, from Dreamsongs (Unabridged Selections)

George R. R. Martin

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Songs the dead men sing

George R. R Martin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Martin's Best Collection. Amazing. Spectacular! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

What is this?
The contents of this book are mind-stunning.
If you have a taste for Horror combined with SF elements then this will be something for you.
I do however hope that you have a lot of money because this collection of stories is o.o.p. and desired by many, and treasured by many.
Contents follow:
* The Monkey Treatment
* "...for a single yesterday"
* The Needle Men
* Meathouse Man
* Sandkings
* Nightflyers
* Remembering Melody
* In the House of the Worm
* This Tower of Ashes
Got that?
Many classics in this book. Very rare. Very good.
Sandkings is still readily available. But the others are just as good -some even better!
This has got to be reprinted!
I know there isn't much money to be made with SF collections, but I honestly think that with a bit of marketing, and with GRRM's name splashed on the cover -underlined with "Author of A Song of Ice and Fire" this book will be a bestseller. All the right ingredients are there.
Ah, I should have become an editor, or maybe even a publisher.
This is a goldmine just waiting to get discovered.
Killing a healthy lion with your bare hands is easier than finding this book.