Dreaming Again (2008)

Editor Jack Dann
Publisher Eos Books
Length 566 pages
Genre Anthology
Blurb Thirty-Five New Stories Celebrating The Wild Side Of Australian Fiction
Country

Talk us through it

A collection of short stories from Australian authors covering the length and breadth of Speculative fiction (Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror). While there are some stories that clearly aren't going to be of interest to your average dark genre devotee there's enough on offer to make diving into the anthology worth considering.

Let's check into a volume with some ideas well above its station.

Review

"We go west, we enter what's left of civilisation." - Trev

Dreaming Again is the follow up volume to an anthology called Dreaming Down-Under, apparently the time was right for fighting in the street and another super selection of Aussie stories, or something. Our Editor Jack Dann, who was one of the two Editors on the previous volume, makes some pretty big claims about the earlier work leading us to believe its some sort of Holy Grail for Down Under Speculative fiction. This was certainly strange as I had never ever heard of the collection. A ring around to some pretty heavy horror readers also elected a blank response. Dann may claim what he likes, but the book certainly didn't impact on the sort of reader who is only too happy to grab a new Aussie horror book off the shelves and support the local industry. Thinking about it, I do that sometimes, I came up with three reasons why Dreaming Down-Under wasn't exactly common knowledge. The book may have been heavily promoted within literary circles but not out amongst the great unwashed. Perhaps the book is more widely known in Science Fiction or Fantasy circles than horror ones. Or the book may have been successful in North America but not back on these fatal shores. Regardless of reason I was kind of wondering what drugs Dann was hitting with his intro to Dreaming Again, if people have never heard of the previous volume then it all sounds like someone blowing their own trumpet really.

While there were a number of stories that I dug, more on those later, overall I was kind of disappointed in the array of tales selected by Dann. For the first time ever with an Aussie anthology I gave up on a number of stories after a few paragraphs as they simply failed to grab me in any shape or form. If this was the state of the speculative nation in 2008 then clearly there were some real serious issues going down. As we probably know there were any number of Writers hitting the good oil through that year so christ alone knows where Dann dug up some of the lesser lights Dreaming Again contains. On the bright side of the trumpet, there's a whacking great 35 stories in the collection so even though you might skip through half the collection you are still in for a good time and value for money. In the wash up I was left wondering why certain Authors hadn't been approached to replace some of the stuff that seeped into the collection, but personal preferences end of day, Dann probably really dug each and every tale on offer.

The reader lucks out with 35 stories as no doubt a number are going to be left unread.

For those who can't wait till we dissect the stories that impress, the collection contains some psychos, vampires, zombies, werewolves, and the usual flotsam and jetsam one would expect to find in a dark collection. Don't expect the page to be splattered with blood however as Dann is pretty prim and proper in his horror selections. There's some great tales of dark mayhem to be read but Dann clearly wasn't taking any risks here.

There's no discernable theme in the collection, Authors seem to have submitted whatever they felt like at the time, rather than writing to a set agenda. So, for example, rather than getting a bunch of stories based around the concept of the background shed, we get a kaleidoscope of writing from different viewpoints, set in different eras (past, present, and future), with wildly differing styles. This has worked in the past for specific volumes, but just seems like a mad woman's breakfast in this volume. Don't go into this one expecting a narrative flow of any kind, which I guess has the advantage of allowing you to skip things if you feel like you are getting bogged down or simply can't relate to particular yarns.

Dann does redeem himself in my mind at least with the way each story is presented. The Editor gives us a short bio of each Author, along with career highlights, lobs the story our way, and then lets the individual Writer explain where the idea for their piece came from. I'm always up for information on Authors I haven't read before and find the genesis of story ideas infinitely interesting. Of course feel free to skip these sections if they don't appeal to you.

As stated there were a number of stories that I was grooving to and I guess end of day I got value for time spent in Country. Angela Slatter hit our colonial past with the cautionary tale The Jacaranda Wife that hummed along like a well oiled boning knife. The Forest sees Kim Wilkins upgrading the old Hansel and Gretel children's fable for a more modern generation that likes a bit of claret on occasion. I particular liked the rat reference there, ingenious wink at another classic fairy tale. Not to be outdone Simon Brown visits with H. G. Wells in Empire and provides an insight into life under the Martian tripods. Jenny Blackford ticks off the werewolf number on our dance card with Trolls' Night Out, and Trudi Canavan gives us a left of center salient warning with The Lost Property Room, a traditional horror story.

Dreaming Again contains five additional stories that should be enough on their own to ensure purchase and devouring of the anthology. Actually I would go so far as to say they should all hold pride of place in a "best of" the decade collection. Jason Nahrung hits the reader right between the eyes with the vampire orientated Smoking, Waiting for the Dawn, that has one hell of a twist coming our way. What would you do if put in this situation Nahrung asks us. Depends if the vamps sparkle during the day Bro! An excellent and totally unique take on the vampire myth. Stephen Dedman hits us with the Sci-Fi tale Lost Arts, that while not being horror as such still managed to be a good read. Guess since I'm married to an Artist I was nodding in approval to the whole "original art" thing. Drop your linen Jason Fischer is coming at you with the hilarious Undead Camels Ate Their Flesh, there's such a streak of originality to this story that I was left wanting more dammit. And start your grinning, In From the Snow shows a darker side to Lee Battersby as we are put in the viewpoint of a degenerate cannibal inclined family of xtreme bogans. Last but certainly not least John Birmingham returns us to first fleet time and a Sydney overrun by zombies in Heere Be Monsters. I kid you not, Birmingham somehow gets the two concepts to work side by side, that's so huge it should be termed "Leviathan".

Overall I got some good times with Dreaming Again off set by some stories that didn't hold my interest. There's at least five classic tales that are must reads for Down Under horror aficionados and enough meat on the bone to have you kicking backing and relaxing. So what could have been a stunning volume cut back by the odd story selection.

I was unable to find a copy of Dreaming Again, or for that matter the previous volume, at my normal speciality stores so had to import via the good folk at amazon.com. Makes you wonder about the claims in the introduction really. Anyways Amazon should be able to put you in touch with this one without too many problems.

ScaryMinds Rates this read as ...

I skipped a few too many stories to comfortably rate higher but would still advise adding the anthology to your collection for the five underlined tales of mayhem.