Perchance to Dream

Selected Stories

By: Charles Beaumont

Narrated by: J. Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle de Cuir, Harlan Ellison, Alex Hyde-White, Arthur Morey, John Rubinstein, Stefan Rudnicki, full cast

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

The profoundly original and wildly entertaining short stories of a legendary Twilight Zone writer.

It is only natural that Charles Beaumont would make a name for himself crafting scripts for The Twilight Zone - for his was an imagination so limitless it must have emerged from some other dimension.

Perchance to Dream contains a selection of Beaumont's finest stories, including five that he later adapted for Twilight Zone episodes. Beaumont dreamed up fantasies so vast and varied, they burst through the walls of whatever box might contain them. Supernatural, horror, noir, science fiction, fantasy, pulp, and more - all were equally at home in his wondrous mind. These are stories where lions stalk the plains, classic cars rove the streets, and spacecraft hover just overhead. Here roam musicians, magicians, vampires, monsters, toreros, extraterrestrials, androids, and perhaps even the devil himself. With dizzying feats of master storytelling and joyously eccentric humor, Beaumont transformed his nightmares and reveries into impeccably crafted stories that leave themselves indelibly stamped upon the walls of the mind. In Beaumont's hands, nothing is impossible; it all seems plausible, even likely.

©2016 Charles Beaumont (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great short stories

reading the author of some of the twilight zone episodes in full is fantastic. Wonderful set of short stories

Excellent Read

I had heard of Charles Beaumont especially through the twilight zone stories. The stories are much better than the show depicted. It is well worth the credit to get this fine collection.

Contents

Any additional comments?

Foreword: Beaumont Remembered by Ray Bradbury

Perchance to Dream
The Jungle
Sorcerer's Moon
You Can't Have Them All
Fritzchen
Father, Dear Father
The Howling Man
A Classic Affair
Place of Meeting
Song for a Lady
Blood Brother
In His Image
The Monster Show
The Beautiful People
Free Dirt
The Magic Man
Last Rites
The Music of the Yellow Brass
The New People
A Death in the Country
Traumerei
Night Ride
The New Sound

Afterword by William Shatner

Unbearable Narration

I did not listen to this whole audio book, but I did listen to the 19 minute introduction, and all of the title story that is narrated by Harlan Ellison. I also listened to a few minutes of several other stories that had different narrators. The narration is not good.

The narration of the first story by Harlan Ellison could be used to torture people. It is absolutely horrible. I had a hard time believing what I was hearing, especially coming from Harlan Ellison. In addition to the horrible voice, Ellison decided that the protagonist of the story was a deranged lunatic, and narrated accordingly. He was also gasping for air like he had a severe breathing problem. The protagonist in the story is sleep deprived and tormented by dreams and a heart condition, but it is clear that he is quite sane. (Read the story or watch the Twilight Zone episode that was based on this story.) I cannot understand how anyone in a recording studio listening to this could have remained silent while listening to this. Unfortunately, there are plenty of bad narrators reading audio books, but this has to be the worst performance in the history of audio books.

The good reviews of this audio book make no sense unless they just decided to give good ratings because the stories are good and completely ignore the narration.