Somerset Dreams and Other Fictions

by Kate Wilhelm

Contents:
Foreword, by R. Glenn Wright
"Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis"
"Mrs. Bagley Goes to Mars"
"Planet Story"
"Somerset Dreams"
"State of Grace"
"Symbiosis"
"The Encounter"
"The Hounds"

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy

174 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1978

About the author

Kate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers.

Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit,  Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine,  Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.

Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.

Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction. 

Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good collection of eight short fictions that were first published 1969 - '77, most of them in the original Orbit anthology series edited by Damon Knight, her husband. Symbiosis was from Cosmopolitan magazine, Planet Story was from the Epoch anthology edited by Silverberg and Elwood, and Mrs. Bagley Goes to Mars was original to this book. Most of the stories are designed to be more mainstream than sf genre, tending more to magic realism fantasy than traditional tropes. I wouldn't label them as definitively New Wave, but they're definitely adjacent. The focus is definitely more on social issues than technological ones, with feminism and mental health and gender roles as recurring themes. My favorites were Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis (which is an early look at reality programming), The Hounds (a more traditional horror tale), and State of Grace (an uncharacteristically funny story.) Wilhelm was a fine, sadly under-appreciated writer who found more acceptance in the mystery field than she did in sf.

[Arpad Okay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What are the repeating themes in Somerset Dreams? Family history of mental illness or black magic? Seamless flashbacks escalating the tension contemporarily - the trauma of the past cropping up from returning to the scene of the crime. The autonomous woman not having a place in the small town of her upbringing or in the visions of the future constructed by her modern-times husband.
The bulk of the stories in this book take these themes and apply them to science fiction in varying degrees of severity. Some of it is magical realism, real stand out, chilling stuff. The po-mo topics and homey settings evoke a real Stephen King vibe (Somerset Dreams, Planet Story), some of it more social commentary as PKD (Ladies and Gentlemen, This is Your Crisis), even the absurd sex with mystical meaning of Kilgore Trout can be found in State of Grace, the normal turns evil of Gene Wolfe's Peace.
The standout stories are her own. Without giving too much away: The Hounds is about a woman who is followed home (and everywhere thereafter) by two otherworldly dogs. The Encounter is a man and a woman who are snowed in at an empty bus station. Symbiosis is about old friends. There were moments I found myself beguiled by the writing- What am I even reading about? A bus station? Where can this go? The answer, always darkness.
Mrs. Bagley Goes to Mars- written off with State of Grace in the introduction as the wacky satires of the collection- has a moment of horror illustrative of the hairpin turns perspective can take in Wilhelm's writing. The titular Mrs. Bagley returns from space to find her guide to Mars left behind a grizzly corpse that more resembles a hobo with a knife in his chest than a transcendent being. This is her at her cheekiest. The Hounds, The Encounter, some of this is on another level. Absolutely brutal storytelling with nothing. Haunting.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Kate Wilhelm gem! This one I found at the Book Barn up in Niantic, Connecticut (a fantastic used book shop!). I stumbled across this and was just so pleased with my choice. Her writing is psychological, sometimes venturing into speculative fiction areas, sometimes that’s just way in the background. But, her work is haunting, you feel you are right there in the moment, joyous or terrified, happy or depressed. Such talent to write so much in the little space provided by the short story format. I savored this book and hope to return to several of the stories in the future.

My favorite stories in the book were Somerset Dreams and Symbiosis, followed closely by The Encounter and The Hounds.

“Somerset Dreams” was full of beautiful prose as well as pointed feminist jabs at the establishment. The story builds with perfect pacing and perfect pitch delivery. This is one of her best short stories ever. Kate Wilhelm could have taught the Muses a few tricks.

“Symbiosis” was a dark, psychological, beautifully written tale of the closeness of family, or portions of it. I grew up with this cast of characters, recognizing them instantly, and this story treads on some of the themes in my own writing.

Turning to “The Encounter”. I hate to be repetitive but Wilhelm’s skill with the written word is excellent. The perfect word choice, amount of words, and storytelling path are spot on in this short story. Such beautiful prose and even as the story began to reveal itself, it held me fast to the very last word, the very last punctuation mark. We all were in that bus station that cold, snowy night.

“The Hounds” was true horror, in the late 1950s/early 1960s. It reminded be of things they used to do on Boris Karloff’s Thriller show. This story could have been scripted for an episode there and it would have been fabulous.

“Ladies And Gentlement: This Is Your Crisis” is a reality-tv story on purpose-built big screen TVs. While written in 1976, it could easily have been written in 2022. The utter sadness of Lottie & Butcher’s life and the horror of the crisis “reality tv game” are something we see too often (back then and now).

“Mrs. Bagley Goes To Mars” is a short short story that deftly explores how wives and women are treated and the lengths they may go to to deal with this cognitive dissonance between inner value and external modes of worth.

“Planet Story” was just a short piece that helps illustrate the value of short stories. They can be like a photograph that stirs up fleeting, powerful, untethered feelings inside your heart and mind, but then once you put the picture aside, it’s all gone from your mind. I liked the story but it went quickly.

The last story, “State of Grace”, was my least favorite. Kind of meh. Not bad but not her usual perfection.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short collection of mostly not-sf short stories. Wilhelm is a good writer, and the stories are all good, but they're also rather low-key mystical, dealing in psychology and symbolism (memory, relationships, dependency, anxiety amidst normalcy) that reminded me more of magical realism than "normal" sf. So with that caveat, and with maybe half a star removed for genre-disappointment, I would recommend it. The title story and "Planet Story" were maybe my favorites, not coincidentally the most sfnal, but the quality was pretty consistent throughout. Somewhat like Joe Haldeman's collection INFINITE DREAMS, some of the stories do feature very similar motifs, so that might also affect the overall impression.

[Amy Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked some Kate Wilhelm novels I read decades ago, but these stories didn't really grab me.

[Lissa Notreallywolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somerset Dreams is the title piece of this anthology of Wilhelm's creepier stories. A dream research team comes to study the dream patterns of the isolated village which has become a cul-de-sac after the dam was built. Local girl turned anesthesiologist, Dr. Janet Matthews is taking some time off to visit the place she grew up in, staying at her mother's house. Like everyone who returns home after an absence things have changed, but are always seen through the overlays of memory, nostalgia. She considers bringing her father home from the care facility he has been in since a car accident. Somerset becomes a place where the boundaries of dreams, never stable overlap and cause a shift in reality. The Encounter left me shaking my head-what just happened there? Planet Story is about extra-stellar anxiety, or what happens when something conforms to no known structure. It is also seen through a doctor's eyes, and although I think the voice is female, I can't be sure. Mrs. Bagley Goes to Mars is probably referential to some film I never saw, but it stands up fine even if you don't get the reference. This story was one of the more amusing one, about a working wife who gets sick of the dual ruts of housework and factory shifts. She first escapes to mars where the factory seems to be recreated and stays only for a brief period. She probably murdered the bum who she mistook as a guide. And then she kites off to Ganymede, where she will be a cleaner far from home, with her own sleek apartment. It's as if Mrs. Bagley can't imagine much beyond the duties of house or factory, but her internal dialogue proves that she has a fabulous sense of imagination, or synchronicity as does her flights to other planets in search of the good life. It has a mild Walter Middy feel to it, and her husband and son are great portrays of masculine energy leeches. Symbiosis is a creepy tale set in a hideous farm community, told by the adoptive daughter of a large family, the McInally's. She's best friends with Laura, and is mothered by the perfect mother, Mrs. McInally. They go off to college and things go very wrong back at the farm. The perfect mother goes off her traces and spends time in the violent care ward of mental hospital. Eventually she is returned home but never is quite herself. instead her daughter sacrifices her virginity and her career as a mathematician to a local boy, marries and becomes the next perfect mother. Our narrator has been increasingly cast aside since the onset of Mrs. McInally's illness, sort of the archetypical story of a long time associate who grows up. You have to read it to get the creeps. ladies and Gentlemen, This is Your Crisis is a media critique of the effects of reality TV. Crisis therapy is a competition in the wilderness that acts as an alternative tto sentencing, but it obviously enslaves the viewers. The Hounds is a haunting tale about Persian greyhounds that haunt the relocated Rose Ellen. She has spent her life capitulating to her husband, Martin, but the interjection of the two hounds sparks her sense of agency. She returns to the confines of her marriage, possibly changed, and possibly having chosen to return to the psyche of a prey animal. State of Grace is crazy and fun, about an unemployed wife working out her marital situation as mediated by an oak tree full of elusive inhabitants. It is a wry twist to a working class marriage.