More more more! I loved each story very imaginative and immersing. A easy read and lots of fun. The whimsical elements and storytelling were on point. Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for my eArc.

I really enjoyed this! Not every story resonated with me (I must admit there were a few I rated 2 stars), but the ones I enjoyed were good enough that I think I'd recommend this to other sci-fi and fantasy readers who want to dive into something a little bit shorter. My personal favorite was Inheritance, because in an odd way it felt like a wholesome version of my favorite (not wholesome) K-drama, Signal. I don't think this work is perfect, but I'd really recommend it, and personally, given that I read this as an ARC, I may have to buy a copy just to be able to look at that gorgeous cover. Overall, the vibes of the book are very whimsical and weird, and it was nice to read something like this as an adult.

J. S. Bailey weaves science fiction into a handful of short stories, great for a quick read before bed or in between classes.
In a total of twelve short stories, Bailey establishes a clear writing voice while navigating a new world and new characters in each one.
This book is perfect for anyone who is new to science fiction and doesn’t want to feel overwhelmed with world building, and anyone else who is just looking for a quick getaway.

A very well curated collection of stories. Each a marvel, each a tiny piece of handcrafted excellence that evokes and explores the limits of reality, spacetime, and imagination.

I did enjoy this book however would have preferred some stories to be more exciting or link together.
I did enjoy the morals in twined in the stories though.

I feel like my students would greatly enjoy this. Each short story is interesting and well written. I thought the twists were interesting and that's probably my number 1 complaint. For a collection of short stories, I felt tired at the end. There's simply too much.

If some of these were part of a larger anthology, it would have been fine, but this was not a sit and read in 1 session collection.

The thing I want to start with is the cover. It is absolutely gorgeous and honestly the first thing that drew me to this book. Well done Molly Phipps!
The book itself contains several stories, twelve in total, ranging from just fun to read to absolute killers. There wasn’t a single one that disappointed me. And in a book that touches twelve different topics that is rare. J.S. Bailey has delivered a solid package and is a must read for fans of the genre.

This is a fun collection of short stories. The whole thing is relatively short so it’s a good fast read.
Most of the stories felt more science fiction to me rather than fantasy but I still had a good time.

Some of the characters and worlds I would have liked to see expanded on more.

Overall I had a good time with this and would recommend others give it a chance too.
Might even help get someone out of a reading slump because it has a good variety of stories.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories! They were fun, whimsical, and easy to read. Daily Log from Outpost #602 made me laugh out loud at the end. I also really enjoyed the bit at the end of the book about how the author came up with each story.
While the stories were not rich with details and world building, there was enough to easily create a picture in your head of the setting and all the characters felt real. This isn't a difficult read, making it quick and enjoyable and a good change from high fantasy or space operas! I really hope we see it in my store.

I think these stories are imaginative, but wouldn't go so far as categorize them as fantasy. It reminds me of high school creative writing classes. Some are ok, but nothing I would recommend.

This book lies to you outright. There's no magic and misadventure in it, so do not delve into the pages expecting fantasy stories and like. The collection is not all bad per se, some of the stories even vaguely reminding of early Bradbury (when he was just trying out his penmanship and long before he became a master of the craft). So the book probably does deserve the time (2 hours or so) you'll spend reading it.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Upon A Waking dream is a collection of science fiction short stories that will leave you wanting more

This is the first time I've read a collection of short stories and wasn't sure how I would feel about the format but I have to say Bailey really blew it out of the water. Each story flew over and has a depth to it that I'm surprised could be accomplished in such a short amount of pages.

Each story is unique and well written and honestly I'd be happy to read any of them as full novels.

This is a fairly short book and a quick read but something that's perfect for when you only have an hour or so and a cup of tea, ready to go on an adventure

I was sent a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book.

It is a collection of short science fiction stories. All of them could easily be an episode of The Twilight Zone or similar.

The short stories in this book were of varying lengths. I did wish that some of them could have been expanded on. I would definitely read a full of length novel of most of these. That’s the reason for the 4 star rating instead of 5. Although the whole point of this was to be lots of short stories.

These short stories include exploring new planets, aliens, magic pens, imaginary friends and other topics.

My favourite stories in this book were The Man of Her Dreams and Inheritance. The Family Name, Larry and Daily Log From Outpost #602 were also strong contenders.

A lot of these stories end when I would like them to continue, but each of them made me sit and think about it afterwards. They make you think about what could happen next, what if the world were really like that and also.. what just happened.

4/5

Upon A Waking Dream by J.S. Bailey is a collection of 12 sci-fi/fantasy short stories. From aliens and space travel to magic pens, this book seems to have it all. The stories are original and funny, and some of them raise really interesting questions.

I’ve been getting into short story collections more lately, but this one might just be a new favourite. I especially loved the mix of fantasy and sci-fi stories. The variety of stories meant that I never got bored, plus the stories didn’t seem to blur together at some point (which sometimes happens to me with collections of similar stories). All in all, I really flew through this book, there simply wasn’t a dull moment.

Personally, my favourite stories would have to be “Letter from Glomsuet” (a flat-earther gets abducted by aliens), “Larry” (an imaginary friend in bunny slippers) and “The Last to Pass” (what would happen if immortality was a thing). “Daily Log from Outpost #602” is definitely an honourable mention (I don’t even want to give away what it’s about, just read this one, it’s great).

Overall, Upon A Waking Dream is a great book, and I recommend you pick it up if you’re even remotely interested in sci-fi and fantasy stories (or even if you aren’t, maybe this book will convince you otherwise).

This is my absolute favorite type of plot!

Great introduction, nice pace of the story, characters well developed with interesting elements, allowing the readers to connect truly with them. The writing is what makes it a little underwhelming, however some editing could easily fix this issue.
The world building is good but there could be more details and descriptions to support the readers imagination on the initial concept.
Overall, it's a nice book and I definitely recommend it.

I’m a fan of Bailey’s short fiction. It isn’t always uniform and thus my fondness varies, but this book, my third read by the author, was absolutely – and quite uniformly – lovely.
Bailey tends to oscillate between speculative genres and the stories in this collection mostly all have a distinct science fiction angle – the author’s first love.
Not the hard science-heavy jargon-heavy sort of sci-fi but the conceptual whimsical fantasy-like kind. And it works. Very, very well.
The stories are original, charming, fun, humorous and just the right sort of whimsical. In other words, a pleasure to read.
Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.