George R.R. Martin

Fevre dream

George R. R. Martin

During the icy winter of 1857, riverboat man Abner Marsh is made captain of his own grand Mississippi steamboat by Joshua York, a vampire intent upon saving his maligned race from extinction.

Fevre Dream

Ilse

Michael Springer

Vampires. On steamboats in the late 1800's. That's all I'm telling you about the plot, and probably all you need to know to figure out whether you're interested in reading this li'l gem by G.R.R.M. 

Most of what I can say about this book is positive, because with this book more than most, I got exactly what I expected. Martin did enough to modify the vampire legend to keep things interesting, and the characters were all fun enough to make their journey entertaining. There wasn't anything in here that BLEW MY MIND, and there also weren't any moments where I cringed at either a plot twist or the writing.

Like usual, Martin creates many characters that impress you with their bad-assedness. However, in this book, Martin's characters don't fall as firmly into the gray area between good and evil as usual. In other words, in this book you have a cast of good guys and a cast of badguys. It's pretty clear-cut (eventually) who falls onto which side. This was a disappointment after reading A Song of Ice and Fire, where the most empathetic characters are also some of the most ruthless and conniving. 

By the way, is anyone else sick to death of vampires? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? 

I can't hold it against Martin that I chose to read this book in the midst of a Twilight-inspired fantasy depression where all the best-selling books in sci-fan have stupid vampire puns in their titles. I should probably just fault myself, because my timing for picking up this book... sucks. Haha. 

But, if you aren't yet burned out on vampires, this IS a fun read by a skilled writer, although it doesn't do too much to break the fantasy mold. It's entertaining, but not a page-turner. It's well-written, but never surprisingly so.

A.L.L.

Didn't expect a vampire novel from George RR Martin, but it didn't disappoint.

George plays more to the classic Dracula style of vampire than the alluring Ann Rice vampire, but there is some Ann Rice flavor in the setting of the book.

A well put together vampire story with interesting lore of how the vampire race came to be. I liked how humans cannot be turned into vampires, which gives it an interesting dimension. The only thing I didn’t like, was how the antagonist Julian had no real motivation only that he is “inherently evil and likes killing for the sake of it”

Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition. Joshua York put up the money for the Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped to make his dreams become reality.

Daniela V.

Oh, George R.R. Martin, you mastermind of evil! I'm very grateful, for this book has given me the chance of remembering how much I liked reading while listening to audiobooks and the imperative necessity of writing reviews. 

Leaving that aside, let's dissect this book.

Fevre Dream is a horror, dark-fantasy novel settled in the antebellum Mississippi River, spanning from 1857 to 1870. In this way, the book covers slavery and the Civil War in the south of the United States through the comings and goings of Abner Marsh, an apparently dimwitted but highly skilled steamboat captain. Abner, after facing the decline of his steamboat company, is challenged when a mysterious man called Joshua York offers him the ship of his dreams in exchange of safe passage for him and his strange friends. Obviously, not asking questions is part of the deal. In parallel, the story of bloodmaster Damon Julian and his fellow vampires unfolds in an indigo plantation where they reclusively live helped by bowed down human Sour Billy Tipton. Sour Billy goes to town and search for victims to satisfy the thirst of the vampires. To avoid suspicions, they take advantage of the social hierarchy of the time, mainly feeding on creoles and slaves because white Southerners don't miss them much when they disappear.

For most part of the first half of the book, these two stories unfurl individually to slowly converge and this functions as a cliffhanger until they connect. However, the power in this story is not the vampire tales. This novel dwells heavily on morality and the hypocrisy of humans, that see vampires as beasts but carry out aberrant acts with the name of slavery.


  "(...)When it comes to bloodshed, Abner, my people have very little to teach your own..."


In this book, the humans and the vampires are different species. Damon Julian explains that for them, humans are cattle and they feed on them as humans eat cows. However, humans make differences between their own species.


  "(...)‘A slave,’ Julian said lightly. ‘Property, by the laws of your own nation. Inferior, according to your own people. I spared it a life of bondage, Captain’..."



  "(...)I have seen your race burn old women because they were suspected of being one of us, and here in New Orleans I have witnessed the way you enslave your own kind, whip them and sell them like animals simply because of the darkness of their skin..."


This is a tale where two wars unfold: the Civil War that will end up slavery forever and another one between the vampires that treat humans as cattle and the ones that are willing to live without killing humans.


  "(...)‘Choice, you said,’ he volunteered finally. ‘That's the difference between good and evil...


The realism of the historical settling is very richly achieved and it serves us with the possibility of gaining lots of vocabulary from the epoch. But we all know that Martin's expertise is character building and how each of them has a unique and memorable voice. For me, the thing that got me reading unstoppably was the characters and their musings, to discover their hidden motives little by little and speculate about them.

Finally, it is a book about literature... in so many ways. On the one hand, it takes a genre that has been explored by several classic authors mainly in the XIX century, the vampire novel, and gives it a twist by proposing moral vampires. It is worth noting that both Fevre Dream and Interview with the Vampire are part of the revival of the genre in the late XX century, Fevre Dream being one of the few tellings were vampires are proposed almost scientifically, as a different race. On the other hand, our hero, Abner Marsh, discovers through out the story, his love for poetry and there are heavy references to Byron, exploiting the myth of Byron as the first modern vampire.


  "(...)‘Lord Byron was right. Day is far too gaudy.’
‘Eh?’ Marsh said.
‘Don't you remember?’ York said. ‘The poem I recited to you at the boatyards in New Albany. It fits the Fevre Dream so well. She walks in beauty...’
‘...like the night’..."



This being said, I was looking for a more complex ending to this story. After pages and pages of character building and unveiling mystery over mystery, the ending felt rushed. I won't give it up but I was expecting something completely different from Martin's and I felt there were lots of points that were trifled away.

So, I concluded a review after years of lethargic reads and I hope I haven't lost my touch. If you are in search of some unusual dark fantasy, with no cliches, this is the book for you.

Fevre dream

Reviews

Highlights