Blood Dreams

[dotinthesky]

George R.R. Martin, Fevre Dream, 1982
Forget the Twilight Saga. Forget The Vampire Diaries. Forget the mediocre books by Charlaine Harris and the TV series, True Blood, spawned from them. What you really need is a trip back in time to 1857 with the help of George R.R. Martin; sail down the Mississippi in the legendary steamship Fevre Dream and feast your eyes on the world that briefly grew on the river’s banks. The Fevre Dream’s captain (and our hero) is a three-hundred pound man covered in hair and warts, famously known as the ugliest man alive. If you can overlook that, you might earn a loyal friend who will fight for you against any trouble along the way – especially if the trouble involves pale creatures that only come out at night and feast on human blood. Exactly those creatures you’ve found so lacking in modern vampire series.

Sure, there will be one or two bumps along the way – those rapids that jolt the reader and leave him queasy (in particular, a certain banquet scene on the Fevre Dream with a nasty surprise at its end). But as with any other sure-handed thriller or horror story, you know your destination will soon be in view and as you step on firm land you’ll carry the journey in your heart – for better or worse – as you walk away. And when you reach home, you’ll make sure the doors and windows are locked before you say a prayer and fall asleep on your pillow covering a double-barreled shotgun.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

the last book wasn't nearly so engaging and seemed quite a muddle to read

Ah... actually, therein hangs a tale. Apparently the book was going to be hugely big, bigger than the previous one by a long way, so a decision was taken to split it in two and only deal with half the characters properly. Hence there was very little mention of some major characters in the last book. However, he's pretty clear that this was a decision taken for publisher purposes and the practicality of fitting his words inside one book rather than because he'd lost interest in the characters. However, it did give a frustrating disjointed feel because there were people I wanted to know about not featured in the last book.

I'm hoping that when the next one comes out it will all feel a little more "together". I was also frustrated that a whole new raft of characters were introduced who I did not care so much about when older characters were (for the reasons I mentioned) being neglected.

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'd heard that too. I still maintain he's lost a bit of interest though.. I mean, everyone takes their time to write a novel but he got out the first few pretty fast and now there's this enormous delay. Maybe he's got a Douglas Adams style writers block going on or something.

[steer.livejournal.com]

There's other writing projects he's involved with too which slows things up but he was certainly adding to the book as of yesterday and sounding enthused about it. (And also posts enthusiastically about the TV series and the other associated stuff sometimes).

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

I'd heard about his other writing projects.. can't say I blame him for being more interested in new stuff than the characters he's had kicking around for what feels like decades now ;-)

Hopefully the TV series has given him a bit of a kick up the bum and reignited his interest! I'm looking forward to seeing if they can pull it off.. had to laugh at the role Sean Bean has though. Talk about typecast!