Book Review: Fevre Dream

Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (some spoilers below)

I am a big fan of 'Game of Thrones' sadly I am not interested in reading the 'Song of Ice and Fire' books, I was interested in finding other books by Mr. Martin and stumbled upon 'Fevre Dream', as soon as it mentioned 'vampire novel on the cover, I knew I had to read it.

In 1857 a steamboat captain Abner Marsh is offered a partnership with the mysterious Joshua York. They will both captain a steamboat on the Mississippi and Captain Marsh begins to suspect that there is something strange with his new friend. His suspicions are correct when the wealthy Joshua York is revealed to be a vampire and is waging a war with an evil vampire lord.

For a standard vampire novel George R. R. Martin changed a few things in this novel, it is not like the other great Gothic classics, it does not contain dark castles in Eastern Europe or red-eyed beasts. The story is mainly set on a steamboat named 'Fevrre Dream' as it works its way along the Mississippi river.

The atmosphere of the novel is strong and well described, the glamour of the steamboat compared to the oppressive heat of the ship's boiler room, and the rich plantations in the surrounding environment.

Like other fantasy novels of Mr Martin, Fevre Dream has a feeling of being a historical fiction, there are plenty of references to the upcoming civil war, the slaves and the abolitionist movement. This shows that just like the 'Fire and Ice' novels though set in a fictional world, Martin did an extensive amount of historical research. It works because every descriptive detail allows the reader to picture the events and environment of the novel.

The vampires are a little different in the novel, though they need to drink blood and are burnt by the sun they are a different species. The idea that humans have about vampires is destroyed in the story, they are not supernatural creatures or undead but a different predatory species. York explains that he was born a vampire and never bitten, vampires in the novel cannot bite, give blood and create others like them.

The novel's central idea revolves around the strange relationship between Abner Marsh and Joshua York. Captain Marsh is described as gruff, tough, ugly and fat. What he eats at mealtimes is excessively described and proves the point. Despite this trait, he is a fair, kind and smart man. Joshua is elegant, an aristocrat and mysterious, just as we vamp fans like it. Many readers would see him as the eponymous Anne Rice character. The other vampire and rival of Joshua is Damon Julian, it is funny that this character has the same name as the character from the show 'The Vampire Diaries', it is only a coincidence of course.

The novel contains some good action, the vampire attacks are scary as well as exciting, some sections are quite shocking but that wouldn't be too surprising to fans of 'Game of Thrones' when it comes to shock value. My only nitpick is the use of too much description, it made me feel like being on an actual boring boat ride on a long river. Overall it was an entertaining book and I wish to read more of Martin's works.

We ask ourselves 'why did George R.R. Martin chose to write a vampire novel?' The answer is: George R. R. Martin  in an interview mentioned that he was fascinated by steamboat history and saw a dark romanticism when linked with vampires. He also picked a very good location; the Mississippi river and New Orleans that is considered a hot bed for vampire lore in many other literature, TV shows and films.