#fevre dream

[doc42]

"I decided I would not die."

It is often said in the fandom Daenerys must achieve redemption through sacrificing herself during the War for the Dawn, by people who believe the show switched the order of the events and she burns King's Landing first.

Well, how about we take a look at what GRRM actually thinks of how redemption is achieved?

Finally I hit on the way. Outside my house, I attached two great iron chains to the wall. By night I donned the manacles, and threw the key as far as I was able. A very long way. I waited for the dawn. The sun was worse than I remembered. It burned and blinded me. Everything blurred. My skin was on fire. I think I began to scream. I know I closed my eyes. I was out there for hours, closer and closer to death. There was nothing in me except guilt. And then, somehow, in the fever of my death, I decided to live. How, why, I cannot tell you. But it seemed to me that I had always loved life, in myself and in others. That was why health and beauty and youth drew me so. I loathed myself because I gave death to the world, and yet here I was, killing once more, though this time the victim was myself. I could not wash out my sins with more blood, more death, I thought. To atone, I must live, bring life and beauty and hope back into the world to take the place of all that I had taken. I remembered my father’s vanished servants then. There were others of my race in the world. Vampires, werewolves, warlocks, whatever they might be, they were out there in the night. How did they deal with the red thirst, I wondered. If only I could find them. I could trust my own kind where I could not trust humans. We could help each other conquer the evil that consumed us. I could learn from them. I decided I would not die.

Fevre Dream, bloodsuckers! It shows us very clear in writing here for GRRM redemption is achieved through living, in spite of Death the ultimate and the final enemy of all, represented by the icy Others in A Song of Ice and Fire and by the slave master Damon Julian, the most ancient of all vampires, in Fevre Dream; like how immortal soul is earned through striving to do good deeds for three hundred years in The Little Mermaid, ever a lapsed Catholic hedonist, GRRM.

[wafflehousegothic]

ok now that iwtv is on hiatus again i need everyone to go pick up a copy of fevre dream (1982) by george rr martin

[stromuprisahat]

Second hand embarrassment, except character's about to do something incredibly stupid and my survival instinct won't let me continue reading.

[agentrouka-blog]

"I never held much with slavery... You can’t just go… usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all... Got to end... Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood..." Abner Marsh, Fevre Dream, by George R.R. Martin. Thoughts on this quote?

I think this post by @kellyvela is a good breakdown of context of the quote.

But also, I would caution against picking two choice words out of a wholly different novel and trying to apply them to the ASOIAF series when the series itself (including the supplementary materials) is fairly consistent and clear in the "worth" of fire and blood as political tools.

Then again, you have entire professional television writers who willfully miss the point (*cough* HOTD *cough*) much to GRRM's unsubtle dismay, so I suppose it's not surprising when people hang their hopes for Dany's non-villainy on this kind of evidence.

[polymathdoa]

I am watching Heroes and reading Fevre Dream, also m active in HOTD fandom nowadays. So I drew some characters from these series. I chose random this time, yet I can draw my favs next maybe???

Peter is such a classic MC, I kinda enjoy this one since I sometimes miss old tv series with their 24 episodes...

Damon Julian is the antagonist of Fevre Dream that is written by George RR Martin, and he would be actually the sweetheart of the morally-gray-hot-vampires fangirls??? It's beyond me how this is not as popular. If an adaption movie comes someday with the right casting, we'll see his edits everywhere fr.

I like drawing and thinking and watching Baela, however I favored Rhaena over her since I love loser girls who came to find power later (props to my teenage years passing with YA fantasy books) BUT WELL I've tried to mix book and tv show Baelas, and it was really fun to draw?? Short, white afro hair and violet eyes? Yes, please. I thought drawing her in a knighty dress maybe armor(????) but I wanted to see her with a heavy queen dress, since she was the one needed to be queen and d absolutely slay this kind of dress (in short I wanted to see it, okay??)

[thaliajoy-blog]

It is time to cross the Trident...

It's got to end even if it has to be with Fire and Blood.

🌟 Been thinking about comparisons between Asoiaf characters and greek gods. One of the most obvious to me, to compare to Daenerys, is clearly the goddess Athena. For one as a War goddess, since Daenerys becomes a very successful "conqueror & sacker of cities" (one of Athena's names is "Athena Nikè", the Victorious One). Up there ☝️ I represented her wearing the Aegis, Athena's famous mantle/shield (with the head of Medusa on it, hence the green snakes), as she's about to win arguably her most major battle against the slavers, sending the first blow & earning the trust, loyalry & love of thousands.

But Athena is also a goddess dedicated to peace ; like Dany when she takes Meereen, where she decided to learn how to rule & establish a healthy government.

Daenerys replanting olive trees (a symbol of peace & prosperity very much dear to Athena) is very telling ; it's related to Athena's role as a protector of "the city"...olive trees in mythology where given by Athena to the greeks (her favorite, the Athenians), and became a stapple of their culture & a great source of food & wealth.

She is essentially a goddess of the good government of the city, and famously a goddess of wisdom, and is connected to the usual institutions of government, to the good functioning of assemblies & tribunals. Similarly Daenerys isn't only a conqueror, she also does her best to learn to govern the cities she rules, and she has a certain preference for peace times. The episode where Daenerys reprimands & fines a former slave master for demanding money from weavers he had had trained by a slave of his, can also remind us of Athena as a protector of artesans (and she is herself a very good weaver).

One of Athena's most famous epithet is "Pallas Athena", which means "young girl", perfect for Dany who is often called a young girl or young queen. In that optic Missandei can be seen as an extension of herself or a a second Athena ; she's also called a very young wise girl, and her most defining characteristic, her golden eyes, can make us think of Athena's famously striking grey/silver eyes.

Another epithet of hers is "Hippeia Athena", the "protector of horses" which would relate to her Dothraki side. And, talking of subverted prophecies, a myth about Athena was that when she was in her mother's womb, it was foretold that she would be born a boy who would overthrow his father. But she wasn't, and yet regardless, was born as one of Zeus' most powerful & popular children. Like Daenerys is said to be subverting the Azor Ahai prophecy, which posits a male Targaryen to be the savior of the world.

So in any case, Athena is one of the best fits for Daenerys when it comes to greek myths comparisons ! Especially in the seemless fusion she makes of her war/peace attributes. She really only critically lack the "mother" aspect of Dany (who isn't a sacred virgin at all), but it can regardless be seen as symbolic (mother to her people - like Athena has many "protégés", proxy children or favorite people she fight for in myths).

[finitefall]

I often wonder how many ASOIAF readers have read Fevre Dream. It’s the only book by George R.R. Martin that I’ve read outside of the ASOIAF universe, since I can’t resist a horror novel with vampires. It’s a great standalone by the way, I recommend it. But what’s interesting is that even though it has nothing to do with the ASOIAF universe, it's a relevant read to understand the author’s opinions.

Fevre Dream was first published in 1982, A Game of Thrones in 1996. Do you know what’s discussed in this vampire novel? Slavery. In chapter 17, we have this quote from the protagonist, Captain Abner Marsh:

‘You know I never held much with slavery, even if I never done much against it neither. I would of, but those damned abolitionists were such Bible-thumpers. Only I been thinkin’, and it seems to me maybe they was right after all. You can’t just go... usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended.’

And in 2023, we still have people telling us that Daenerys Targaryen killed “innocent” slavers and will become a villain for chosing fire and blood in her last ADWD chapter after coming to terms with the fact that the peace in Meereen was false.

[kellyvela]

I am seeing how they affirm that GrrM said "slavery can only end with fire and blood" is that true?

No. That's a classic from targies. They love to use this quote from GRRM's vampire novel 'Fevre Dream' to justify their fave's campaign in Slaver's Bay:

“You know I never held much with slavery, even if I never done much against it neither. I would of, but those damned abolitionists were such Bible-thumpers. Only I been thinkin’, and it seems to me maybe they was right after all.You can’t just go . . . usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended.”

Toby was looking at him queerly, still absent-mindedly wiping his hands across the front of his apron, back and forth, back and forth. “Cap’n,” he said softly, “you is talkin’ abolition. This here is slave country, Cap’n. You could git kilt fo’ sech talk.”

“Maybe I could, Toby, but right is right, that’s what I say.”

“You done good by ol’ Toby, Cap’n Marsh, givin’ me my freedom and all so’s I could cook fo’ you. That you did.”

—Fevre Dream

Abner Marsh, the Captain of the steamboat Fevre Dream, was a white man that: "never held much with slavery, even if he never done much against it neither." And Toby Lanyard, Marsh's cook, was basically still a slave: “You done good by ol’ Toby, Cap’n Marsh, givin’ me my freedom and all so’s I could cook fo’ you. That you did.”

Let's read more about good old Toby Lanyard:

The cook was a free colored man named Toby Lanyard, who had been with Marsh fourteen years, ever since Marsh tasted his cooking down in Natchez, bought him, and gave him his freedom.

(...) "Jest Toby, Cap'n," came the soft whispered reply.

Marsh's fear suddenly melted away and seemed silly. Toby Lanyard was the gentlest old soul ever set foot on a steamboat, and one of the meekest as well, Marsh called out, "Comin'," and lit a lamp by his bedside before going to open the door.

(...) "You knowed me a long time, Cap'n, you knows I wouldn't lie to you."

"Course I do," said Marsh.

"I wouldn't run off neither. You done give me my freedom and all, jest fer cookin' fer you.

(...) The events of the summer of 1857 became even more dreamlike as, one by one, those who had shared some of Marsh's experiences began to drift out of his life. Old Toby Lanyard had gone east a month after they had returned to St. Louis. Being returned to slavery once had been enough for him, now he wanted to get as far from the slave states as possible. Marsh got a brief letter from him early in 1858, saying that he'd gotten a job cooking in a Boston hotel. After that he never heard from Toby again.

—Fevre Dream

As you can see, Toby is always reminding us that Marsh gave him his freedom so Toby can cook for him . . . .

Toby reminds me a lot of little Missandei. Sweet souls.

And why was Abner Marsh talking that way about the end of slavery with Toby? Well, because he knew how the vampires treated human beings, no matter their skin color. He knew how the vampires treated human beings as slaves. Vampires called humans "The cattle." For Vampires, humans were prey.

That's why we read Abner Marsh, a white man that: "never held much with slavery, even if he never done much against it neither," then saying that "You can’t just go . . . usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all."

Very telling, right?

But even Abner Marsh knew that fire and blood must be the last measure: Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended.”

I hope this helps.

Thanks for your message :)

[dynamobooks]

George R. R. Martin: Fevre Dream (1982)

[blue-mint-winter]

Review: Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin

Fevre Dream is a book about a steamboat captain, Abner Marsh, and his vampiric co-captain, Joshua York. The two make quite a pair, as they are different like day and night. Abner is pragmatic, honest and straightforward, while Joshua is romantic, idealistic and secretive. They set out on journey down the river to New Orleans, both pursuing their dreams until they come upon the two antagonists - the vampire bloodmaster, the old and powerful Damon Julian and his human righthand man, Sour Billy Tipton.

I think Fevre Dream is a rather complete and well-rounded story, as well as it's fast-paced and provides some exciting action sequences. It's one of the few vampire stories that I enjoyed as it doesn't romanticize them. Vampires are an allegory for humans.

My favourite moments were Abner being obssessed with steamboats and wanting to beat Eclipse in a race. The captain is the greatest character in the book.

I recommend Fevre Dream, it's a good book in general. 8/10

[souredfigs]

Happiest birthday to GRRM ! <3

I picked up a copy of AGOT from my school library in 2017 before my summer vacations started when I was 13. I had heard about the Game of Thrones TV show but wanted to read the books first , turns out (no clickbait), it was the best decision of my life .I can not begin to express how eternally grateful I am to you for making this world . I wish I had better words to describe how I feel, but this story , the places in it and the people in it , they mean everything to me . I have learned and continue to learn so much from your works , not just A Song of Ice and Fire , but your other novels as well that I believe deserve the same love and attention as ASoIaF. I wish there was a way I could show you how much impact your writing has had on so many people , but thank you so much for making me fall in love with your world , and I am looking forward to your projects in the future. Have an amazing 76th birthday legend !

[doc42]

"It seems I must be a warrior."

Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.'"

"In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him." 

"He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door.

. . . the shape of shadows . . . morrows not yet made . . . drink from the cup of ice . . . drink from the cup of fire . . . . . . mother of dragons . . . child of three . . .

The red priests believed in two gods, she had heard, but two who were eternally at war. Dany liked that even less. She would not want to be eternally at war.

"It is such a long way," she complained. "I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl." No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words. "Fire and Blood," Daenerys told the swaying grass.

"I will require sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior."

"I have seen it in the flames, read of it in ancient prophecy. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone."

"Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?"

The next morning she woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face. When she realized what they were, she kicked aside the stalks of dry brown grass that had served as her bed and blanket and struggled to her feet. She had bites all over her, little red bumps, itchy and inflamed. Where did all the ants come from? Dany brushed them from her arms and legs and belly. She ran a hand across her stubbly scalp where her hair had burned away, and felt more ants on her head, and one crawling down the back of her neck. She knocked them off and crushed them under her bare feet. There were so many … It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he'd built it himself.

When Daenerys says "Fire and Blood" to the Grass Ghost Jorah at the end of A Dance With Dragons it is her version of Prince Rhaegar's revelation "It seems I must be a warrior" from the backstory revealed to her by Ser Barristan in A Storm of Swords, as Azor Ahai reborn is described in ancient prophecy as a warrior who draws a burning sword from the fire in the dread hour when the darkness gathers, and one of the story's central genre subversions from the Nineties a decade long gone is said warrior is someone nobody would think as such: a young girl who wanted to laugh and plant trees and was tired of war. When the red queen Melisandre tells King Stannis things like

"The sand is running through the glass more quickly now, and man's hour on earth is almost done. We must act boldly, or all hope is lost. Westeros must unite beneath her one true king, the prince that was promised, Lord of Dragonstone and chosen of R'hllor."

the literary quality of the viewpoint structure is devised to make you ask, "and what is Azor Ahai reborn doing right about now?" Azor Ahai reborn the Lord of Dragonstone is reading true histories of Westeros and feels those look an awful lot like songs and fairy tales.

"You are trembling, Khaleesi," the girl said as she knelt to lace up Dany's sandals. "I'm cold," Dany lied. "Bring me the book I was reading last night." She wanted to lose herself in the words, in other times and other places. The fat leather-bound volume was full of songs and stories from the Seven Kingdoms. Children's stories, if truth be told; too simple and fanciful to be true history. All the heroes were tall and handsome, and you could tell the traitors by their shifty eyes. Yet she loved them all the same. Last night she had been reading of the three princesses in the red tower, locked away by the king for the crime of being beautiful.

"As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father's knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him.

We see the darkness gather at the end of A Dance With Dragons when Winter falls upon the world and time has come for all things to die:

Though she walked through a green kingdom, it was not the deep rich green of summer. Even here autumn made its presence felt, and winter would not be far behind. The grass was paler than she remembered, a wan and sickly green on the verge of going yellow. After that would come brown. The grass was dying.

Down in the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, they say there are oceans of ghost grass, taller than a man on horseback with stalks as pale as milkglass. It murders all other grass and glows in the dark with the spirits of the damned. The Dothraki claim that someday ghost grass will cover the entire world, and then all life will end." That thought gave Dany the shivers. "I don't want to talk about that now," she said. "It's so beautiful here, I don't want to think about everything dying."

Not silver. White. The bird is white. The white ravens of the Citadel did not carry messages, as their dark cousins did. When they went forth from Oldtown, it was for one purpose only: to herald a change of seasons. "Winter," said Ser Kevan. The word made a white mist in the air. He turned away from the window.

The central poetic dynamic beating beneath all of Mr Writer's work is he writes pragmatic characters to say "life is not a song" only to turn around and make the characters go "but we can make it so." "I thought you were a singer. A singer should understand. The song, that is the way I really die. Coll knew that, when he made the song for me." "I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker." Essentially what GRRM always writes follows the dynamic of "and yet it moves", e pur si mouve, itself a legend in our world told about Galileo Galilei, fitting to be sure.

Though the Citadel has long sought to learn the manner by which it may predict the length and change of seasons, all efforts have been confounded. Septon Barth appeared to argue, in a fragmentary treatise, that the inconstancy of the seasons was a matter of magical art rather than trustworthy knowledge. Maester Nicol's The Measure of the Days—otherwise a laudable work containing much of use—seems influenced by this argument. Based upon his work on the movement of stars in the firmament, Nicol argues unconvincingly that the seasons might once have been of a regular length, determined solely by the way in which the globe faces the sun in its heavenly course. The notion behind it seems true enough—that the lengthening and shortening of days, if more regular, would have led to more regular seasons—but he could find no evidence that such was ever the case, beyond the most ancient of tales.

The stars. Dirk paused and looked up. The Helleye had begun to edge above the horizon; most of the stars were gone already. He saw only one, very faint, a tiny red pinpoint framed by wisps of gray clouds. Even as he watched, it vanished. High Kavalaan's star, he thought. Garse Janacek had shown it to him, a beacon for his run. There were too few stars out here anyway. These were no places for men to live, these worlds like Worlorn and High Kavalaan and Darkdawn, these outworlds. The Great Black Sea was too close on one hand, and the Tempter's Veil screened off most of the galaxy, and the skies were bleak and empty. A sky ought to have stars. A man ought to have a code too. A friend, a teyn, a cause-something beyond himself.

"A MAN must have PRINCIPLES, said the man who has none." "A MAN must have HONOR." When Jaime jumps into the fighting pit for Brienne and she calls him "Kingslayer" and he replies "Jaime", he is making the song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" come true. When Theon and Jeyne Poole jump from the walls of Winterfell and fly to reach King Stannis, the false Azor Ahai reborn wielding the fake magic sword Lightbringer, one of Daenerys' lies from the House of the Undying, they're making the song come true, and the song appears in the Bolton-run Winterfell chapters as well, sung by Abel the Bard. And when Daenerys jumps into Daznak's Pit, she tames the dragon and flies into the skies.

For a song has power, a power that can be used for both good and bad, with mixed results, to deceive and uplift both. In The Armageddon Rag the occultists Edan Morse and Ananda Caine, proto-King Stannis and Melisandre of Asshai, use blood magic sacrifice to enhance the power of the song played by the central rock band Nazgûl in order to bend time itself and turn back the clock so that the Eighties become the Sixties again and they could travel the road not taken from there. "The music can't do it all by itself, it needs us to make it come true." This would spell doom for the world, the bleeding will never stop and the dead will rise again as armies of the night to fight the wars long gone for all eternity, but through the Nazgûl song at the end the Sixties stand together once more as ghosts united at rest, freed from the eternal battle. Resurrection may be a lie, but the Sixties will live forever in the music.

Prince Rhaegar was a fool to believe in prophecy because he was the only one who saw the truth of the world, that the cold night is coming and the darkness gathers, and felt he must make the song true to face this dread hour. Jaime was a fool to jump with no fighting hand into the pit for Brienne, for he could only hope Lord Bolton's men would slay the bear in time to keep the Kingslayer alive. Theon was a fool to jump from the walls of Winterfell in hopes of reaching King Stannis, for we know Stannis would try to execute Theon first chance he has for being the Turncloak. Dirk t'Larien in Dying of the Light is a fool to embrace code duello in a dying world without stars and choose to honor the promise he made to a woman he more invented in his head than loved, his "Jenny." Joshua York is a fool in Fevre Dream to confront Damon Julian the most ancient of all vampires, for Julian is like the river of time itself and his order of life is older than Rome, the way of the masters and slaves, the way of might. For it is known that life is not a song and when the winter comes and the darkness gathers, there can be no songs as no one will be left alive to sing them anyway. "She is the prince that was promised and hers will be the song of ice and fire."

[vincibbf]

Like that.

[blue-cookie-for-percy]

No one:

Joshua York:

[forestthechonkykitty]

WHY ARE THERE ONLY 15 FICS IN THE FEVRE DREAM TAG ON AO3

[lostbetweenthepagesofthesebooks]

"Good and evil are silly lies, nonsense put forth to plague honest sensible men." (Fevre Dream, Martin, 348)

Fevre Dream

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wait, what?! How do characters and plot get 4 stars, but overall it only gets 4 stars? Two reasons, which is what this review is all about, right?

The good: I really enjoyed all the characters, even the "bad guys". All the "good ones" weren't necessarily all out good, but complicated, from human to vampire. Abner Marsh, our main (human) character, describes himself basically as such, but also makes himself out to be hard to get along with. But he's good, he's honest, and in the end, he always sticks by what he thinks is the right decision; even when he's stubborn as hell. I'd say the one... not necessarily drawback... but weird quirk? he describes himself eerily like George himself? I remember setting down the book and going "wait a minute...." and then when my memory couldn't serve enough, promptly Googled 'George RR Martin'. Nothing wrong with it, just found it interesting. Gotta love a little self insert, right?

Joshua York is lovely though, and he's our main "good" vampire. I loved him every time he was on the page. And not in a "oh my gosh he sounds so dreamy" kind of way. Never in this book was I given the impression that these were 'dreamy' vampires... albeit they also had no problem luring their victims. But who doesn't love a good ole conflicted, morally grey soul? Joshua and Abner are vastly different, but that's why they actually work so well with each other throughout their journey. They compliment each other where the other person fails.

Our main bad guys, who I'd say are Damon Julian and Sour-Billy, make you hate them. By my standards, that's some damn good writing when the writers invoke those strong feelings out of you. And these two certainly do it. There's nothing hidden in these two men. There's nothing redeeming about them. I thoroughly enjoy this. I love it when there's truly "the good" vs "the bad"... regardless of the quote by Damon Julian.

George also does a fascinating job with the vampires, from their abilities to their lore. The lore itself is only bits and pieces from what Joshua has picked up over time about himself and other, older vampires. There's definitely A LOT that isn't explored and certainly made me want more, but alas. I don't want to go into detail here really because the lore really does tie into the story a lot and I'm trying to steer away from spoilers, even slight ones.

The... not bad, but the.. meh: It's Martin. It's George RR Martin. If you've read a Martin book, what does he love to do that irritates (most) readers? And for those of you that haven't or somehow haven't heard this before: the man loves to go into detail. Way. Too. Much. Detail. Pages and pages of unnecessary detail. I quite literally do not give a fuck about reading every little detail about a goddamn steamer boat. So... just a head's up about that. We also take so damn long to get to the climax. I think with Martin's writing style, I just get impatient at times, but I do think this could've been just a bit shorter.

The ugly: The n word. Frequently. Quite frankly... Martin was too comfortable using it in my opinion. And I do not care about the time period. I do not care that there are slave states and free states. It's extremely unnecessary. It's a book with vampires. It's a fucking fantasy book. There's absolutely no good reasoning for it. MAYBE, maybe... it makes you hate some of the "bad guys" more, but still. It really didn't need to be thrown around as much as it was.

For the lore/vampires, the characters, and (most) of the writing, I would definitely recommend reading Fevre Dream, with the caveat that I personally won't be reading it ever again. At least not in its entirety. I might go back and review the vampire lore/history because it truly was interesting. But I'm satisfied with my one go-through of the book, and can understand why people rave about it. I do think there's better vampire novels out there, I personally just haven't found them yet.

Read on beautiful people. 📖🤘