Title: Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands
Author: Ivan Turgenev
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 58
Rating 3.5/5
The writing here was beautiful, but I wasn’t particularly interested in the subject matter. If you’re into 1800s rural Russia, though, then you’ll get a lot out of this. So yeah.
Title: Fevre Dream
Author: George R. R. Martin
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 394
Rating: 5*/5
George R. R. Martin – Fevre Dream
Well well, what do we have here? And where do I even start with this? Fevre Dream is written by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin and is set on the Mississipi in the 1800s in a sort of historical steampunk vampire story.
Vampires, really, are the point of this book, and for the first couple of hundred pages or so, I wasn’t sure that Martin was really adding anything. Vampires have been overdone, and so it’s hard for authors to come up with an original story line that really feels as though it works. I was worried, for a while, but then a big twist is introduced that makes you rethink all of that, and Martin’s use of the old-school vampire stereotypes – such as a hatred for garlic, silver and the cross – actually works well in hindsight, because it throws the reader off the trail.
The writing here is fantastic, and while it is a little slow to read through it – especially when compared to a typical novel, although it’s still faster than reading through one of the A Song of Ice and Fire books – it’s a pleasure along the way. In fact, once you pick it up and find yourself getting into the story line, you’re going to find it tough to put it down.
George R. R. Martin
What’s interesting here is that there’s the perfect triumvirate of believable characters, a fascinating setting and an interesting story line. It’s tough for me to pick just one of them that I liked more than another, but the characters here were particularly enjoyable, even if they weren’t necessarily easy to love. Even the bad guys were fun, which is an accomplishment all in itself, although Martin is good at doing that in his other books and so I shouldn’t be surprised.
Overall then, I’d definitely recommend this book, whether you’re new to Martin’s work or not. It’s arguably a better introduction to him than any of his other standalones, and while I’d also recommend his A Song of Ice and Fire series, there are a whole bunch of books there for you to work through. Either way, though, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to anyone, but particularly to fans of steampunk and vampires.
George R. R. Martin and Peter Dinklage
