George R.R. Martin's Epic Fantasy Novel "Fevre Dream"

Rron: This was a great story that has Vampires and River-men ,running steam powered paddle boats along the Mississippi River .

United States on Oct 15, 2023

Sandra L.: A. Great twist on vampire novels. I enjoy George RR Martin's writing style and remembered reading this book decades ago and wanted to get another copy to put in my library of good reads.

United States on Oct 07, 2023

Teri A Dugan: Honestly, it did take me 60+ pages to engage with this tale. Wee bit clunky in places. In the end, it was worth it.

United States on Jul 21, 2023

Harley S: I’m not an avid reader, as I only read a book or two a year. I had never heard of this book before, but I decided to buy it because I like George R. R. Martin’s writing style. And this book did not disappoint me. The characters, story, and setting are all captivating and make the book hard to put down. The only flaw is that the story starts to drag out towards the end, but that’s a minor issue in an otherwise fantastic book. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Martin’s work or this genre.

Canada on Jul 18, 2023

C.T.: The premise is a peculiar combination of steamboats and vampires ("Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain" as Martin himself called it). Abner Marsh is a middle-aged steamboat captain in 1857 who has recently lost most of his shipping company when he's contacted by a mysterious European investor, Joshua York, who promises to give him all the money he needs to build the world's most luxurious steamboat in exchange for following some seemingly arbitrary rules. It's questionable whether Joshua is a vampire or vampire hunter during the first half of the book and the revelation there is quite interesting.

Opposing Joshua York's activities is Damon Julian, the Satanically named owner of a plantation who is leader of a twenty-vampire strong coven of the undead. Damon is more Bram Stoker's Dracula than most as while he's rich, he's allowed his plantation to crumble to ruins and fed on most of his slaves to the point that he has exhausted their numbers. He cares about little other than feeding and is only able to keep his lifestyle running due to the efforts of his human servant, Sour Billy Tipton, who is a vile racist Overseer hoping to become immortal.

Much of the book's first half...

United States on May 01, 2021

Idlewilder: Fevre Dream is the story of Abner Marsh. An old steamboatman in the mid 19th Century; a man who knows the Mississippi like the back of his hand; a man with a dream to own the fastest steamboat on the river. Only problem is, Marsh is broke. So when he gets the offer of a lifetime to build the ship of his dreams, the Fevre Dream, from a young businessman, Joshua York, he pretty much jumps at the opportunity. Only catch is - York is coming too. And Abner has to abide by York's every whim, no matter how strange they may be. Y'see, Joshua York has a few odd habits - he likes to dine late in the evening, stop off at strange places along the river, and sleeps during the day. Yep, Joshua York is as strange a fella as Marsh has ever met - but he can put up with a few odd habits for this beauty of a steamboat. That is until the crew start talking. Until more of Joshua's friends appear on the boat. Until bodies start appearing along the banks of the Mississippi.

The setting for Fevre Dream - the mid nineteenth century Deep South - is fully realised. Martin has taken a real historic setting and thrown the reader in the deep end. His passion for the setting; for steamboats and the...

United Kingdom on Jul 24, 2013

Chilly Polly: Abner Marsh is a portly entrepreneur fond of fine food and fancy riverboats. When his prize riverboat is destroyed by ice, his fortunes are restored with the aid of Joshua York, a mysterious blond aristocratic type, who plans to use Abner's skills and fancy riverboat to pursue his own hidden agenda - to confront a rival claimant and be recognized as the ruler of his people ...

This 1982 riverboat vampire novel has been described as "Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain", but "Anne Rice meets Jack Vance" is a better fit. If you change the names, one of the genders, and switch "fire" for "ice", then the above paragraph would accurately describe the central scenario of Vance's vastly superior riverboat fantasy novel, SHOWBOAT WORLD (1975). A more obvious influence is Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1976). Rice's novel was also about vampires in and around pre-bellum New Orleans, was hugely popular by `82, and Rice herself had yet to fill the demand for a sequel that would pander to those fans who (like the novel's "interviewer") were unwilling to accept the devastating finality of the novel's message. Beating her to the punch, Martin turns the original novel's final lesson on its...

United States on Jul 17, 2012

Obisearch: George RR Martin's Fevre'd dream can only be described a tale of steamer trading in the south cross bred with a re imagined vampire tale. For the most part it is a successful synergy that brings two completely abstract worlds together and leads the story down a path of self discovery, redemption and understanding. The discovery is the journey that takes the characters into a murky future, not only for the future of the vampires but for the races of people and for the future of steam boating. The redemption comes in the nature of the vampires seeking a new way to live with humans, the whites to life with blacks, etc. And the understanding is despite all the external differences people are people and all aspects and spectrums can understand each other and where they are coming from.

Of course in life there is no such thing as a straight path and the way forward leaves uncertainty, twists and a large degree of sadness. Some people claim this book as a horror... I disagree there is a large amount of tension but nothing really that incites terror, to be honest the main villains of the book where tragically pathetic in there own way (more on that later).
It is however a book...

United Kingdom on Jun 20, 2012

E. A. Solinas: "Fevre Dream" is one of those brilliant genre novels that slipped between the cracks for many years, only to flower again when the vampire craze did. George R.R. Martin wove his own unique vampire mythos, and mixed it in with Southern grittiness, some shocking gore, and a grizzled ugly old man who may be the vampires' salvation.

Steamboat captain Abner Marsh has become business partners with the gentlemanly Joshua York, who pays for the construction of the ultimate steamboat. But strange deaths along the Mississippi lead Abner to suspect that something isn't quite kosher with Joshua, until Joshua reveals the truth about himself -- he and his friends are vampires, who are working to free his race from their bloodlust.

However, the evil bloodmaster Damon Julian wants to keep the vampires as-is, since it allows him greater power over his brethren. He's even got a Gollumesque human serving him before long. Abner's attempts to help his friend lead to disaster, and it will be many years before the two friends have a chance at killing Damon again...

Martin is one of the few authors who actually bothers to come up with an origin story for his vampires, rather than...

United Kingdom on Aug 26, 2011

Mr. A. I. Harrison: Well like most of the fantasy reading world, I have more or less given up on ever getting another installment of the Fire and Ice series, so looked to GRR Martin's back catalogue for a 'fix'. Of the many offerings this looked the most promising written back in '82, I would say, just before George became the total master of his craft. But only just, as there is a huge amount here to relish. For one, the atmospheric and convincing setting on the wide and meandering rivers of the deep south, where I was by the end of the book, convinced I was being bitten by the mosies myself.

Then there is the gradual bond between the stories two main characters Abner Marsh the grizzled, fat, warty old riverboat man and the mysterious pale stranger York. Starting with deep mistrust and ending in the very best of friendships.

I would say the gap between this and the later 'Game of Thrones' is just the depth of character portrayal was not quite so deep and convincing. In that classic fantasy series even minor figures leap off the page and confront you in full 3D actuality whereas the lesser people in this just left me groping a bit for a sense of who they were.

In fact after the...

United Kingdom on Oct 06, 2010