Dying of the Light
Page 36
“It’s great . . . slowly unfolds its horrors like petals of some corrupt flower. . . . There were moments when I was frightened to turn the page. . . . Simply but masterfully written, I can’t believe Fevre Dream won’t be one of the best five horror novels this year.”
—New York City Limits
“George R. R. Martin has established himself as a major talent in the realms of science fiction and fantasy. . . . This novel is classic horror-fare: it is fine writing and happens to scare the bejeezus out of you as well.”
—Daily Texan
“The best vampire novel since Suzy McKee Charnas’ The Vampire Tapestry: generally understated, firmly grounded in the Twain-worthy steamboat setting, abundantly creepy . . . and modestly resonant in the portrayal of inter-species camaraderie.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Skillfully balances historical realism and flights into fantasy and obsession. Its characters linger in the mind, along with the beauty of the great boats and the greater river.” —Locus
“Filled with rich characters and almost continual suspense . . . the best vampire novel I’ve read, and Martin’s recreation of the 1850s along the Mississippi is the equal of the best historical novels.”
—Science Fiction Review
“You normally don’t think of vampires and steamboats at the same time, but in Fevre Dream, George R. R. Martin has taken this unlikely combination and turned out a novel that goes beyond either historical fiction or horror. . . . Memorable characters, believable backgrounds, and realistic plots and situations . . . To describe the book as ‘haunting’ may be trite, but odds are you’ll find yourself thinking about the situation, and the characters, for days after you finish reading it.”
—Amazing
“Fresh and interesting . . . One addition to the literature for vampiromaniacs that is worth taking a look at.” —Asimov’s
“Eminently cinematic . . . an engrossing, thoroughly readable story which is rich in detail and has a vivid cast of characters. The jacket blurb compares Martin with Stephen King and Peter Straub, and for once the comparison is justified.”
—Starburst
“A terrific book, a treasure, an achievement, and a unique reading experience . . . The story is told in a crisp, clean style, both subtle and haunting. . . . This novel has it all: atmosphere, mood, a unique blend of history and legend. . . . The characterization is vivid and the clash between good and evil marks an all-time high for believability and rousing impact. Fevre Dream will surely become a horror classic, and a standard by which later, similar works will be judged. Very highly recommended.” —Fantastic Films
“A skillful blend of adventure, supernatural horror, and accurate historical settings . . . Exceptionally good, this deserves superlatives in almost every respect.” —Science Fiction Chronicle
“Martin is, by his own account, an artist of sunsets; his fin de siècle canvas may variously take in dying planets, the death of the modern age, or the long decline of chivalry, but loss is always the keynote, and the mood is ever a frenzied celebration of a glory that is passing. . . . Martin relates a grand adventure, but his true subject is the anatomy of the tomb, whether the entombment is that of an individual, a way of life, a nation, or a species. . . . Unfolds with an elegant, sensuous grotesquerie that has few parallels in literature . . . The riverboats and the plantations and the vampires roar a mighty defiance in their dying, raging (in a powerful echo of an earlier Martin novel) against the dying of the light. . . . A superb novel.” —Infinity Plus
“Not only a compelling novel, but also a powerful tale of supernatural terror—one of the very few books which are satisfying on both those levels. Frightening, moving, haunting, beautiful, with utterly believable characters, both human and other, it can hold its own against any horror novel by any writer of his generation. It looks to me as if Fevre Dream makes him one of the most impressive new writers in the field.”
—Ramsey Campbell
“Will delight fans of both Stephen King and Mark Twain . . . Darkly romantic, chilling and rousing by turns, moody and memorable, Martin’s novel is a thundering success.” —Roger Zelazny
“What an idea! A picaresque journey down a river of terror. The subtle atmosphere of menace grows and grows until toward the end it becomes almost unendurable. Add to that a fresh vision of the vampire, a lot of historical fun, and you have one very special horror novel.”
—Whitley Strieber
DYING OF THE LIGHT
“The Wild West in outer space, complete with a chase that will keep you awake. Slick science fiction.” —Los Angeles Times
“The galactic background is excellent. . . . Martin knows how to hold the readers and will probably be one of our finest novelists of the next decade.” —Asimov’s
“The kind of imagination that makes science fiction worth reading . . . An effective, affecting story.” —Galaxy Magazine
“Something special which will keep Worlorn and its people in the reader’s mind long after the final page is read.” —Galileo Magazine
“George R. R. Martin has the voice of a poet and a mind like a steel trap.” —Algis Budrys
“Even in the best science fiction stories, it is rare to find a genuine alien culture that is believable and self-consistent. George R. R. Martin’s novel presents several such cultures, and forces them into conflicts that bring out the best—and the worst—in the human characters who make this story live, breathe and bleed.” —Ben Bova
“Wonderful, rich-tapestried. The excitement and strangeness are still there after the last sentence.”—A. E. van Vogt
“Each of George R. R. Martin’s stories is a gem, cut with verve and polished with abundant skill, reflecting the face of humanity in its many facets—its mood colored, highlighted by a master of misplay . . . by a lover of his tools and trade.”—Roger Zelazny
WINDHAVEN
with Lisa Tuttle
“The pace never slackens, shifting easily from moments of almost unbearable tension to others of sheer poetry and exhilaration. Martin and Tuttle make wonderful professional music together.”
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Twenty years after the first publication of this novel, it still stands the test of time.” —Talebones
“Windhaven is a powerful flight of the imagination, a tale well-told . . . an entirely enjoyable reading experience, wrought by a pair of writers noted for excellence.” —Roger Zelazny
“I didn’t mean to stay up all night to finish Windhaven but I had to!”
—Anne McCaffrey
“Told with a true storyteller’s voice: clear, singing, persuasive, and wonderfully moving. They have made a mythic land and peopled it with unforgettable characters. It is a book for adults and children who have dreamed of flying with their own wings, and for story listeners of all ages for whom dreams are as potent as realities. A truly wonderful book.” —Jane Yolen
“It’s a romance. It’s science fantasy. It’s beautiful.”—A. E. van Vogt
“A beautiful and moving book. It carries the reader through a fascinating society and through the life of a courageous, memorable woman. . . . I’m sure this will be a big awards contender; it certainly deserves to be.” —Joan D. Vinge
And for A Song of Ice and Fire
A GAME OF THRONES
“Reminiscent of T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, this novel is an absorbing combination of the mythic, the sweepingly historical, and the intensely personal.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“I always expect the best from George R. R. Martin, and he always delivers. A Game of Thrones grabs hold and won’t let go. It’s brilliant.” —Robert Jordan
“Such a splendid tale and such a fantistorical! I read my eyes out.”—Anne McCaffrey
“Martin makes a triumphant return to high fantasy. . . . [His] trophy case is already stuffed with major prizes, including Hugos, Nebulas, Locus Awards and a Bram Stoker. He’s probably going to have to add another shelf, at least.” �
��Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A vast, rich saga, with splendid characters and an intricate plot flawlessly articulated against a backdrop of real depth and texture.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“The keen and complex human characters and the convincing force of their surroundings operate as magic . . . setting George R. R. Martin’s first fantasy epic well above the norms of the genre.” —Locus
“It is perhaps the best of the epic fantasies—readable and realistic.”
—Marion Zimmer Bradley
“The major fantasy of the decade . . . compulsively readable.”
—Denver Post
“George R. R. Martin is one of our very best science fiction writers, and this is one of his very best books.” —Raymond E. Feist
“We have been invited to a grand feast and pageant: George R. R. Martin has unveiled for us an intensely realized, romantic but realistic world. . . . If the next two volumes are as good as this one, it will be a wonderful feast indeed.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“I would be very surprised if this is not the major fantasy publishing event of 1996, and I’m already impatient for the next installment.”
—Science Fiction Chronicle
“A colorful, majestic tapestry of characters, action and plot that deserves a spot on any reader’s wall . . . The pages seem to pass in a blur as you read.” —Albuquerque Journal
“George Martin is assuredly a new master craftsman in the guild of heroic fantasy.” —Katharine Kerr
“A Game of Thrones offers the rich tapestry that the very best fantasy demands: iron and steel within the silk, grandeur within the wonder, and characters torn between deep love and loyalty. Few created worlds are as imaginative and diverse. George R. R. Martin is to be applauded.”
—Janny Wurts
“A dazzling fantasy adventure . . . with a great cast of characters that weave a tapestry of court intrigue, skullduggery, vicious betrayal and greathearted sacrifice.” —Julian May
“Terrific, incredibly powerful, with phenomenal characterizations and exquisite writing.” —Teresa Medeiros
“The characterization was superb, the story vivid and heartbreaking. . . . When is the next one coming out?” —Linda Howard
A CLASH OF KINGS
“A truly epic fantasy set in a world bedecked with 8,000 years of history, beset by an imminent winter that will last ten years and bedazzled by swords and spells wielded to devastating effect . . . Here he provides a banquet for fantasy lovers with large appetites.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Martin amply fulfills the first volume’s promise and continues what seems destined to be one of the best fantasy series ever written.”
—Denver Post
“High fantasy with a vengeance.” —San Diego Union-Tribune
“Rivals T. H. White’s The Once and Future King.”
—Des Moines Register
“So complex, fascinating and well-rendered, readers will almost certainly be hooked by the whole series.” —Oregonian
“The richness of this invented world and its cultures lends Mr. Martin’s novels the feeling of medieval history rather than fiction—except, of course, that he knows how to entertain.” —Dallas Morning News
A STORM OF SWORDS
“One of the more rewarding examples of gigantism in contemporary fantasy . . . richly imagined.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“George R. R. Martin continues to take epic fantasy to new levels of insight and sophistication, resonant with the turmoils and stress of the world we call our own.” —Locus
“Martin creates a gorgeously and intricately textured world, peopled with absolutely believable and fascinating characters.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“High fantasy doesn’t get any better than this.” —Oregonian
“A riveting continuation of a series whose brilliance continues to dazzle.” —Patriot News
“Enough grit and action to please even the most macho . . . a page-turner.” —Dallas Morning News
“The latest and the best in a powerful . . . cycle that delivers real people and a page-turning plot.” —Contra Costa Times
“Like a cross between a complicated game of chess, a quirky Stephen King tale and Braveheart, Martin’s epic advances his series with gritty characterizations, bold plot moves and plenty of action.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“The third volume of what is shaping up to be one of the major fantasy works of all time . . . even the minor characters are realistic and engaging. . . . This is one of the major fantasy events of the year, and the series as a whole is likely to achieve the same status as the works of Caball, Tolkien and Eddison. If you are a fantasy fan and you’re not reading Martin, you’re cheating yourself of some of the best the field has to offer.”
—Science Fiction Chronicle
“Martin’s magnum opus is a powerful and stunning achievement. Don’t miss it.” —SciFi.com
Be sure not to miss the other recent
George R. R. Martin classic reissues
FEVRE DREAM
Currently available from Bantam Spectra
“A chilling vampire novel that will have those little hairs on the back of your neck standing at constant attention . . . a five-star beauty [and one of] the best two books of the season.” —Boston News Digest
“Spectacular, simply one of the best frighteners to appear in years . . . inventive, lucid and genuinely scary.”
—Time Out London
“Will delight fans of both Stephen King and Mark Twain . . . Darkly romantic, chilling and rousing by turns, moody and memorable, Martin’s novel is a thundering success.”
—Roger Zelazny
FEVRE DREAM
ON SALE NOW
1
St. Louis
April 1857
Abner Marsh rapped the head of his hickory walking stick smartly on the hotel desk to get the clerk’s attention. “I’m here to see a man named York,” he said. “Josh York, I believe he calls hisself. You got such a man here?”
The clerk was an elderly man with spectacles. He jumped at the sound of the rap, then turned and spied Marsh and smiled. “Why, it’s Cap’n Marsh,” he said amiably. “Ain’t seen you for half a year, Cap’n. Heard about your misfortune, though. Terrible, just terrible. I been here since ’36 and I never seen no ice jam like that one.”
“Never you mind about that,” Abner Marsh said, annoyed. He had anticipated such comments. The Planters’ House was a popular hostelry among steamboatmen. Marsh himself had dined there regularly before that cruel winter. But since the ice jam he’d been staying away, and not only because of the prices. Much as he liked Planters’ House food, he was not eager for its brand of company: pilots and captains and mates, rivermen all, old friends and old rivals, and all of them knowing his misfortune. Abner Marsh wanted no man’s pity. “You just say where York’s room is,” he told the clerk peremptorily.
The clerk bobbed his head nervously. “Mister York won’t be in his room, Cap’n. You’ll find him in the dining room, taking his meal.”
“Now? At this hour?” Marsh glanced at the ornate hotel clock, then loosed the brass buttons of his coat and pulled out his own gold pocket watch. “Ten past midnight,” he said, incredulous. “You say he’s eatin’?”
“Yes sir, that he is. He chooses his own times, Mister York, and he’s not the sort you say no to, Cap’n.”
Abner Marsh made a rude noise deep in his throat, pocketed his watch, and turned away without a word, setting off across the richly appointed lobby with long, heavy strides. He was a big man, and not a patient one, and he was not accustomed to business meetings at midnight. He carried his walking stick with a flourish, as if he had never had a misfortune, and was still the man he had been.
The dining room was almost as grand and lavish as the main saloon on a big steamer, with cut-glass chandeliers and polished brass fixtures and
tables covered with fine white linen and the best china and crystal. During normal hours, the tables would have been full of travelers and steamboatmen, but now the room was empty, most of the lights extinguished. Perhaps there was something to be said for midnight meetings after all, Marsh reflected; at least he would have to suffer no condolences. Near the kitchen door, two Negro waiters were talking softly. Marsh ignored them and walked to the far side of the room, where a well-dressed stranger was dining alone.
The man must have heard him approach, but he did not look up. He was busy spooning up mock turtle soup from a china bowl. The cut of his long black coat made it clear he was no riverman; an Easterner then, or maybe even a foreigner. He was big, Marsh saw, though not near so big as Marsh; seated, he gave the impression of height, but he had none of Marsh’s girth. At first Marsh thought him an old man, for his hair was white. Then, when he came closer, he saw that it was not white at all, but a very pale blond, and suddenly the stranger took on an almost boyish aspect. York was clean-shaven, not a mustache nor side whiskers on his long, cool face, and his skin was as fair as his hair. He had hands like a woman, Marsh thought as he stood over the table.
He tapped on the table with his stick. The cloth muffled the sound, made it a gentle summons. “You Josh York?” he said.
York looked up, and their eyes met.
Till the rest of his days were done, Abner Marsh remembered that moment, that first look into the eyes of Joshua York. Whatever thoughts he had had, whatever plans he had made, were sucked up in the maelstrom of York’s eyes. Boy and old man and dandy and foreigner, all those were gone in an instant, and there was only York, the man himself, the power of him, the dream, the intensity.
York’s eyes were gray, startlingly dark in such a pale face. His pupils were pinpoints, burning black, and they reached right into Marsh and weighed the soul inside him. The gray around them seemed alive, moving, like fog on the river on a dark night, when the banks vanish and the lights vanish and there is nothing in the world but your boat and the river and the fog. In those mists, Abner Marsh saw things; visions swift-glimpsed and then gone. There was a cool intelligence peering out of those mists. But there was a beast as well, dark and frightening, chained and angry, raging at the fog. Laughter and loneliness and cruel passion; York had all of that in his eyes.