Fevre Dream

Before he began writing Game of Thrones, George RR Martin was mainly known as a horror and science fiction writer. For a long time his most famous work was “SandKings,” about a wealthy cynic whose taste for exotic alien pets spirals out of control. Other popular stories of his include the short story “The Pear Shaped Man” which may put you off eating cheese doodles forever, and my favorite “night flyers” about a group of scientists journeying in a mysterious spaceship to contact a new life form. “SandKings” has been adapted very successfully for television, night flyers less so. Read on to learn about our review of Fevre Dream.

From Sci-Fi to Historical Horror, George R.R. Martin Does it All in Fevre Dream

Standing squarely in the historical horror genre, “Fevre Dream” published in 1982 is best described as a cross between Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” and Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi.” The novel follows the adventures of Abner Marsh, who in 1858 is a down on his luck river boat captain who gets the chance to build his dream boat by a mysterious benefactor named Joshua, whose money comes with certain strings attached –namely that he be named co-captain and that Marsh must never interfere with his own strange activities.

Julian locks himself in his room all day, insists on frequent and inconvenient stops along the river in which he disappears alone into the woods, sometimes returning covered in blood, and drinks a distinctive wine that Marsh finds inedible. Julian is of course a vampire, but with a twist.

Life on the Antebellum River Boat 

While this is certainly a horror novel, with plenty of blood and violence, the most engaging sections of the book happen when Martin is simply portraying life on an antebellum River boat. His descriptions of the mechanics of running a boat, including what kinds of passengers and cargo it takes on, how often it needs to stop to pick up more wood for fuel, the operations of the  steam engines and the challenges pilots face navigating an ever changing river, are surprisingly interesting. The most exciting  scenes in the book  involve races down the river with other river boats. The first time for prestige and later, survival.

Martin’s Love of Bizarre Feasts

One thing fans of the Song of Ice and Fire series of books can look forward to here is Martin’s loving description of elaborate and bizarre feasts. Abner Marsh is a large man who eats chickens in multiples at a time, followed by antique and bizarre side dishes and pies of all kinds. Even his vampires indulge in human food. Earlier I mentioned the obvious inspiration Martin took from Anne Rice and Mark Twain, but there’s another writer who I think may have influenced the big twist in this book, namely his  friend and occasional collaborater Chris Claremont. 

The original creators of Marvel Comics’ X-Men were Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, but by far the most influential person in the development of that title was Claremont, who was then at the height of his 17 year run as writer of the series.  I bring this up because the big twist in Fevre Dream is that Martin’s vampires aren’t vampires at all, but a separate species born with the attributes and powers  we associate with vampires.

Joshua’s  strange trips ashore during the Fevre Dream’s Maiden Voyage isn’t to feed on human blood, it’s to recruit others of his kind and convert them to his pacifist way of life. In this he is opposed by Damon Julian, who views humans as cattle and oversees a coven of vampires and their human thrall who does their dirty work under the mistaken belief that he will be turned into one of them eventually.

Our Final Thoughts on Fevre Dream

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for this kind of story, but I enjoyed the battle of wills between Joshua and Julian, as well as Marsh’s often bewildered attempts to help his friend while losing his own dream and way of life along the way. This isn’t a life-changing book by any means, and certainly won’t get a mention in Martin’s obituary, but it’s definitely a fun read and worth your time, and may entice you to read some of his earlier works while you wait, possibly forever, for the winds of winter.