Fevre Dream

The haunting evocation of the vampire by the greatest living voice in Fantasy currently.

Abner Marsh, riverboat captain, is on the verge of ruin when he receives a mysterious offer of partnership that is just too good to turn down from the quiet aristocrat Joshua York. A drowning man will clutch at straws, after all. And so he takes the deal and sets out on a journey that is infinitely more dangerous and terrifying than anything he remotely suspected he was getting himself into when he accepted the deal.

George R. R. Martin is lauded far and wide for his A Song of Ice and Fire series. I think Fevre Dream may very well be his most underrated book by far. But if you go into it expecting a something similar to A Song of Ice and Fire, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

I'm a fan of vampire fiction. The first story to EVER truly capture my imagination was Dracula. The terror, the fear, the tension, the brutality, the things that story drew out of me were unlike anything I'd ever experienced. So naturally, I did what most people do with their favorite stories and pretty much leapt at everything with a vampire in sight.

Every single story I read after it fell short, until I eventually gave up in disgust, ESPECIALLY after my first forays into paranormal fantasy. None of those authors understood. AND THEN I read Fevre Dream.

Damon Julian is the greatest evocation of the vampire I have EVER encountered since that first time I read the story of Count Dracula. George R. R. Martin captures it all, the fear, the insanity, the sheer alien nature of this monster in the body of a man.

This book was every bit as captivating as you would expect a story from George R. R. Martin to be, set on the Mississippi River back in the 1800s. It could be slow at times, but this was fine, as he easily captures the feel of the setting, the era, and uses it to bring each of his unique characters to life in their own way in this haunting story of retribution.

If you're someone like me, someone that likes the legend of the vampire but completely avoids it because of what modern media has mutated it into, then this is the story you've been waiting for.