I was reading some discussions online about recommendations for vampire novels and a bunch of people recommended GRRM’s Fevre Dream. I’d never heard of it so I read the description and it sounds… pretty bland? It’s about a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River in the 1850s who gets hired by an aristocratic vampire. While I’m sure the description is avoiding spoilers, that all sounds very boring to me. Yet the amazon page proclaims it “A THRILLING REINVENTION OF THE VAMPIRE NOVEL” so I must be missing something.

I’m guessing this is one of those dramatic period pieces with thought-provoking conversations between well-defined characters. And maybe I’m just a simple-minded idiot who prefers action movies like Underworld, Blade, and Van Helsing and this novel simply isn’t for me. That’s fair. Or maybe that description is leaving out too much and it’s actually an action-packed thrill-ride. I have no idea.

So If you’ve read Fevre Dream before, what’s the appeal? What’s so great about this novel? It seems highly regarded but that doesn’t mean it’s for me. I’m sure there are other people here who might enjoy it though, so definitely check it out if you’re curious. Obviously the novel does something right, I just don’t know what that is.

    • nesc@lemmy.cafeEnglish
      4·
      16 hours ago

      Yes, everyone who disagrees with you is actually trolling there is no possible world where people can dislike a book author with controversial writing style. /s

      • SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        12 hours ago

        I dunno what to tell you man, if you think Tolstoy is a bad writer maybe you need to reassess your standards.

        • nesc@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          2·
          11 hours ago

          Sincerely I believe his novels to be torturous and think of him as graphomaniac, there is weird cult around classic authors, like they were some kind of unbelievable geniuses. They weren’t. Some were good, most were bad, same as today. Their popularity is due to being either part of the nobility and/or being one of the few authors at the time.

          • SamuraiBeandog@lemmy.worldEnglish
            11·
            10 hours ago

            Like I’ve said multiple times now, it’s fine if you prefer simpler writing but to completely dismiss writers like Tolstoy just because you’re bored by them is just the height of ignorance.

            • nesc@lemmy.cafeEnglish
              1·
              2 hours ago

              It’s you, not me, just accept that they aren’t universally great. Again, your hubris is staggering, they aren’t complex literature, they just old.