Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The immortality of friendship, 27 Oct 2003
Reading throught he other reviews on this page you would appreciate how wonderful this book actually is, but you may be misguided in your belief that this is a 'horror novel'. Simply put, it is not.
The novel features Vampires, sure enough a main staple of many a horror novel over the years, all the way back to Bram Stoker, but they are not the central feature of this story. The central and most important element to this whole tale is the theme of friendship and trust across whatever boundaries you should choose.
Abner is a financially broken man, disasters have consumed his minor shipping fleet and left him with a tired old ship. One night he is approached about building a new ship, one which will be his, but he will not have to pay for, on the condition that the financier is able to stop as often and as long as he chooses on the first voyage.
After a reticent start, the two men forge a partnership which develops into friendship.
The story is brilliantly woven and is a very easy read because, as my fellow reviewers have claimed, the book cannot be put down.
To the end you are gripped and involved with every twist and turn, atmosphere cradling you throughout.
But be warned, if you have a single emotional bone in your body, tears will be shed upon the final page.
|
|
|
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book not to be overlooked!, 4 Oct 2002
I'm ashamed to admit that I had never heard of this book before, or even of its author. I purchased this book purely on impulse. Now I've finished it I can safely say it is one of the best novels I have ever read - in any genre. It is a minor masterpiece that deserves to be better acknowledged (at least as the best vampire novel ever written - better even the Bram's original!).This book has everything - tons of atmosphere, horror, action, emotion, thought provoking morals and two excellent lead characters, plus one superb villian. Also (and maybe most importantly) Fevre Dream is simply a fun read. Set around the mid nineteenth century the story may seem a little bizarre - a vampire riverboat captain riding the Mississippi searching for other vampires. But a good book is still a good book no matter what it's subject matter so even if your reading tastes does not usually include horror fantasy please still consider giving this a try. You will not regret it!
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last, a completely new and original take on vampires, 21 Jan 2007
No longer re-animated corpses possessed by demons, but a race of beings in their own right. Vampires live for centuries though they cannot survive for long in the sunlight; they are stronger and faster than humans; they possess the power to mesmerize humans into doing their bidding; and once a month, the "red thirst" comes on them, driving them to drink human blood.
One of the most powerful of these "vampires" has just become Abner Marsh's new partner. His name is Joshua York, and he needs transportation along the Mississippi (and a place to hide from the sun) so that he can search for others of his people who have fled the Old World for the New. Joshua believes he can save them: he has invented a drink that suppresses the "red thirst" thus making it possible for the "People of the Night" to live alongside humans for the first time.
But Joshua is about to find out that not all his people want to be saved. Some of them are, in fact, rather enjoying their existence as unkillable blood-drinking demons - notably the ancient, powerful bloodmaster Damon Julian, who may yet bring all Joshuas dreams for his people to a bloody end.
I've always loved vampire stories, and this one is exceptional. Comparisons with Anne Rice are, given the setting, inevitable. The rotting Louisiana swamps are a marvellous setting for any horror story. Martin conjurs up the same humid atmosphere of decay in the swamps and slums of New Orleans, contrasting it with the glittering beauty of the richer parts of the city - and, of course, the steamboats themselves - that Rice describes so vivdly; but he makes his protagonists a lot more interesting. No self-obsessed Lestat here, searching for his own personal redemption. (Or maybe not. You can never be quite sure with Lestat, can you? Anyway. I digress.)
Joshua is trying to save his entire race, searching for a way for them to live with humans before they die out - or are destroyed. Martin has created a whole mythology for the People of the Night, making them the hunted not the hunters, giving them a depth and character that far surpasses any other vampires in books or on screen. Along with some serious horror, lots of blood and the odd Byron quotation, this book becomes a story you're not likely to forget. I for one want don't want to.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
by George R.R. Martin
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home