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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Just wow. Incredible. ASOIAF is amazing but this book needs it's own hype. Incredible, beautiful, scary and impossible to put down.
3-3½ stars.
Loved the setting but the bad guy was disappointing.
Loved the setting but the bad guy was disappointing.
Me ha gustado mucho, y cómo no, si era como ver el mundo de Anne Rice a través de los ojos de George RR Martin. Los personajes que hace este hombre son brutales. Súper bien escrito, intrigante y me ha enganchado de principio a fin.
It's kind of like George R. R. Martin read Interview with the Vampire and was like, "That was cool. You know what would make it better? Boats."
This would have been so much better if I had given half a shit about boats.
Let me say this right out front so no one thinks this is where I'm going: this is far from a copy-cat and I'm not at all saying it's a rip-off of anything Rice has done. (for reals, no sarcasm)
It does feel heavily influenced. Not like fan-fiction level influenced. But fuckin' heavily, ham-fistedly, enthusiastically influenced. Like Rice and Martin were in the same godsdamned writers' circle and talked way too damn much.
This is the bit that bothers me the most:
Vampire Steamboats: Joshua York was born in 1785 in provincial France to a minor noble.
Vampire Chronicles: Lestat de Lioncourt was born in 1758 in provincial France to a minor noble.
'kay.
For the life of me, I can't remember how much of Lestat's past was mentioned in Interview (and The Vampire Lestat was published *after* Fevre Dream). And maybe Rice read Fevre Dream before writing The Vampire Lestat and was all "1785? Sounds good." and pulled a 1984 and flipped some numbers.
But let's face it, Joshua York has a loooooooooooot in common with broody, self-hating, rat-eating, traipse-around-Europe-looking-for-answers-oh-look-I-found-other-vampires!, whiny, intolerable Louis. Like a lot, a lot.
Anywho.
I was attracted to the settings, initially. New Orleans? Yassss. St. Louis? Sweet; I've been there. New Albany? Pfft, what? Someone put New Albany, Indiana in a book? Why? (Boats, that's why.) Whatever, that's cool. I can practically see my house from there.
Thing is, it's not really set in any of those places. It's really, kinda just set on the Mississippi River.
In the dark.
Which is fine. They still go through those places and stop in those places and you do get some nice descriptions of New Orleans. (Though mostly about how dirty, diseased, and seedy it was.)
Second thing that got my attention (obv) was what I consider to be golden-age vampires (post Rice, pre Meyer). Ooooh yeas.
Trouble is, Martin's aren't very interesting. The only thing particularly unique about them is that they're more sci-fi than fantasy ().
But look. It's vampires, yeah? They don't need to be unique. You can have the same old, classic vampire tropes time after time as long as you write a good story. Drinking blood? Aversion to sunlight? Garlic? Silver? Mirrors? Crucifixes? Running water? Coffins? Graveyard dirt? Bats? Mist? Mind control? Flight? Speed? Strength? Really, take your pick. People like me will eat it up as long as they don't fucking sparkle and ejaculate rainbows. [link to come]
But goddamn. Damon Julian, the villain, is pretty much just evil because evil. He's bored. And *Ca-RAAzzzyyyY!* or some shit. But then he's not. But then he is again. But then blood or something "brought him to the surface" or whatever.
I'm all for evil vampires being evil monsters pretty much by nature but shit, man, he's a sentient being; give him some goddamn motivation. He's two-dimensional and bland aside from sporadic, horrifying violence, committed seemingly solely to illustrate how eeeeeviiill he is. For realz. There's no reason for any of it. Damon Julian's pure kill-a-baby-kick-a-puppy evil because reasons.
Meanwhile, Joshua's just all like, "Let me sing you the song of my people, Abner. There are a lot of lyrics about blood. I hope you don't have anywhere to be or like, deliveries to make, or passengers to drop off, or -pfft- a business to run or something. lol God, can you imagine? So anyway, there I was talking to Lord Byron..."
Fucking Byron.
At least Joshua has something resembling motivation. He's out to save his people. All, like, twelve of them.
He's painfully bad at it, btw.
And he LIES! For no reason, what the hell! That was unnecessary, sir!
And Valerie. UGH.
Now, for some good points, the two main human characters were well done:
Abner Marsh, the overall main character, legit had motivation and backstory. He's a pretty simple guy. He likes steamboats. He's stupid in love with his steamboats. The Fevre Dream is the love of his life. He's fallen on hard times and all of his hopes and dreams and the promise of redemption are wrapped up in this boat. She's gonna be the fastest damn steamer on the river. She's gonna be damn famous. And even if things don't turn out exactly like he wants, goddamnit, she's still a damn pretty boat. *mists up a bit* He's also fat and ugly as sin and kind of a dick (I think he 'roared' more often than 'said' his lines). The Fevre Dream is the best lady he's ever gonna get. But that's fine because she's all he ever wanted. *mists up bit again*
I didn't expect to like him (he's kind of a dick, like I said) but he turned out to be surprisingly likable.
Sour Billy Tipton is Julian's thrall/ human servant / whatever you want to call him. He's a self-serving jackass with the exact opposite of a moral compass. He wants to be immortal and doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else. That's pretty much how you get into the thrall business. He's got a chip on his shoulder. He wants respect. He's entitled and cowardly and dangerously clever. This is the kind of guy no one ever kills preemptively in zombie movies even though you've been screaming at the tv for days and look at what he just did you told. them. so. Didn't you tell them? Youfuckingtoldthem.
Tl;dr plot summary: Abner's steamboat business is struggling hard. Joshua York comes in and is all "What up? I need a boat and I've got money and weird habits. Wanna partner up?" So they partner up and build a boat and then Joshua is IMMEDIATELY bad for business and fucks everything up with vampire fuckery. *insert bromance* *insert big bad* The fight for vampire kind and also boats is on!
Alright. I just wanna say right now that the back cover is misleading.
Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition. Joshua York put up the money for Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped his dreams become reality.
Does that sound like a bromance to you? Cuz it doesn't sound like a bromance to me.
It sounds a lot like Joshua's gonna be the big bad. Which he wasn't. Obv. At all. Ever.
Wtf.
These are Joshua style lies. Unnecessary and y tho? I'd've read the book anyway.
Yeah, I'm a little disappointed because the plot line hinted at seems more interesting and sinister to me than the one I was given. But I'd've read it, dammit.
And this bromance. Goddamnit. Idk why Abner likes the guy. All he does is act stupid. He fucks up his business with constant delays and then with AN ACTUAL FUCKING VAMPIRE INFESTATION, needlessly lies about shit like why there are mirrors and silver on the ship (ffs, you gave him an inch, just give him the fucking mile), and then sends that GODDAMN LETTER for what reason? Just to fuck with Abner's emotions??? He doesn't need Abner specifically for that job. (which could've been done at any time goddamnit, they didn't need to wait
*grump*
This is one of those books that I'd like better as a movie. I'd be all on board with this as a cheesy, vampire, gore-fest. The ending, specifically, is just made for silver-screen glory. On paper, I've got too much time to examine it. On screen, I'd be all "OMGWTFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The writing itself is not bad but it's simple. Maybe it's because I'm deep in a Rice re-read streak and I'm expecting a certain level of decadence and loquacious detail, but this came off as one step above Hemingway. Pretty no-words-lost. The prose is often written in character along with the dialogue and I was a fan there. I found it more immersive and that's never a bad thing.
Overall.... meh. It was fine. I liked Abner. I wish I cared about boats. I gave Interview 3 stars too. I'd read whatever came next in the series if this were one. (Sorry I hated on your book so much, John. For real, it was alright. I still trust your rec's. :P)
Tl;dr: Vampires on boats. Joshua ruins fucking everything.
This would have been so much better if I had given half a shit about boats.
Let me say this right out front so no one thinks this is where I'm going: this is far from a copy-cat and I'm not at all saying it's a rip-off of anything Rice has done. (for reals, no sarcasm)
It does feel heavily influenced. Not like fan-fiction level influenced. But fuckin' heavily, ham-fistedly, enthusiastically influenced. Like Rice and Martin were in the same godsdamned writers' circle and talked way too damn much.
This is the bit that bothers me the most:
Vampire Steamboats: Joshua York was born in 1785 in provincial France to a minor noble.
Vampire Chronicles: Lestat de Lioncourt was born in 1758 in provincial France to a minor noble.
'kay.
For the life of me, I can't remember how much of Lestat's past was mentioned in Interview (and The Vampire Lestat was published *after* Fevre Dream). And maybe Rice read Fevre Dream before writing The Vampire Lestat and was all "1785? Sounds good." and pulled a 1984 and flipped some numbers.
But let's face it, Joshua York has a loooooooooooot in common with broody, self-hating, rat-eating, traipse-around-Europe-looking-for-answers-oh-look-I-found-other-vampires!, whiny, intolerable Louis. Like a lot, a lot.
Anywho.
I was attracted to the settings, initially. New Orleans? Yassss. St. Louis? Sweet; I've been there. New Albany? Pfft, what? Someone put New Albany, Indiana in a book? Why? (Boats, that's why.) Whatever, that's cool. I can practically see my house from there.
Thing is, it's not really set in any of those places. It's really, kinda just set on the Mississippi River.
In the dark.
Which is fine. They still go through those places and stop in those places and you do get some nice descriptions of New Orleans. (Though mostly about how dirty, diseased, and seedy it was.)
Second thing that got my attention (obv) was what I consider to be golden-age vampires (post Rice, pre Meyer). Ooooh yeas.
Trouble is, Martin's aren't very interesting. The only thing particularly unique about them is that they're more sci-fi than fantasy (
Spoiler
Martin's vamps are their own species and can't "turn" humansBut look. It's vampires, yeah? They don't need to be unique. You can have the same old, classic vampire tropes time after time as long as you write a good story. Drinking blood? Aversion to sunlight? Garlic? Silver? Mirrors? Crucifixes? Running water? Coffins? Graveyard dirt? Bats? Mist? Mind control? Flight? Speed? Strength? Really, take your pick. People like me will eat it up as long as they don't fucking sparkle and ejaculate rainbows. [link to come]
But goddamn. Damon Julian, the villain, is pretty much just evil because evil. He's bored. And *Ca-RAAzzzyyyY!* or some shit. But then he's not. But then he is again. But then blood or something "brought him to the surface" or whatever.
I'm all for evil vampires being evil monsters pretty much by nature but shit, man, he's a sentient being; give him some goddamn motivation. He's two-dimensional and bland aside from sporadic, horrifying violence, committed seemingly solely to illustrate how eeeeeviiill he is. For realz. There's no reason for any of it. Damon Julian's pure kill-a-baby-kick-a-puppy evil because reasons.
Meanwhile, Joshua's just all like, "Let me sing you the song of my people, Abner. There are a lot of lyrics about blood. I hope you don't have anywhere to be or like, deliveries to make, or passengers to drop off, or -pfft- a business to run or something. lol God, can you imagine? So anyway, there I was talking to Lord Byron..."
Fucking Byron.
At least Joshua has something resembling motivation. He's out to save his people. All, like, twelve of them.
He's painfully bad at it, btw.
And he LIES! For no reason, what the hell! That was unnecessary, sir!
And Valerie. UGH.
Spoiler
By far, the most satisfying death in the book.Now, for some good points, the two main human characters were well done:
Abner Marsh, the overall main character, legit had motivation and backstory. He's a pretty simple guy. He likes steamboats. He's stupid in love with his steamboats. The Fevre Dream is the love of his life. He's fallen on hard times and all of his hopes and dreams and the promise of redemption are wrapped up in this boat. She's gonna be the fastest damn steamer on the river. She's gonna be damn famous. And even if things don't turn out exactly like he wants, goddamnit, she's still a damn pretty boat. *mists up a bit* He's also fat and ugly as sin and kind of a dick (I think he 'roared' more often than 'said' his lines). The Fevre Dream is the best lady he's ever gonna get. But that's fine because she's all he ever wanted. *mists up bit again*
I didn't expect to like him (he's kind of a dick, like I said) but he turned out to be surprisingly likable.
Sour Billy Tipton is Julian's thrall/ human servant / whatever you want to call him. He's a self-serving jackass with the exact opposite of a moral compass. He wants to be immortal and doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else. That's pretty much how you get into the thrall business. He's got a chip on his shoulder. He wants respect. He's entitled and cowardly and dangerously clever. This is the kind of guy no one ever kills preemptively in zombie movies even though you've been screaming at the tv for days and look at what he just did you told. them. so. Didn't you tell them? Youfuckingtoldthem.
Tl;dr plot summary: Abner's steamboat business is struggling hard. Joshua York comes in and is all "What up? I need a boat and I've got money and weird habits. Wanna partner up?" So they partner up and build a boat and then Joshua is IMMEDIATELY bad for business and fucks everything up with vampire fuckery. *insert bromance* *insert big bad* The fight for vampire kind and also boats is on!
Alright. I just wanna say right now that the back cover is misleading.
Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition. Joshua York put up the money for Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped his dreams become reality.
Does that sound like a bromance to you? Cuz it doesn't sound like a bromance to me.
It sounds a lot like Joshua's gonna be the big bad. Which he wasn't. Obv. At all. Ever.
Wtf.
These are Joshua style lies. Unnecessary and y tho? I'd've read the book anyway.
Yeah, I'm a little disappointed because the plot line hinted at seems more interesting and sinister to me than the one I was given. But I'd've read it, dammit.
And this bromance. Goddamnit. Idk why Abner likes the guy. All he does is act stupid. He fucks up his business with constant delays and then with AN ACTUAL FUCKING VAMPIRE INFESTATION, needlessly lies about shit like why there are mirrors and silver on the ship (ffs, you gave him an inch, just give him the fucking mile), and then sends that GODDAMN LETTER for what reason? Just to fuck with Abner's emotions??? He doesn't need Abner specifically for that job. (which could've been done at any time goddamnit, they didn't need to wait
Spoiler
13 years and throw a goddamned vampire baby in the works to do this shit.) Furthermore, Joshua feeds Abner this story about how Julian's going to race the Fevre Dream because.........? and makes it sound like Abner might be able to get his boat back on the river. Then two seconds later Abner walks up on the moldering corpse of his steamboat and, man, that's got to be just devastating. Why set the guy up like that? He came down like 4 days worth of river on your shitty, cryptic letter just to help you out on god knows what nonsense. *ah the power of bromance* Why the hell would you do that to him?? As Abner pointed out, he would've helped you anyway. And if all it's going to take is a bullet to the noggin like.... you had 13 years, dude. Quit being such a pussy.*grump*
This is one of those books that I'd like better as a movie. I'd be all on board with this as a cheesy, vampire, gore-fest. The ending, specifically, is just made for silver-screen glory. On paper, I've got too much time to examine it. On screen, I'd be all "OMGWTFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The writing itself is not bad but it's simple. Maybe it's because I'm deep in a Rice re-read streak and I'm expecting a certain level of decadence and loquacious detail, but this came off as one step above Hemingway. Pretty no-words-lost. The prose is often written in character along with the dialogue and I was a fan there. I found it more immersive and that's never a bad thing.
Overall.... meh. It was fine. I liked Abner. I wish I cared about boats. I gave Interview 3 stars too. I'd read whatever came next in the series if this were one. (Sorry I hated on your book so much, John. For real, it was alright. I still trust your rec's. :P)
Tl;dr: Vampires on boats. Joshua ruins fucking everything.
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Vampire on a steamboat. The steamboat stuff was awesome but the vampire stuff was drawn out and boring.
Riverboats and vampires, in the antebellum South.
I was a solid four on this book until I got to the end and there was like a decade-long break in the story. Where another story would have ramped up the tension, this one throws it all away, overturns the reasons you were reading the book in the first place, introduces some last-minute plot holes, and makes the characters boring.
It felt like the author got to the climactic battle scene and went, "I don't want to be predictable!" but forgot that he also had to satisfy the reader's expectations while not being predictable.
Fortunately, his writing got better. But this was a frustrating read.
Recommended for George RR Martin completists and those delving into the horror genre's history.
I was a solid four on this book until I got to the end and there was like a decade-long break in the story. Where another story would have ramped up the tension, this one throws it all away, overturns the reasons you were reading the book in the first place, introduces some last-minute plot holes, and makes the characters boring.
It felt like the author got to the climactic battle scene and went, "I don't want to be predictable!" but forgot that he also had to satisfy the reader's expectations while not being predictable.
Fortunately, his writing got better. But this was a frustrating read.
Recommended for George RR Martin completists and those delving into the horror genre's history.
Something I read many years ago and only discovered recently was written by *that* George R R Martin. A glorious, dusty old vampire tale with long descriptions reminiscent of Anne Rice. Settle in if you're looking for some classic Gothic horror to chill your bones.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Atmospheric vampire novel set in Mississippi steamboats. A fun read!