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.
I've started it and it was like every other book by this author - extremely boring, dunno why his books are so popular.
To try and take this thread in a different direction, what are some vampire books you would recommend over this one?
I really liked "with teeth" very short, but vampires there are very primal and predatory. I've tried to read "let the right one in", disturbing and tbh movie is better, but novel isn't bad, just not for everyone.
"out of the dark" has lol wtf vampires, but not bad in general.