Dying of the Light by George RR Martin

[Werthead]

My review:

Worlorn is a world without a sun, ejected from its home system by a supernova millions of years ago and now hurtling out of the Galaxy. For a few years as it passed the colossal red supergiant Fat Satan and is attendant stars Worlon became a Festival Planet, with millions flocking from the outer worlds to spend a decade partying before it passed beyond the edge of the Galaxy. Now the Festival is over, its peoples all but gone, leaving behind a few die-hards determined to stay as long as possible before the planet freezes and becomes cloaked in eternal night.

Dirk t'Larien is summoned to Worlorn by his former lover, Gwen Delvano, for a reason she will not specify. On Worlorn Dirk finds Gwen the lover and bonded partner of Jaantony Riv Wolf high-Ironjade Vikary, a visionary leader from the barbarous world of High Kavalaan, but as he learns more about the Kavalar he becomes convinced that Gwen is trapped in a life she does not want. However, as Worlon passes into the night, greater stakes are raised and Dirk finds himself caught in a desperate struggle for survival.

Dying of the Light was George RR Martin's first novel, published in 1977. It is set in his SF 'Thousand World's' mileu, but no prior knowledge of the setting is required. As GRRM's first experience of the long-form novel, it is perhaps unsurprising that Dying of the Light is somewhat rough around the edges, lacking the trademark expert pacing of his later works. The first half of the novel is terribly drawn out. Whilst Worlorn, its flora and fauna and its dying cities are beautifully described, there is the feeling of the plot meandering around without a purpose for a while. In the second half, the book's various strands coalesce into a much more driven storyline and the pacing ramps up to the ambiguous finale in a manner which is classic GRRM.

The protagonists are well-drawn. Once again (see also many of the short stories in Dreamsongs), anyone who has been been through a painful or awkward relationship can identify with GRRM's main characters, Dirk and Gwen. The Kavalar are also a well-drawn species, whose complex codes of honour are logical, although the exploitation of legalistic loopholes in their traditions and customs occasionally makes the book feel like a 'Klingon honour' episode of Star Trek. Some may also bemoan the Butch & Sundance-style ending.

Overall, the novel has aged reasonably well, although the odd pacing means the first half of the book has a tendency to drag somewhat. Once the reader hits the second half of the novel, however, things improve immeasurably. As usual, it's fun finding precursors to George's later work (particularly the similarities between Bretan and A Song of Ice and Fire's Sandor Clegane), but Dying of the Light is a somewhat slight work compared to ASoIaF, Fevre Dream or The Armageddon Rag.

Dying of the Light (***½) is published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom and by Bantam Spectra in the United States.

 

[Slyde]

I am reading it right now. You're right about the first half being drawn out. I'm in the second half now and things are happening faster.

Overall, I'm enjoying the story and the characters, and your comparison of Bretan and Sandor is right on !

 

[Slyde]

I just finished "A Dying of the Light" and I enjoyed it.

I did like Fevre Dream better, and of course all of the ASoIaF even better, but this was definitely enjoyable reading.

A couple of things I noticed:

• He used the term "fever dream" at least twice in the book (guess he was already thinking about his next novel)
• He killed off some characters just as I was getting to like them (sound familiar ?)
• The ending was left for the reader's interpretation, although the outcome seemed fairly certain. I hope he doesn't do that again in ASoIaF. He did end Fevre Dream nicely.

 

[J-Sun]

Just finished this. Unlike most people, I've never read the ASOIAF stuff but come to Martin via his earlier short fiction, especially "A Song for Lya" and the Haviland Tuff stories. This first novel of his is his first novel of mine, too.

I'm ordinarily the first person to say a book's too slow or long and, while if it errs on any side, it would be that rather than the "too action-packed and short" side, I was still fascinated almost every step of the way. The only exceptions were a couple of places when I thought the plot was taking a wrong course, such as around Dirk's scheduled duel, but it always almost immediately made me accept the new direction and, indeed, a big part of it was that the plot was always going in the right direction in intent but you sometimes had to circle around a second time to get there. I will grant that it starts slower than its cruising speed, though. But I thought it was initially fine and then picked up only a third of the way in, rather than half, around Chapter 6 and Dirk's encounter with Bretan.

You can definitely see the fantasy author in this, with the power of names, the archaic cultures (amidst "modern" ones), and a certain disinterest in tech for its own sake but it also elaborates a fascinating galactic background and does have tech and achieves effects only SF can and that the SF fan can appreciate. So it should appeal to most people. Martin's various human cultures create entities more alien than aliens and he almost out-Cherryhs Cherryh. I'm a huge fan of The Faded Sun trilogy which basically came out the year after this novel and has a similar approach of the fish-out-of-water in some strange sociological atmosphere. (Of course, Cherryh does that in most of her novels.) Also, I've seen others project forward to ASOIAF characters but I go back: while taking a very different approach to fictionalizing it, I see resemblances to the two characters and their relationship in "A Song for Lya". There's a sense of isolation even in proximity and a sense of thwarted transcendence - the gravity of the mundane - or however it might be viewed. With "Lya", it's striving forward to a religious weirdness and with Dying, it's a striving backwards to what was, but neither is what's here and human. That said, the book, like the story, managed to avoid a sort of pervasive 70s SF maudlin effect.

Rather than plot/pacing I think the only real weakness is that Gwen is apparently mind-blowingly magnetic to every man around her of every type and I didn't really see it. But, then, part of it is that she seems to be a perfect projection medium, as one of the points is Dirk being in love with an idol of the mind named Jenny, rather than Gwen. And I found Dirk to be just a little too passive as a protagonist. I get that he's from an "advanced" and "civilized" world and he finally does begin to take action but, while maybe unavoidable in the context of the story, he just could have used more zip. But, there again, Martin did a very good job with characterization generally, somewhat as he did with plot shifts. I thought it was interesting how my opinions of the characters (particularly Jaan, Janacek, and Ruark) kept shifting, not via inconsistencies but just via greater knowledge and understanding. No one ever seemed really "evil" or "good" or someone I purely liked or disliked (except as one character - who I knew/guessed various things about - became more of a known quantity - but even he had likeable or amusing aspects).

On the ending, I ordinarily hate that sort of thing but, in a way, it seemed right. And I agree with Slyde, that it actually was pretty clear.

Anyway - I was just really absorbed in this, which rarely happens these days, even with things I like, and I did like this a lot - one of the three best novels I've read all year and in fairly small company generally.

 

[Ursa major]

It's definitely worth persevering through the first parts. I borrowed the book from the library and had to renew it a couple of times, because I couldn't get past the first couple of dozen pages. However, with the prospect looming of returning it unread, or renewing it again, I sat down and read it through. I only wish I'd got further earlier.

There were one or two choices his protagonist made which I wasn't initially happy with (such as - trying to avoid spoilers - misreporting one major character's motivations to another major character), but it's clear why that happened and thinking about it, I think GRRM called it correctly.

Well worth a read.