Literateur: George R.R. Martin's "Dying of the Light"

You may know this George R. R. Martin guy from the books with the games and the thrones and whatnot.

But the big guy had a rich and varied career in horror, science fiction, fantasy, and television before he started his "Song of Ice of Ice and Fire."

And this is where it all began, in 1977- his first novel, "Dying of the Light."

The writing is beautiful. Martin had a rich command of the English language right out of the gate.

The setting is awesome. In short- there's a ring of stars around a red sun and the planet we're on is just randomly drifting through space, sustaining life based on its temporary proximity to this celestial phenomena.¹

It's getting colder as the planet drifts further from the sun. You might say...WINTER IS COMING.

The last remnants of the people on the planet are fighting about this and that. Gotta fight about something. Our three main characters are in a doomed love triangle, fueled by Martin's broken heart.² It's all very emotional and affecting.

This is an insanely complex setting and story and the author crams it all into a tight 300 pages.³

Now, full disclosure- I got about 50 pages in before the relentless info-dumping and log-jammed exposition wore me down. I skimmed a bit of it because people go on and on and on about every aspect of the planet's history and all the customs of all 14 of its cultures.⁴

So, this is a fun, clever, well-written, compelling, sad, flawed book. Amazingly good for a first novel.

I think this Martin guy has a lot of potential.

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1. It owes a lot to Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" series, which was also super-fatalistic with its far-future Earth lit by a dying red sun. Vance was a better writer and his books had a better sense of humor, though.

2. He dedicates the book "for Rachel- who loved me once." Martin was already a sad romantic four decades ago.

3. Plus a richly-detailed glossary, if you want to dig deeper into the milieu.

4. I thought it was a stand-alone but there's other stories and books set in this world, as well. Oh well. Martin always had trouble leaving well enough alone.

-Phony McFakename

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