| Author: George R.R. Martin | |
| Rating: 7 | Reviewer: Valashain |
| Genre: SciFi | Publisher:Spectra |
| Pages: 254 | Orig Pub Date: 1977 |
| Binding: Paperback |
Martin has been writing professionally since the early 1970s but not until 1977 did a full length novel by him appear. It has of course been reprinted following the huge success of A Song of Ice and Fire. I read it for the first time about a year ago and I must say it didn't impress me then. I've read quite a bit of Martin's early work since then and that has made me appreciate the book a bit more. I still don't consider it the best Martin has written though. He's grown quite a bit as a writer since Dying of the Light was published.
The novel is set in the same universe as a number of Martin's short stories. The section the Light of Distant Stars of his collection Dreamsongs: A RRetrospecive is dedicated to six stories set in this universe. The story is set on Worlorn. A rogue planet that is passing close enough to a red giant to make it habitable for a time. The worlds in this part of the galaxy, a region known as the Fringe have taken the opportunity to show off. The planet is seeded with life and fifteen great cities are built on the surface to accommodate a great festival. The Festival of the Fringe. By the time the story begins the party is over though. Worlorn is passing out of the red giant system and cooling down every day. Soon it will head out into the vast expanse between galaxies and return to it's original frozen state for ages.
The party may be over but not everybody has left the planet yet, as our main character Dirk t'Larien is about to find out. When working on the planet of Braque Dirk receives a message from his past lover Gwen. It's been years since they broke up and life doesn't seem quite worth living to Dirk ever since. He has made her a promise though. Should she ever need him, no matter where in the universe he might be, he'd come. And now, seven years after their traumatic breakup, she has called.
Against his better judgement Dirk travels to Worlorn to meet Gwen only to find out she is currently in a complex relationship with a man from High Kavalaan. Jaan Vikary is something of a reformer on High Kavalaan but he still adheres to many of the ideas of his society. A society in which women are little more than (precious) possessions. Dirk soon finds out that whatever he imagined this reunion would be like, all his assumptions are wrong. As he gets draw into the intricacies of Kavalaan culture and the complicated affair between Jaan and Gwen one question remains. Why did Gwen call him to this dying world?
A relationship broken beyond repair on a dying world, as you can imagine the whole atmosphere of the novel is gloomy. Even more so than the rather dark fiction Martin would write later. The setting he creates is stunning though. Unfortunately describing his world, the Kavalaan culture and the basic outline of his universe take up a lot of what is a relatively short novel, especially if you take into account the 10 page glossary at the back of the book. He assumes the reader has no previous knowledge of this universe and as a consequence the story itself isn't overly complex. Even if it does have a few interesting twists and turns along the way. All the world building also goes at the expense of what is usually Martin's forte, character development. Dirk manages to find his spine along the way of course (he was sorely lacking it in my opinion) but neither Gwen nor Jaan are all that interesting.
Because of this I thought Dying of the Light to be Martin's least interesting novel. After having read Dreamsongs I do appreciate it a little more. In combination with the other stories set in this universe it makes me wonder what would have happened if Martin had chosen to pursue this further. It certainly feels like he is laying the groundwork for more novels in this universe. There's a summary of several thousand years of human history, a galactic war, references to all kinds of myths and heroes from the past. It has potential, countless of other places and events to explore. And yet Martin moves on to writing Windhaven (a fantasy), Fevre Dream (historical horror), The Armageddon Rag (mystery) and finally his great fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire. All interesting, sometimes groundbreaking works in their own right, none of which I would have wanted to miss. Somehow I can't escape the feeling that his universe, like Worlorn, is slowly moving away from the light and that in a way that is a waste. I suppose Worlorn is the perfect place for such questions, on a world without a future there is plenty of time to consider choices of the past.
After a second reading I appreciate this novel and it's significance to Martin's oeuvre more but I still don't think it works very well on it's own. If you are a fan of Martin's science fiction you'll want to read this but if you are new to Martin's work I would advise you to start elsewhere.
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