Dying of the Light

For a first book, "Dying of the Light" deserves high praise. The storyline is complex and the quality and depth of imagination that Martin displays is tremendous. The title is clearly drawn from Dylan Thomas' great poem with the well known lines : "Rage, rage against the dying of the light; Do not go gently into that good night". Dylan Thomas wrote the poem for his father (who was then blind and close to death), urging him to battle, rather than surrender. So it is but natural to find that "Dying of the Light" is a story of death. Death on many levels, and how death is faced by the dying. To start with, the plant of Worlorn, the locale for the book, is itself dying; a rogue planet whose erratic course is taking it irreversibly far from its neighboring stars, into a region of cold and dark where no life will survive. Worlorn's 15 cities, built during the brief festival when it passed close enough to a red giant star to permit a brief window for life to thrive, are dying too. Built to celebrate the diverse cultures of 15 planetary systems, they have been largely abandoned, their systems and maintenance are failing and soon they will be cold dead shells. And of course the cast of characters is also flirting with death. Dirk t'Larien, the protagonist, finds life empty and of little attraction after his girlfriend Gwen Delvano drops him. Most poignant of all, the Kavalar race, into which she has married (the relationship is too complex to describe in a review so I use the word married) is itself dying in a cultural manner of speaking. Their home plant has survived a numerous attacks in a planetary war and in response they have evolved social institutions and human relationship patterns to cope with the depredation of the war. Yet now that the war is long past, they find themselves trapped between those who would recognise that the old ways need to be reviewed for the current day, and those who believe that any dilution of the old ways spells the end of Kavalar culture. The battles then, of all these varying actors are played out beneath the dying light falling on Worlorn. At the end, many of the characters have indeed died (Martin leaves some endings deliberately ambiguous) but it is the manner in which they have faced their fears (of death and of life) that make the story great. This is not simplistic, easy reading science fiction, with lasers and spaceships and other bells and whistles, but rather mature science fiction, looking at human relationships in a context that is difficult to comprehend. As with all Martin's work, the characters are humanly grey rather than stark black and white. The "good guys" are tainted by weaknesses, while the "bad guys" often have some redeeming features. "Dying of the Light" also foreshadows the breadth of imagination and the depth of focus that characterize Martin's subsequent works, most of all the Song of Ice and Fire series. Martin's descriptions of the various cultures (as embodied in the festival citie

This is a melancholy first novel from George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Fire and Ice series, but his energetic description will keep you entertained. As usual, George's characters are 3D, full of emotion and motive. Called to a promise by whisperjewel, Dirk t'Larien heads to Worlorn, a planet that sneaks through galaxies like a rogue. There was a festival there once where several planetary civilizations came to celebrate diversity, building architecture and establishing foreign wildlife. Most of them have left, though, as Worlorn is moving into unlivable territory. The planet's only inhabitants now are the wild ones and those who want to die. The whisperjewel Dirk recieved was Gwen's, the lost love of his life. Ever since he lost her, his life was barren. He's a moper, but he jumps at a chance with her. But when he gets to Worlorn, he finds out that Gwen is married to Jaan, a dude with a messed up culture on his planet. The relationship is strange; Gwen is bound to Jan and his partner, essentially a wife to both of them. Nothing seems right to Dirk. As the story progresses, he finds his answers by exploring the planet. Soon he is on the run for his life and love and dignity. This is a story that will send emotions quivering through your body. Dirk comes to terms with many things: his life. It's sad, like life sometimes, but there is still hope. It must be said that the story does slow down in spots, but it always recovers quickly. This novel is recommended for all GRRM and science fiction fans.

If you're a Martin fan for his popular Fire and Ice series, it's difficult to compare his earliest work to his popular fantasy series. The one thing I love about Martin is how his writing is absolutely effortless. Scenery and dialogue are never forced, and his writing is always an absoulte pleasure to fall into. This book has such a meloncholy beauty to it in the way the alien world of Worlon is depicted. One also has to remember that this is a short story, not a full length novel. As such the characters aren't as 3-D as you might expect from one of his other books. I still feel however, that there was huge character development in comparison to other sci-fi/fantasy short novel's I've read. The inner realizations of the characters are so poignant and subtle that, even given an abrupt ending, I put this book down with a general feeling of "wow, now that's writing."

Purely by accident, while looking for something else in the library, I stumbled on a couple of George R. R. Martin's books, a collection of short stories called "A Song for Lya" and one of his early novels, "Dying of the Light", both published in the 70s. Friends have been recommending his later fantasy writing to me for years, so I thought - what the heck, I'll give him a go. My god. I had no idea! The short stories were enough to leave me wanting more, but it was "Dying of the Light" that really took my breath away. The writing is completely engrossing; I found myself missing bus after bus and staying late at work because I couldn't drop the book even for the ten minutes it would take to get to the bus stop. It's one of those rare books where everything fits together perfectly: the characters, the atmosphere, the setting, the way the story is resolved. The premise seems deceptively simple: a man is asked by his former lover to meet her on a strange planet that has no star, a dying world that has been all but abandoned. But when he gets there, he finds that his Gwen has found a new place for herself among the ruins, and what's more -- she is married. So why did she call him? And is she really as happy as she seems to be? I should mention that the man she's married belongs to an alien culture where the strong hunt the weak for sport. Oh, and he already has a husband. Things only become more complicated when we meet all the characters and find out more about their cultures. And the cultures alone are spectacular. It would be grossly unfair to try to cover them all, and completely unnecessary in a review. Suffice it to say that the breadth of Martin's imagination is matched only by the iron grip he has on his world and the plot of the story. Part of the experience is the way the story unfolds, the way the writer cleverly feeds you bits of information -- but he always remains one step ahead. One image that particularly touched me was a city where the buildings are constructed in such a way that when the wind blows across the rooftops, it plays a symphony -- a lament that is almost hypnotic. Much of the book is like this, hovering right on the thin line between tragic and uplifting. I was surprised to see that this book got some rather negative reviews here. A few people said there wasn't enough action, or that you couldn't see where the story was going, or that the characters are too complicated to be interesting. I guess if someone was expecting a shoot-em-up with cardboard villains and shining golden heroes, this book would definitely disappoint: the characters are deeply flawed but intensely sympathetic (even the apparent villains), the action unfolds as much in the minds of the people as in the world they inhabit (although there are still shoot-em-ups and chases), and the conclusion of the story is an organic and plausible development for the protagonist. It's the answer to the question he doesn't know to ask when he first sets out to find

Most people now know George R. R. Martin from his very succesfull Song of Ice and Fire books, which essentially is a fantasy series. This story is one of his first and very different. It is set around a small group of characters against a magnificent background, the discarded party planet Worlorn. Descriptions of the story would not do justice to the book so I am not going to try it. What I liked about it, apart from the rich, melancholy, atmosphere, was that as the plot evolves you are forced to change your views of each of the main characters and this in a completely believable way. It has a literary quality quite rare in SF but therefore all the more welcome.