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ΕΝΑΣ ΠΛΑΝΗΤΗΣ ΠΟΥ ΟΔΕΥΕΙ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ ΑΙΩΝΙΟ ΣΚΟΤΑΔΙ.
ΤΡΕΙΣ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΠΟΥ ΠΑΛΕΥΟΥΝ ΝΑ ΒΓΟΥΝ ΣΤΟ ΦΩΣ.
Ο Ντερκ τ’Λάριεν καλείται στον πλανήτη Γουόρλορν από μια αγαπημένη που πίστευε πως είχε χάσει. Αλλά ο Γουόρλορν δεν είναι ο πλανήτης που φανταζόταν, και η Γκουέν Ντελβάνο δεν είναι πια η γυναίκα που ήξερε. Είναι δεσμευμένη με έναν άλλο άντρα, σε έναν ετοιμοθάνατο πλανήτη μόνιμα παγιδευμένο στο λυκόφως. Η Γκουέν χρειάζεται την προστασία του Ντερκ, κι αυτός θα κάνει τα πάντα για να την κρατήσει ασφαλή, ακόμα κι αν χρειαστεί να προκαλέσει τον βάρβαρο άντρα που την έχει διεκδικήσει. Αλλά ένα απαραβίαστο πέπλο μυστικότητας περιβάλλει τους πάντες, και είναι αδύνατον να ξεχωρίσει τους φίλους από τους εχθρούς.
Σ’ αυτό το επικίνδυνο τρίγωνο, ο ένας τους οδεύει προς την ελευθερία, ο άλλος προς την εκδίκηση και ο τελευταίος προς έναν βάναυσο, πρόωρο θάνατο.
ΤΡΕΙΣ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΠΟΥ ΠΑΛΕΥΟΥΝ ΝΑ ΒΓΟΥΝ ΣΤΟ ΦΩΣ.
Ο Ντερκ τ’Λάριεν καλείται στον πλανήτη Γουόρλορν από μια αγαπημένη που πίστευε πως είχε χάσει. Αλλά ο Γουόρλορν δεν είναι ο πλανήτης που φανταζόταν, και η Γκουέν Ντελβάνο δεν είναι πια η γυναίκα που ήξερε. Είναι δεσμευμένη με έναν άλλο άντρα, σε έναν ετοιμοθάνατο πλανήτη μόνιμα παγιδευμένο στο λυκόφως. Η Γκουέν χρειάζεται την προστασία του Ντερκ, κι αυτός θα κάνει τα πάντα για να την κρατήσει ασφαλή, ακόμα κι αν χρειαστεί να προκαλέσει τον βάρβαρο άντρα που την έχει διεκδικήσει. Αλλά ένα απαραβίαστο πέπλο μυστικότητας περιβάλλει τους πάντες, και είναι αδύνατον να ξεχωρίσει τους φίλους από τους εχθρούς.
Σ’ αυτό το επικίνδυνο τρίγωνο, ο ένας τους οδεύει προς την ελευθερία, ο άλλος προς την εκδίκηση και ο τελευταίος προς έναν βάναυσο, πρόωρο θάνατο.
528 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1977
563 people are currently reading
7645 people want to read
About the author
George R.R. Martin
1,506 books118k followersGeorge Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 799 reviews
February 9, 2017
I had absolutely no issues in giving this a full 5 star rating, because even though the novel was nominated in '78 for the Hugo, that it comes out of the mind of one of the more well-beloved SF/F authors of our times, the novel is absolutely gorgeous all on its own.
Why? Because we're getting such depth of world-building, from the science of the solar/planetary, to the culture it spawned, to an absolutely amazing depth of social explorations, to a very cool discourse on the sexes as seen from multiple cultures and their conflicts.
Sound impressive? It only gets better, because the story is oh so solid and very complex. This is the novel highlights all the things we truly love about his SoIaF series, establishing characters as one thing only to break the mold completely, crossing all the boundaries of evil to good and back again. No one is a secondary character, either. This is the precursor to the series we know, only it's Science Fiction.
It's easy to get carried away with the misogynic society of men and the desire of a single woman to free herself after having got caught, and it is a major theme, at first, but then we begin to see how truly disturbing the society is not because it does such male-centered things, but because of it's tragic history and how it had almost died out because it had lost most of its females, and as such, had changed them into true treasures and communal properties over a few generations despite the original star-faring society being perfectly egalitarian. It sounds bad, but then you start to see a particularly complex bond/love relationships between men, almost like honor, almost like romance, and it's made even more complex by the deep rules of duels, warfare, and conquest, all while having such strange mixes of old and rediscovered tech.
And of course we get to see and explore it all through both their eyes and an outsider's eyes in the greater galactic civilization, full of misunderstandings, surprises, hate, love, little heroisms and subversions.
Sound like a deeply complex storyline full of surprises and adventure? Well it is, and we get to see a deeply imagined physical world, too, not just of the people and the social structures. The planet is within a strange and chaotic start system and they cannot even see more than twelve stars. With so many multiple suns, we also discover that the planet had a near brush with a sun and is now on it's way out of the system entirely. The planet will go from great heat into an eventual iceball. See a theme? Only this time, it's explained in science, even if the inhabitants truly have little recourse or satisfaction in the knowledge.
When I first read SoIaF, I loved to speculate about the planetary system that would cause centuries of winter and a few small generations of summer. It's a very SF thing to do for an epic fantasy. Imagine how delighted I am to learn that he'd been long thinking of these specific plans within his fantasy? It's obvious from this book. :)
This should be a must read for all his fans, and even of fans of LeGuin. The deeper social aspects are quite fascinating, indeed. :)
Why? Because we're getting such depth of world-building, from the science of the solar/planetary, to the culture it spawned, to an absolutely amazing depth of social explorations, to a very cool discourse on the sexes as seen from multiple cultures and their conflicts.
Sound impressive? It only gets better, because the story is oh so solid and very complex. This is the novel highlights all the things we truly love about his SoIaF series, establishing characters as one thing only to break the mold completely, crossing all the boundaries of evil to good and back again. No one is a secondary character, either. This is the precursor to the series we know, only it's Science Fiction.
It's easy to get carried away with the misogynic society of men and the desire of a single woman to free herself after having got caught, and it is a major theme, at first, but then we begin to see how truly disturbing the society is not because it does such male-centered things, but because of it's tragic history and how it had almost died out because it had lost most of its females, and as such, had changed them into true treasures and communal properties over a few generations despite the original star-faring society being perfectly egalitarian. It sounds bad, but then you start to see a particularly complex bond/love relationships between men, almost like honor, almost like romance, and it's made even more complex by the deep rules of duels, warfare, and conquest, all while having such strange mixes of old and rediscovered tech.
And of course we get to see and explore it all through both their eyes and an outsider's eyes in the greater galactic civilization, full of misunderstandings, surprises, hate, love, little heroisms and subversions.
Sound like a deeply complex storyline full of surprises and adventure? Well it is, and we get to see a deeply imagined physical world, too, not just of the people and the social structures. The planet is within a strange and chaotic start system and they cannot even see more than twelve stars. With so many multiple suns, we also discover that the planet had a near brush with a sun and is now on it's way out of the system entirely. The planet will go from great heat into an eventual iceball. See a theme? Only this time, it's explained in science, even if the inhabitants truly have little recourse or satisfaction in the knowledge.
When I first read SoIaF, I loved to speculate about the planetary system that would cause centuries of winter and a few small generations of summer. It's a very SF thing to do for an epic fantasy. Imagine how delighted I am to learn that he'd been long thinking of these specific plans within his fantasy? It's obvious from this book. :)
This should be a must read for all his fans, and even of fans of LeGuin. The deeper social aspects are quite fascinating, indeed. :)
September 20, 2020
SF Masterworks (2010- series) #75: In a well thought out constructed macroverse many aeons in the future mankind is all over the universe, and pretty much a war-less and peace abiding race with very few exceptions. Dirk t'Larien thinks he'sm been summoned to rogue Planet Worlorn by a former lover to make to rekindle what they had, but instead finds himself caught up in the internal struggles of one of the last violent and homicidal peoples! Mr 'Game of Thrones' had this, his first published novel released back in 1977, and it's pretty pretty pretty good!
Quite daring for the 1970s, there's mainstream bisexuality being undertaken by men, men that are also some of the last remaining war-like peoples in the universe. As seems his constant themes, there's a lo of violence against women historically and within this tale. There's zero faux-science and really this is about the reluctance of people to progress with the status quo... hint hint American Republicans. I feel this would have blown mine mine in the 1970s when it was first released, a pretty stand-out read. 7 out of 12.
Quite daring for the 1970s, there's mainstream bisexuality being undertaken by men, men that are also some of the last remaining war-like peoples in the universe. As seems his constant themes, there's a lo of violence against women historically and within this tale. There's zero faux-science and really this is about the reluctance of people to progress with the status quo... hint hint American Republicans. I feel this would have blown mine mine in the 1970s when it was first released, a pretty stand-out read. 7 out of 12.
July 26, 2018
This could have been a one-star book if not only because of the interesting parts of the worldbuilding - a dying world - and also because I don't want to group a GRRM book with real, trashy books that I hate. I seriously thought the dying world thing would be the main attraction and at least gave me back my trust to that trope after being disappointed with Vance's Dying Earth.
I just did not get this one. I was not able to connect with any of the characters. Which is understandable since this is GRRM's first published novel and apparently he did not have that knack of fantastic characterizations since the early days. Clearly he grew significantly as a writer. The story probably should have stayed as short fiction, like A Song for Lya. I thought the conflicts were not interesting enough to make a full novel. The planetary romance part of it was really yawn inducing too, I felt like slapping the two main characters, and also myself because I was so sleepy.
Aside from the group slapping, I actually thought the glossary was more interesting than the book content. This glossary would be useful when I read more of the Thousand Worlds books. Well, providing that George would publish more books in that universe. One can only hope.
I just did not get this one. I was not able to connect with any of the characters. Which is understandable since this is GRRM's first published novel and apparently he did not have that knack of fantastic characterizations since the early days. Clearly he grew significantly as a writer. The story probably should have stayed as short fiction, like A Song for Lya. I thought the conflicts were not interesting enough to make a full novel. The planetary romance part of it was really yawn inducing too, I felt like slapping the two main characters, and also myself because I was so sleepy.
Aside from the group slapping, I actually thought the glossary was more interesting than the book content. This glossary would be useful when I read more of the Thousand Worlds books. Well, providing that George would publish more books in that universe. One can only hope.
April 27, 2017
Vai, cum bântuie disperarea și deznădejdea în lumea asta...
Rătăcind la nesfârșit prin spațiu, planeta Worlorn este sortită neființei. O lume a ghețurilor și a nopții infinite, ea poposește pentru puțină vreme în apropierea lui Satan cel Gras, un sistem solar spectaculos format dintr-o stea roșie gigantică, orbitată de șase stele mai mici (Roata de Foc). "Împrumutând" căldură și lumină, Worlorn se transformă într-o sărbătoare a celor 14 civilizații care au colonizat-o. Dar iată că timpul vieții și luminii se apropie de sfârșit, planeta îndepărtându-se încet și implacabil de Roata de Foc.
Pe această lume muribundă ajunge Dirk t’Larien, răspunzând la chemarea fostei lui iubite, Gwen Delvano, care studiază interacțiunea dintre formele de viață ale planetei. Confuz și încă suferind din cauza trecutului, Dirk descoperă că Gwen este prinsă într-o relație destul de complicată cu kavalaanul Jaantony Vikary, patrician Ironjade și teyn-ul acestuia, Garse Ironjade Janacek. Șocat de brutalitatea culturii kavalaane pe care nu o înțelege, Dirk decide să facă tot ce îi stă în puteri pentru a o elibera pe Gwen din încorsetările unei tradiții ce reduce femeile la statutul de obiect, de proprietate. Dar nimic nu merge cum trebuie, iar Dirk se trezește provocat la duel de către Braith, cea mai tradiționalistă castă kavalaană și contestându-i-se chiar calitatea de ființă umană.
M-a îngrozit universul întunecat și violent creat de Martin, fiecare pagină șoptește disperarea unei lumi pe moarte. Complexitatea și absurditatea sistemului social de pe Înaltul Kavalaan încă îmi dă fiori, ideea de om copie, vânătoarea de oameni și ușurința cu care oamenii își motivează sadismul cu umbra unor tradiții incerte și îndepărtate mă vor mai urmări o perioadă.
Anyway, se pare că am supraviețuit primei întâlniri cu George R. R. Martin, să vedem ce va urma...
Rătăcind la nesfârșit prin spațiu, planeta Worlorn este sortită neființei. O lume a ghețurilor și a nopții infinite, ea poposește pentru puțină vreme în apropierea lui Satan cel Gras, un sistem solar spectaculos format dintr-o stea roșie gigantică, orbitată de șase stele mai mici (Roata de Foc). "Împrumutând" căldură și lumină, Worlorn se transformă într-o sărbătoare a celor 14 civilizații care au colonizat-o. Dar iată că timpul vieții și luminii se apropie de sfârșit, planeta îndepărtându-se încet și implacabil de Roata de Foc.
Pe această lume muribundă ajunge Dirk t’Larien, răspunzând la chemarea fostei lui iubite, Gwen Delvano, care studiază interacțiunea dintre formele de viață ale planetei. Confuz și încă suferind din cauza trecutului, Dirk descoperă că Gwen este prinsă într-o relație destul de complicată cu kavalaanul Jaantony Vikary, patrician Ironjade și teyn-ul acestuia, Garse Ironjade Janacek. Șocat de brutalitatea culturii kavalaane pe care nu o înțelege, Dirk decide să facă tot ce îi stă în puteri pentru a o elibera pe Gwen din încorsetările unei tradiții ce reduce femeile la statutul de obiect, de proprietate. Dar nimic nu merge cum trebuie, iar Dirk se trezește provocat la duel de către Braith, cea mai tradiționalistă castă kavalaană și contestându-i-se chiar calitatea de ființă umană.
M-a îngrozit universul întunecat și violent creat de Martin, fiecare pagină șoptește disperarea unei lumi pe moarte. Complexitatea și absurditatea sistemului social de pe Înaltul Kavalaan încă îmi dă fiori, ideea de om copie, vânătoarea de oameni și ușurința cu care oamenii își motivează sadismul cu umbra unor tradiții incerte și îndepărtate mă vor mai urmări o perioadă.
Anyway, se pare că am supraviețuit primei întâlniri cu George R. R. Martin, să vedem ce va urma...
November 25, 2023
3.5
Este es el primer libro que escribió George R.R. Martin, y se publicó antes de que tuviera 30 años. No esperaba encontrar la misma calidad que se ve en sus novelas más actuales, es más, casi tenía miedo que fuera un libro malo... pero si hay algo que afortunadamente ya se evidencia desde el principio, es su imaginación y gran habilidad para narrar.
El prólogo nos cuenta un resúmen de la extensa historia de Worlorn, un planeta vagabundo que no pertenece a ninguna estrella, por lo que flota libremente por el espacio.
En un punto de su existencia, Worlorn pasó cerca de un conjunto de estrellas conocido como La Rueda de Fuego, un aro de soles que gira alrededor de una estrella aún mayor llamada El Gordo Satanás. Atraído por su gravedad, Worlorn se volvió temporalmente un lugar apto para la vida, y fue de este modo como pudo albergar El Festival de los Mundos, una serie de colonias de diferentes planetas que llevaron su tecnología y cultura mientras el calor de El Gordo Satanás lo permitió.
Pero ahora Worlorn se aleja de La Rueda, y en él sólo quedan unos pocos habitantes, además de los fantasmas de ciudades que ya olvidaron sus días de esplendor.
Si esa imagen no seduce a los fans de la ciencia ficción, no se qué puede hacerlo.
Quizás llamar 'romance' a este libro sea un poco excesivo, pero es una historia donde el motor principal es el amor, o mejor dicho, el amor es lo que hace que la historia comience.
Dirk t'Larien es convocado a Worlorn con un pedido de ayuda de Gwen Delvano, la mujer que amó y perdió años atrás. Él, con la esperanza de poder recuperarla, hace el largo viaje hasta el planeta moribundo para encontrarse con ella... y enterarse muy pronto de que está casada –o algo así– y sólo quiere ser su amiga.
Gwen es ecologista, una de las pocas que quedan en el universo aparentemente, y junto con un grupo de investigadores está analizando la fauna y flora de Worlorn antes de que todo muera. Ella tiene un vínculo llamado jade-y-plata con un hombre perteneciente a una cultura violenta, estructurada y dura.
Dirk cree que está yendo para rescatar a Gwen de ese mundo, pero la realidad que encontrará es bastante diferente y peligrosa, y él va a quedar en el medio de todo. No esperaba menos.
Esta es una historia que probablemente tenga varias interpretaciones, de acuerdo a la forma de pensar de cada lector. Tiene una cierta oscuridad que lo rodea, además de su buena dosis de nostalgia camuflada. Sólo por la idea del mundo ya vale la pena leerlo.
Me sorprendí durante casi todo el libro con la imaginación del autor. Las descripciones de los diferentes lugares del planeta son increíbles, con sus animales y plantas completamente distintos a lo que conocemos. El contexto que armó es realmente fascinante, y sería interesante leer más historias ambientadas allí.
Cada sector de Worlorn es diferente, desde los bosques donde habitan animales extraños, tétricos y peligrosos, hasta las ciudades que tenían construcciones tan imaginativas como tecnológicas, a su modo.
La historia en sí avanza lento. Hay muchas explicaciones en el medio, la mayoría dedicadas a la cultura del hombre con el que Gwen está enlazada, que llegado un punto me resultaron un tanto largas. Esa sociedad es extraña, opresiva y machista aún para los mismos hombres. Por momentos me perdí un poco con el licuado de honor, lealtad ciega y burocracia que es esa sociedad, y le encontré detalles que me hizo pensar en la forma de organización de las manadas de los hombres lobo.
De todos modos todo el resto está narrado de forma tan linda que no importa la lentitud en la historia. Hay capítulos con mucha acción y otros con muchas explicaciones, pero todo tiene una razón para estar ahí.
Hay algo muy raro que sólo lo puedo adjudicar a lo bien que escribe George R.R. Martin. Muchas de las cosas que se cuentan, explican y ocurren en teoría deberían ser aburridas y hasta monótonas, pero este hombre tiene un don. Ciertas partes de este libro no son interesantes, y sin embargo son interesantes. Todavía no entiendo bien cómo ocurrió eso.
Respecto de los personajes, Dirk me resultó simpático pero todo el resto (Gwen incluída) me generaron una desconfianza casi constante. Son todos extraños, escondedores y parecen estar a punto de explotar unos contra otros en cualquier momento.
Cuando se habla de la vieja relación de Dirk y Gwen, durante mucho tiempo no supe si él era un poco obsesivo o ella un poco paranoica. Hacia el final del libro me formé una idea, pero me parece que está hecho de forma poco clara a propósito, para que cada uno se lleve su opinión.
De todos modos mientras leía iba cambiando de idea constantemente sobre si quería que los dos terminen juntos o no. Los momentos que pasan solos son tiernos y distantes a la vez.
Siempre me encanta ver historias de amor contadas por hombres que escriben fantasía o ciencia ficción, tienen un estilo distinto (y de algún modo más espiritual) del que le suelen dar las mujeres.
En lineas generales me gustó, creo que George R.R. Martin puede hacer una buena historia con cualquier cosa. Probablemente si lo reescribiera ahora sería distinto (más complejo y más claro), pero es innegable que ya desde el comienzo sabía lo que hacía.
Reseña de Libros junto al mar
Este es el primer libro que escribió George R.R. Martin, y se publicó antes de que tuviera 30 años. No esperaba encontrar la misma calidad que se ve en sus novelas más actuales, es más, casi tenía miedo que fuera un libro malo... pero si hay algo que afortunadamente ya se evidencia desde el principio, es su imaginación y gran habilidad para narrar.
El prólogo nos cuenta un resúmen de la extensa historia de Worlorn, un planeta vagabundo que no pertenece a ninguna estrella, por lo que flota libremente por el espacio.
En un punto de su existencia, Worlorn pasó cerca de un conjunto de estrellas conocido como La Rueda de Fuego, un aro de soles que gira alrededor de una estrella aún mayor llamada El Gordo Satanás. Atraído por su gravedad, Worlorn se volvió temporalmente un lugar apto para la vida, y fue de este modo como pudo albergar El Festival de los Mundos, una serie de colonias de diferentes planetas que llevaron su tecnología y cultura mientras el calor de El Gordo Satanás lo permitió.
Pero ahora Worlorn se aleja de La Rueda, y en él sólo quedan unos pocos habitantes, además de los fantasmas de ciudades que ya olvidaron sus días de esplendor.
Si esa imagen no seduce a los fans de la ciencia ficción, no se qué puede hacerlo.
Quizás llamar 'romance' a este libro sea un poco excesivo, pero es una historia donde el motor principal es el amor, o mejor dicho, el amor es lo que hace que la historia comience.
Dirk t'Larien es convocado a Worlorn con un pedido de ayuda de Gwen Delvano, la mujer que amó y perdió años atrás. Él, con la esperanza de poder recuperarla, hace el largo viaje hasta el planeta moribundo para encontrarse con ella... y enterarse muy pronto de que está casada –o algo así– y sólo quiere ser su amiga.
Gwen es ecologista, una de las pocas que quedan en el universo aparentemente, y junto con un grupo de investigadores está analizando la fauna y flora de Worlorn antes de que todo muera. Ella tiene un vínculo llamado jade-y-plata con un hombre perteneciente a una cultura violenta, estructurada y dura.
Dirk cree que está yendo para rescatar a Gwen de ese mundo, pero la realidad que encontrará es bastante diferente y peligrosa, y él va a quedar en el medio de todo. No esperaba menos.
Esta es una historia que probablemente tenga varias interpretaciones, de acuerdo a la forma de pensar de cada lector. Tiene una cierta oscuridad que lo rodea, además de su buena dosis de nostalgia camuflada. Sólo por la idea del mundo ya vale la pena leerlo.
Me sorprendí durante casi todo el libro con la imaginación del autor. Las descripciones de los diferentes lugares del planeta son increíbles, con sus animales y plantas completamente distintos a lo que conocemos. El contexto que armó es realmente fascinante, y sería interesante leer más historias ambientadas allí.
Cada sector de Worlorn es diferente, desde los bosques donde habitan animales extraños, tétricos y peligrosos, hasta las ciudades que tenían construcciones tan imaginativas como tecnológicas, a su modo.
La historia en sí avanza lento. Hay muchas explicaciones en el medio, la mayoría dedicadas a la cultura del hombre con el que Gwen está enlazada, que llegado un punto me resultaron un tanto largas. Esa sociedad es extraña, opresiva y machista aún para los mismos hombres. Por momentos me perdí un poco con el licuado de honor, lealtad ciega y burocracia que es esa sociedad, y le encontré detalles que me hizo pensar en la forma de organización de las manadas de los hombres lobo.
De todos modos todo el resto está narrado de forma tan linda que no importa la lentitud en la historia. Hay capítulos con mucha acción y otros con muchas explicaciones, pero todo tiene una razón para estar ahí.
Hay algo muy raro que sólo lo puedo adjudicar a lo bien que escribe George R.R. Martin. Muchas de las cosas que se cuentan, explican y ocurren en teoría deberían ser aburridas y hasta monótonas, pero este hombre tiene un don. Ciertas partes de este libro no son interesantes, y sin embargo son interesantes. Todavía no entiendo bien cómo ocurrió eso.
Respecto de los personajes, Dirk me resultó simpático pero todo el resto (Gwen incluída) me generaron una desconfianza casi constante. Son todos extraños, escondedores y parecen estar a punto de explotar unos contra otros en cualquier momento.
Cuando se habla de la vieja relación de Dirk y Gwen, durante mucho tiempo no supe si él era un poco obsesivo o ella un poco paranoica. Hacia el final del libro me formé una idea, pero me parece que está hecho de forma poco clara a propósito, para que cada uno se lleve su opinión.
De todos modos mientras leía iba cambiando de idea constantemente sobre si quería que los dos terminen juntos o no. Los momentos que pasan solos son tiernos y distantes a la vez.
Siempre me encanta ver historias de amor contadas por hombres que escriben fantasía o ciencia ficción, tienen un estilo distinto (y de algún modo más espiritual) del que le suelen dar las mujeres.
En lineas generales me gustó, creo que George R.R. Martin puede hacer una buena historia con cualquier cosa. Probablemente si lo reescribiera ahora sería distinto (más complejo y más claro), pero es innegable que ya desde el comienzo sabía lo que hacía.
Reseña de Libros junto al mar
September 24, 2025
Отново не съвсем изпипана, поне според мен книга от Мартин...
Доста по-интересна ми се видя страничната сюжетна линия - тази за хората, историята и кодекса на живот на планетата Високи Кавалаан. Естествено, на това е отделено малко място, а потенциал определено има.
Като цяло, има един дъх на остаряло и не е нещо, към което ще се върна отново, въпреки че не е неприятна за прочит. Някак претупани ми се видяха историята и героите в нея.
Оставам заклет фен на Тъф, Пясъчните крале и Ланистърите. ;)
Доста по-интересна ми се видя страничната сюжетна линия - тази за хората, историята и кодекса на живот на планетата Високи Кавалаан. Естествено, на това е отделено малко място, а потенциал определено има.
Като цяло, има един дъх на остаряло и не е нещо, към което ще се върна отново, въпреки че не е неприятна за прочит. Някак претупани ми се видяха историята и героите в нея.
Оставам заклет фен на Тъф, Пясъчните крале и Ланистърите. ;)
July 11, 2011
All right, I’m writing the first half of this review while I haven’t finished the book, but I’m having too much frustrated thoughts without an internet connection to put them into status updates, so I thought I’d write everything up into this preemptive review, and then later paste it all together into Goodreads.
Seriously, I’m having massively mixed feelings about this book. In one hand there’s the hero who just doesn’t learn and the heroine who’s just so stupid and insensitive. But in the other hand there’s the huge history (with wars, colonization and independence stuff), and incredible culture building, with both mythical and plausible cultural footings. There so much here that is made of pure awesomesauce, but unfortunately we’re forced to see it all through the eyes of an arrogant dimwit.
Needless to say, I didn’t really like Dirk.
I’m still not entirely sure what kind of book this is, even after I peeked to see the ending (it didn’t make anything clearer alas). It’s an adventure novel at the surface, but it’s so much more, only all the rest is only touched at the surface as well. I’m just not sure. It’s so different from all other books I’ve read by Martin. It’s not bad, I’m just not sure how to exactly wrap my head around it. I think at heart, even though Martin didn’t intend it that way, this is a Science Fiction Romance… Only, the hero of the romance is not the hero of the story. The hero of the story isn’t really a hero at all, even if he comes around a bit at the end.
Everybody just has their own truth in this story, and most of these truths are based on entirely different cultures and ways of viewing the World. Strangely enough I had more sympathy for the the two anti-heroes who were part of one of the most mysogynist societies I’ve encountered in fiction, than for the main character who fought against their culture, only for all the wrong reasons.
This book is as much a conflict between old and new lovers as it is a culture clash, and it is filled with so much lies, half lies and misunderstandings it makes me sad. These people are stuck on a dieing World, and I’m pretty sure they’ll die there as well, and I don’t really care, because most of them have used up my sadness by now, and Dirk, he’s still just a bit too stupid and easily manipulated and superficial for me to really care. If he had acted like he was acting now from the beginning I might have sympathized, but by now, I feel I’m definitely in the anti-hero camp of things, and I just want the book to be over, because I want a happy ending for him, and Dirk made that accidentally impossible, and I’m just tired.
***
Now that it’s finished, I’m surprised how spot on I was. The only thing I didn’t catch half way down, is how tragic it all was. I also didn’t expect the ending to be as open ended as it was (which is something I dislike in general, and Martin better not do this for the ASOIAF books). But, as is usual for Martin, a lot of people die, even some of the ones you expect to survive. Some die in a very sad and tragic way. And the way everyone has been manipulated just made me feel tired, because it was such a waste of people and their happiness. If not for the meddling this book didn’t have to happen, and everyone could have been spared their lot. I guess it still works as a happy ending in the romance area of the book, but I’m not entirely sure, and well, It’s only two thirds the way I wanted it to be. It isn't an Unhappy Ever After, so I'll have to give it some credit.
All in all, I’m not satisfied by this book. It did evoke emotions, but never without me being annoyed. I just think this story could have been more if it had been told by someone different. Or at least by multiple POVs. And while it has a lot of the things that make Martin one of my favorite authors, it never really hit the spot for me, so I’m a bit disappointed.
Seriously, I’m having massively mixed feelings about this book. In one hand there’s the hero who just doesn’t learn and the heroine who’s just so stupid and insensitive. But in the other hand there’s the huge history (with wars, colonization and independence stuff), and incredible culture building, with both mythical and plausible cultural footings. There so much here that is made of pure awesomesauce, but unfortunately we’re forced to see it all through the eyes of an arrogant dimwit.
Needless to say, I didn’t really like Dirk.
I’m still not entirely sure what kind of book this is, even after I peeked to see the ending (it didn’t make anything clearer alas). It’s an adventure novel at the surface, but it’s so much more, only all the rest is only touched at the surface as well. I’m just not sure. It’s so different from all other books I’ve read by Martin. It’s not bad, I’m just not sure how to exactly wrap my head around it. I think at heart, even though Martin didn’t intend it that way, this is a Science Fiction Romance… Only, the hero of the romance is not the hero of the story. The hero of the story isn’t really a hero at all, even if he comes around a bit at the end.
Everybody just has their own truth in this story, and most of these truths are based on entirely different cultures and ways of viewing the World. Strangely enough I had more sympathy for the the two anti-heroes who were part of one of the most mysogynist societies I’ve encountered in fiction, than for the main character who fought against their culture, only for all the wrong reasons.
This book is as much a conflict between old and new lovers as it is a culture clash, and it is filled with so much lies, half lies and misunderstandings it makes me sad. These people are stuck on a dieing World, and I’m pretty sure they’ll die there as well, and I don’t really care, because most of them have used up my sadness by now, and Dirk, he’s still just a bit too stupid and easily manipulated and superficial for me to really care. If he had acted like he was acting now from the beginning I might have sympathized, but by now, I feel I’m definitely in the anti-hero camp of things, and I just want the book to be over, because I want a happy ending for him, and Dirk made that accidentally impossible, and I’m just tired.
***
Now that it’s finished, I’m surprised how spot on I was. The only thing I didn’t catch half way down, is how tragic it all was. I also didn’t expect the ending to be as open ended as it was (which is something I dislike in general, and Martin better not do this for the ASOIAF books). But, as is usual for Martin, a lot of people die, even some of the ones you expect to survive. Some die in a very sad and tragic way. And the way everyone has been manipulated just made me feel tired, because it was such a waste of people and their happiness. If not for the meddling this book didn’t have to happen, and everyone could have been spared their lot. I guess it still works as a happy ending in the romance area of the book, but I’m not entirely sure, and well, It’s only two thirds the way I wanted it to be. It isn't an Unhappy Ever After, so I'll have to give it some credit.
All in all, I’m not satisfied by this book. It did evoke emotions, but never without me being annoyed. I just think this story could have been more if it had been told by someone different. Or at least by multiple POVs. And while it has a lot of the things that make Martin one of my favorite authors, it never really hit the spot for me, so I’m a bit disappointed.
January 22, 2018
I only gave it a 5 because I couldn't give it a 6. This is truly one of the best books ever written. Martin creates a culture that jumps right off the page, and before you even get to appreciate the beauty of it, he throws it into conflict with a culture modeled after 20th century America. The planet Worlorn itself is also very believable. But the characters... my gosh, the characters! You will not find a single character in this novel that is not fully formed. There is a depth of writing that other authors can only emulate. You will love them at times, hate them at times, and watch how, by the end of the book, they grow and change.
Why this isn't included in the overall corpus of literature, I will never know. Probably because the only genres that could be applied to it are "sci-fi" and "western", two genres that don't get the respect they deserve. But next time a teacher tries to tell you how wonderful "The Great Gatsby" is, roll your eyes, buy a copy of this book for them, and introduce them to what true American writing can look like. At less than 300 pages, it is not a significant time investment, though it will stick with you for years.
Am I gushing? It's only because this is one of my favorite books of all time. If you haven't read it, put it at the top of your list.
Why this isn't included in the overall corpus of literature, I will never know. Probably because the only genres that could be applied to it are "sci-fi" and "western", two genres that don't get the respect they deserve. But next time a teacher tries to tell you how wonderful "The Great Gatsby" is, roll your eyes, buy a copy of this book for them, and introduce them to what true American writing can look like. At less than 300 pages, it is not a significant time investment, though it will stick with you for years.
Am I gushing? It's only because this is one of my favorite books of all time. If you haven't read it, put it at the top of your list.
September 20, 2024
„Смъртта на светлината“ е много мрачна, но и завладяваща история! Нейното заглавие идва от великото стихотворение на Дилън Томас, а пък в романа има много различни препратки към легендата за крал Артур. Обаче, аз усетих книгата най-вече като предшественик на „Песен за огън и лед“, тъй като от всички научнофантастични творби на Джордж Мартин, атмосферата и сложността на персонажите тук най-много се доближават до тези от по-късния му и за съжаление недовършен фентъзи епос...
Действието в „Смъртта на светлината“ се развива на изоставения и замиращ Фестивален свят Ворлорн, където цари беззаконие, а единствените правила и култура са тези, които занесеш със себе си... Авторът умело показва колко е важно това, какво име даваш на нещо... Главният герой Дърк т‘Лариен е повикан там чрез „шепнещ камък“ от бившата си любима Гуен Делвано, за която още пази надежда, че може се съберат отново... Атмосферата често е мрачна, даже на моменти доста меланхолична,но пък на мен силно ми въздейства! Изключително интересна ми беше културата на Каваларите, връзките между тях, техният Кодекс за дуелиране и т.н... Силно се вълнувах за персонажите, особено съм впечатлен от Джаан Вайкъри и неговия тейн Гарс Янацек, ако някой реши да чете – мисля, че няма да остане безразличен към образите, изградени от Мартин... Дори епизодичната поява на един поет към края на историята доста ми хареса! За мен, героите в тази творба са многопластови и намират достойно място до тези от фентъзи поредицата!
Действието в „Смъртта на светлината“ се развива на изоставения и замиращ Фестивален свят Ворлорн, където цари беззаконие, а единствените правила и култура са тези, които занесеш със себе си... Авторът умело показва колко е важно това, какво име даваш на нещо... Главният герой Дърк т‘Лариен е повикан там чрез „шепнещ камък“ от бившата си любима Гуен Делвано, за която още пази надежда, че може се съберат отново... Атмосферата често е мрачна, даже на моменти доста меланхолична,но пък на мен силно ми въздейства! Изключително интересна ми беше културата на Каваларите, връзките между тях, техният Кодекс за дуелиране и т.н... Силно се вълнувах за персонажите, особено съм впечатлен от Джаан Вайкъри и неговия тейн Гарс Янацек, ако някой реши да чете – мисля, че няма да остане безразличен към образите, изградени от Мартин... Дори епизодичната поява на един поет към края на историята доста ми хареса! За мен, героите в тази творба са многопластови и намират достойно място до тези от фентъзи поредицата!
April 29, 2013
George R.R. Martin created an incredibly rich universe where human civilisation is rebuilding itself after war and collapse, then, in its midst, placed an ephemeral planet in advanced decay. Used, then discarded by civilisation, it's being slowly engulfed by cold and darkness.
But then, he chose to put against this backdrop the sorriest characters in that universe. Dumb, fickle, inconsiderate, cowardly and thoroughly uninteresting. The result is a tedious story where you grow frustrated by the very same protagonists you are supposed to identify with, and not feel sorry at all for their sad fate.
The ecology of Worlorn is never successfully explored, the history of the worlds beyond the veil, their cultures and politics, aside from Kavalaar, are not addressed, nevertheless these remain the highlights of this book.
Martin's writing is beautiful as well, but in my opinion, any other story in that universe would have made a far superior novel.
But then, he chose to put against this backdrop the sorriest characters in that universe. Dumb, fickle, inconsiderate, cowardly and thoroughly uninteresting. The result is a tedious story where you grow frustrated by the very same protagonists you are supposed to identify with, and not feel sorry at all for their sad fate.
The ecology of Worlorn is never successfully explored, the history of the worlds beyond the veil, their cultures and politics, aside from Kavalaar, are not addressed, nevertheless these remain the highlights of this book.
Martin's writing is beautiful as well, but in my opinion, any other story in that universe would have made a far superior novel.
November 1, 2012
3.5 stars http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
In the outer fringe of the inhabited universe, the rogue planet Worlorn falls darkly through space. But years ago it circled the Wheel of Fire, the brilliant wheel-shaped star system that is worshipped by many in the outworlds. Worlorn, the Wheel of Fire’s only planet, was lit for fifty years before it wandered off again. During that half-century, the outworlds held a cultural diversity festival on Worlorn, with each world trying to outdo the others when building their extravagant temporary cities on a planet they knew they’d only inhabit for a few decades.
Now that Worlorn is fading into darkness again, the cities are almost completely abandoned, but there are a few people left on the planet. When Dirk t’Larien is summoned there by Gwen, the ex-girlfriend he still loves, he discovers that Worlorn is no longer a festival planet. Now it’s dark and dangerous. Worse, though, is that Gwen is now mated to Jaantony Riv Wolf high-Ironjade Vikary, a leader of the Kavalar race which, in order to protect its few women and children, has developed some barbaric customs and codes. Most notably, men form high-bonds with a male partner and may have a wife as a shared piece of property. Jaantony, both a warrior and an academic, is eager for his peoples’ culture to become more liberal towards women, but his is a minority opinion. The man he is bonded to, Garse Janacek, does not agree. And the larger faction of the Kavalar race, including some who are hunting non-Kavalar humans on Worlorn, is happy to find any reason to pick a fight with Jaantony Ironjade. When Dirk gets to Worlorn, he unwittingly walks right into the middle of a tense situation and only makes it worse.
Dying of the Light, first published in 1977, is George R.R. Martin’s debut novel and it’s impressive. The setting is wonderful: a dying planet getting farther and farther away from its sun; abandoned cities; jungles with strange and deadly life forms; fascinating cultures. My favorite feature was the city of Challenge which is a 500-story building housing thousands of apartments and lots of cool amenities. Because it’s run by machines, much of Challenge is still operative though only a handful of people still live there. The most exciting action in Dying of the Light occurs in Challenge — I loved this part of the story.
The clashing cultures that Martin creates are also imaginative and fascinating and he hints at plenty of history and backstory that he never gives us but that make this world feel real. I wish he’d write more about it. I’d love to read about the fifty sunny years on Worlorn, for example.
Unfortunately, none of George R.R. Martin’s characters are likable. Dirk is passive and Gwen is flighty and indecisive. It was hard to root for them as a couple, especially when Jaantony Ironjade was more interesting than Dirk. I’d classify Dying of the Light as a science fiction romantic tragedy (in fact, Dirk, who calls Gwen “Jenny,” likens their situation to the disastrous love triangle in the Arthurian legend) but the romance and the tragedy would have been more effective if Dirk and Gwen had been admirable characters. As it was, I didn’t really care what happened to them in the end.
Overall, Dying of the Light is impressive and surprisingly sophisticated for the first novel of a young author. If you’re a fan of GRRM, it’s a must-read. Dying of the Light was initially serialized in Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction with the name After the Festival in 1977. The novel was nominated for the Hugo and the British Fantasy Award. I read Subterranean Press’s recent publication which has wonderful artwork by Tom Kidd (both glossy color sheets and black and white drawings). I also tried Dying of the Light in audio (recently produced by Random House Audio) and was pleased with Iain Glen’s narration.
In the outer fringe of the inhabited universe, the rogue planet Worlorn falls darkly through space. But years ago it circled the Wheel of Fire, the brilliant wheel-shaped star system that is worshipped by many in the outworlds. Worlorn, the Wheel of Fire’s only planet, was lit for fifty years before it wandered off again. During that half-century, the outworlds held a cultural diversity festival on Worlorn, with each world trying to outdo the others when building their extravagant temporary cities on a planet they knew they’d only inhabit for a few decades.
Now that Worlorn is fading into darkness again, the cities are almost completely abandoned, but there are a few people left on the planet. When Dirk t’Larien is summoned there by Gwen, the ex-girlfriend he still loves, he discovers that Worlorn is no longer a festival planet. Now it’s dark and dangerous. Worse, though, is that Gwen is now mated to Jaantony Riv Wolf high-Ironjade Vikary, a leader of the Kavalar race which, in order to protect its few women and children, has developed some barbaric customs and codes. Most notably, men form high-bonds with a male partner and may have a wife as a shared piece of property. Jaantony, both a warrior and an academic, is eager for his peoples’ culture to become more liberal towards women, but his is a minority opinion. The man he is bonded to, Garse Janacek, does not agree. And the larger faction of the Kavalar race, including some who are hunting non-Kavalar humans on Worlorn, is happy to find any reason to pick a fight with Jaantony Ironjade. When Dirk gets to Worlorn, he unwittingly walks right into the middle of a tense situation and only makes it worse.
Dying of the Light, first published in 1977, is George R.R. Martin’s debut novel and it’s impressive. The setting is wonderful: a dying planet getting farther and farther away from its sun; abandoned cities; jungles with strange and deadly life forms; fascinating cultures. My favorite feature was the city of Challenge which is a 500-story building housing thousands of apartments and lots of cool amenities. Because it’s run by machines, much of Challenge is still operative though only a handful of people still live there. The most exciting action in Dying of the Light occurs in Challenge — I loved this part of the story.
The clashing cultures that Martin creates are also imaginative and fascinating and he hints at plenty of history and backstory that he never gives us but that make this world feel real. I wish he’d write more about it. I’d love to read about the fifty sunny years on Worlorn, for example.
Unfortunately, none of George R.R. Martin’s characters are likable. Dirk is passive and Gwen is flighty and indecisive. It was hard to root for them as a couple, especially when Jaantony Ironjade was more interesting than Dirk. I’d classify Dying of the Light as a science fiction romantic tragedy (in fact, Dirk, who calls Gwen “Jenny,” likens their situation to the disastrous love triangle in the Arthurian legend) but the romance and the tragedy would have been more effective if Dirk and Gwen had been admirable characters. As it was, I didn’t really care what happened to them in the end.
Overall, Dying of the Light is impressive and surprisingly sophisticated for the first novel of a young author. If you’re a fan of GRRM, it’s a must-read. Dying of the Light was initially serialized in Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction with the name After the Festival in 1977. The novel was nominated for the Hugo and the British Fantasy Award. I read Subterranean Press’s recent publication which has wonderful artwork by Tom Kidd (both glossy color sheets and black and white drawings). I also tried Dying of the Light in audio (recently produced by Random House Audio) and was pleased with Iain Glen’s narration.
July 18, 2016
I was in love with this novel early in life and have it indelibly stamped upon me. The atmosphere: ruins on an abandoned planet, a few people left there, devoted to things lost or old-fashioned or with nowhere else to go. It used to be a festival world and different races built their festival-houses, alien architectures now derelict. The mood known in the planet's name, Worlorn. A war culture (on its way out) where teyn is the closest bond, a chosen brother, fight together, sleep together, women are irrelevant. An Earther steps in with his Earther ideas of love, instead, and not a clue. Sadness and ends, lost causes and left-behinds... nothing if not atmospheric. Science fiction poetry.
It's true that I found both Dirk and Gwen ignorable; Garse was my guy, along with bit-parts from his world. Also I skip the botany lessons near the start.
I've tried his famous stuff these days, doesn't have the emotional clout for me. I think I like early George R.R. Martin.
It's true that I found both Dirk and Gwen ignorable; Garse was my guy, along with bit-parts from his world. Also I skip the botany lessons near the start.
I've tried his famous stuff these days, doesn't have the emotional clout for me. I think I like early George R.R. Martin.
dnf
August 21, 202530%
Niestety porzucam. Konstrukcja świata oraz bogactwo kulturowe wydają się naprawdę porządnie rozpisane, nie są jednak w stanie utrzymać mojego zainteresowania, ponieważ ani bohaterowie ani sama fabuła kompletnie mnie nie interesują 😮💨
Niestety porzucam. Konstrukcja świata oraz bogactwo kulturowe wydają się naprawdę porządnie rozpisane, nie są jednak w stanie utrzymać mojego zainteresowania, ponieważ ani bohaterowie ani sama fabuła kompletnie mnie nie interesują 😮💨
October 31, 2014
An interesting, complex debut novel from George RR Martin, Dying Of The Light is an old-school planetary romance that reminded me quite strongly of both Cordwainer Smith and CJ Cherryh, oddly enough, though the setting is pure Jack Vance. Worlorn is a wandering world that enjoyed a brief heydey when, passing near a specatcular star system, it was transformed into a festival world where all the primary centres of human civilisation built cities to house thousands and even millions of inhabitants in an extravagant display of wealth and technology. Now the planet is drifting back into the dark and the cold is closing in and only a few last remnants of the festival throngs remain.
One of those remnants, a former lover, summons Dirk t'Larien to Worlorn. Gwen is caught in an odd marriage to a Kavalar, a marriage that in the eyes of Kavalar society, reduces her to the status of property. Furthermore, a particular faction of a die-hard conservative Kavalar holdfast are on Worlorn hoping to revive a forbidden tradition: the hunting of humans for sport. Caught between his love for Gwen, his growing respect for her husband, who is on Worlorn to thwart the hunters and his troubled search for his own sense of self, Dirk becomes enmeshed in the struggle and the divided loyalties and the battle between the old and the new, haunted by the spectre of death on a dying planet.
Martin's strengths as a world-builder and a story-teller are on full display here. The universe he creates is far bigger, richer and deeper than the planet of Worlorn, though nearly all the action takes place there. Did he ever revisit it, I wonder? Did he intend to? His facility for conjuring history and romance and mystery out of a few brief asides and suggestive comments and names is part of what makes him such a pleasure to read. His frank examination of a martial culture, bound by codes of honour and formal bonds and the attraction it holds for both the romantically inclined and the aimless and the lost prefigures the proud medieval chivalric culture of the Seven Kingdoms, as does his unflinching study of its dark side: the horrifying misogyny and the violence inflicted on those deemed unworthy or outside that culture.
The books ends oddly: after a frantic, edge-of-the-seat hunt, there is a period of waiting and then an anti-climax, followed by a coda that ends without a resolution, though not without resolve. It fits the setting and the theme perfectly, though, and speaks to Martin's integrity as a writer and fidelity to his vision. I hope that once the Song is finished he might consider a return to science fiction. It's clearly his first love.
One of those remnants, a former lover, summons Dirk t'Larien to Worlorn. Gwen is caught in an odd marriage to a Kavalar, a marriage that in the eyes of Kavalar society, reduces her to the status of property. Furthermore, a particular faction of a die-hard conservative Kavalar holdfast are on Worlorn hoping to revive a forbidden tradition: the hunting of humans for sport. Caught between his love for Gwen, his growing respect for her husband, who is on Worlorn to thwart the hunters and his troubled search for his own sense of self, Dirk becomes enmeshed in the struggle and the divided loyalties and the battle between the old and the new, haunted by the spectre of death on a dying planet.
Martin's strengths as a world-builder and a story-teller are on full display here. The universe he creates is far bigger, richer and deeper than the planet of Worlorn, though nearly all the action takes place there. Did he ever revisit it, I wonder? Did he intend to? His facility for conjuring history and romance and mystery out of a few brief asides and suggestive comments and names is part of what makes him such a pleasure to read. His frank examination of a martial culture, bound by codes of honour and formal bonds and the attraction it holds for both the romantically inclined and the aimless and the lost prefigures the proud medieval chivalric culture of the Seven Kingdoms, as does his unflinching study of its dark side: the horrifying misogyny and the violence inflicted on those deemed unworthy or outside that culture.
The books ends oddly: after a frantic, edge-of-the-seat hunt, there is a period of waiting and then an anti-climax, followed by a coda that ends without a resolution, though not without resolve. It fits the setting and the theme perfectly, though, and speaks to Martin's integrity as a writer and fidelity to his vision. I hope that once the Song is finished he might consider a return to science fiction. It's clearly his first love.
July 22, 2018
Este un roman diferit de ultimele creații ale scriitorului, dar mult mai uman și mai profund. Accentul nu cade aici pe istoria unei lumi, ci pe o istorie privată, a personajelor, care iubesc, urăsc și suferă pe o planetă muribundă, aruncată într-un univers ostil. Pe scurt - o carte impresionantă!
December 19, 2019
Bello! Romantico e squisitamente malinconico come piace a me. Forse il miglior Martin al di fuori delle Cronache (se la gioca con Armageddon Rag). Inoltre, di tutti i libri di Martin che non appartengono alle Cronache, questo è quello che più mi ha ricordato il Martin più famoso, quello di Westeros.
L'ho visto nelle conversazioni tra Kavalari, dove l'autore mostra di essere già pronto a intavolare una discussione tra due Lord ad Approdo del Re. Poi nelle descrizioni delle spettrali città di Worlon, dove non fai fatica ad immaginare un malinconico drago sorvolare le rovine di Valyria...e questi sono solo due esempi che mi saltano alla mente. Ce ne sono stati altri durante la lettura.
Il libro ha un inizio un po' troppo ricco di infodump, ma temo fosse necessario (il worldbuilding è complesso nonostante le sole 250pg) e comunque l'infodump non arriva mai sino a dar fastidio o a rallentare il testo. Il romanzo prende spessore nella parte centrale, piacevole ed avventurosa, e arriva ad un valido (e vagamente poetico) finale. Forse l'ultima decisione del protagonista non mi ha convinto appieno, ma non ritengo questa una ragione valida per abbassare il rating più di tanto. Lettura consigliata.
L'ho visto nelle conversazioni tra Kavalari, dove l'autore mostra di essere già pronto a intavolare una discussione tra due Lord ad Approdo del Re. Poi nelle descrizioni delle spettrali città di Worlon, dove non fai fatica ad immaginare un malinconico drago sorvolare le rovine di Valyria...e questi sono solo due esempi che mi saltano alla mente. Ce ne sono stati altri durante la lettura.
Il libro ha un inizio un po' troppo ricco di infodump, ma temo fosse necessario (il worldbuilding è complesso nonostante le sole 250pg) e comunque l'infodump non arriva mai sino a dar fastidio o a rallentare il testo. Il romanzo prende spessore nella parte centrale, piacevole ed avventurosa, e arriva ad un valido (e vagamente poetico) finale. Forse l'ultima decisione del protagonista non mi ha convinto appieno, ma non ritengo questa una ragione valida per abbassare il rating più di tanto. Lettura consigliata.
April 4, 2020
8/10 en 2009.
Martin crea bien, muy bien los personajes y la ambientación del mundo Worlon y su sociedad. Y las relaciones entre todo ello.
Romanticismo, imaginación, ideas, tensiones entre culturas, sentido de la maravilla y ritmo. ¿Fantasía, Ciencia Ficción, novela Romántica. novela Social? Todo eso y más. Léela, coño.
Martin crea bien, muy bien los personajes y la ambientación del mundo Worlon y su sociedad. Y las relaciones entre todo ello.
Romanticismo, imaginación, ideas, tensiones entre culturas, sentido de la maravilla y ritmo. ¿Fantasía, Ciencia Ficción, novela Romántica. novela Social? Todo eso y más. Léela, coño.
June 23, 2023
Purtroppo non sono riuscito ad andare oltre pagina 100.....la noia ha prevalso. Un'accozzaglia di descrizioni su popoli e città che con la storia non hanno nulla a che fare, il protagonista è un poveraccio che per un amore non corrisposto decide di abbandonare tutto e ficcarsi nei guai per salvarla. Mi sono fermato qui.
partial
February 6, 2015This book is annoying. Well, I didn't finish, so I guess I can only say that about 22% of it.
So much backstory and history and characters I frankly just don't get. It's a little much for me. I like a little of that for sure, because all simple dialog makes a story dull. But at some point I just feel like saying "Get to the point already!". As a very straightforward person it's a little painful to listen to people speaking in riddles. It just feels a little too dragged out for my tastes. So, clearly this is just a mismatch.
Oh, and lamest excuse to break up with someone ever. Ever tried communicating?
So, I'm not deleting this from my iPod YET, since I might just try again later when I'm feeling more patient, but for now I have happily moved on to another book, which was interesting from the start. Quite a contrast.
So much backstory and history and characters I frankly just don't get. It's a little much for me. I like a little of that for sure, because all simple dialog makes a story dull. But at some point I just feel like saying "Get to the point already!". As a very straightforward person it's a little painful to listen to people speaking in riddles. It just feels a little too dragged out for my tastes. So, clearly this is just a mismatch.
Oh, and lamest excuse to break up with someone ever. Ever tried communicating?
So, I'm not deleting this from my iPod YET, since I might just try again later when I'm feeling more patient, but for now I have happily moved on to another book, which was interesting from the start. Quite a contrast.
September 27, 2013
Written well (1977) before Martin's highly-acclaimed but not-yet-with-an-end-in-sight Song of Ice and Fire series, Dying of The Light is a novel that shows many of the skills that that series has been appreciated for - complex interpersonal relationships, deft characterizations, believable world-building, to the degree that you want to just step right in and look around the corners to see what else is there - because you *know* that something is...
I actually finished this book really wishing that Martin had written other books in this universe because it was so fascinating - even though the story itself takes place in an extremely small, isolated sphere.
The scenario, I thought, was very Iain Banks-ish...
A 'rogue' planet in a parabolic(?) orbit is only swinging close enough to its stars to support life for 50 years. The civilized universe decides to take advantage of this and throw a festival much like a World's Fair, each planet displaying their arts, technology and unique culture - but only for a brief time.
At the time of the book, the festival is over. The vast majority of the participants have left, as the planet slowly plunges back into cold and night.
But one man (Dirk T'Larien) races through space to that planet - because he has received a token from an old love, one that he had promised, no matter what, to answer...
But when he arrives, things are not as he expected. His welcome is odd. His old lover, an ecologist, is busy studying the dying of the planet's ecosystems.
She's married - or 'betheyn' - to Vikary, a man from a harsh, warlike culture, and is also bound sexually and culturally to his partner.
But another old friend of hers is also there - and he speaks, in confidence, telling Dirk that she really wants to be rescued - that she is enslaved and oppressed.
A psychosexual drama ensues between these four - one with plenty of action and violence, but also dealing with the frictions and attractions between personalities, the complexities of human relationships and the differences between cultures.
Really a great book.
I actually finished this book really wishing that Martin had written other books in this universe because it was so fascinating - even though the story itself takes place in an extremely small, isolated sphere.
The scenario, I thought, was very Iain Banks-ish...
A 'rogue' planet in a parabolic(?) orbit is only swinging close enough to its stars to support life for 50 years. The civilized universe decides to take advantage of this and throw a festival much like a World's Fair, each planet displaying their arts, technology and unique culture - but only for a brief time.
At the time of the book, the festival is over. The vast majority of the participants have left, as the planet slowly plunges back into cold and night.
But one man (Dirk T'Larien) races through space to that planet - because he has received a token from an old love, one that he had promised, no matter what, to answer...
But when he arrives, things are not as he expected. His welcome is odd. His old lover, an ecologist, is busy studying the dying of the planet's ecosystems.
She's married - or 'betheyn' - to Vikary, a man from a harsh, warlike culture, and is also bound sexually and culturally to his partner.
But another old friend of hers is also there - and he speaks, in confidence, telling Dirk that she really wants to be rescued - that she is enslaved and oppressed.
A psychosexual drama ensues between these four - one with plenty of action and violence, but also dealing with the frictions and attractions between personalities, the complexities of human relationships and the differences between cultures.
Really a great book.
March 16, 2021
“Muerte de la luz” es, en esencia, una novela romántica ambientada en un mundo de ciencia ficción. Aunque eso de tacharla de novela romántica no me acaba de convencer, pues mucho dista de lo que se nos viene a la cabeza al hablar de novela romántica. Es una historia en la que el amor tiene un gran peso, y de hecho es este sentimiento el que le da comienzo a la historia, pero nada tiene que ver con la visión clásica en la que todos pensamos al hablar de un libro romántico.
Es un romance más profundo y oscuro. Un amor que va más allá de la conexión física o del cariño. Martin nos presenta una unión más de necesidad, de posesión, de pertenencia. Un sentimiento que anula al individuo. Resumiendo, un amor bastante tóxico.
Como comentaba esta es también una historia de ciencia ficción. A pesar de que se nos habla de un extenso mundo con múltiples planetas, la mayor parte de la trama transcurre en Worlon; un planeta errante que no pertenece a ninguna estrella, sino que flota libremente por el espacio. Es gracias a esta ambientación que la historia se me ha hecho más llevadera. El worldbuilding es espectacular, sin duda. La construcción del planeta, su flora y su fauna, las costumbres de cada planeta… Sería fascinante leer más historias ambientadas en este mundo. La verdad es que me he quedado con ganas de seguir explorándolo y descubrir más de sus secretos.
La trama de esta historia, sin embargo, se me ha hecho un poco pesada. La historia avanza lenta, con muchas explicaciones de por medio que hacen que te pierdas un poco. Tampoco hay mucho jugo que exprimirle a lo que es la historia en sí. Si no fuera por todo lo que la envuelve, a mí, personalmente, me hubiera aburrido bastante. Además los personajes me han parecido bastante fríos y distantes, me generaban mucha desconfianza, y eso tampoco me ha ayudado a amenizar el avance lento de la trama.
Así que, resumiendo, he disfrutado muchísimo del mundo que Martin ha creado y me encantaría que lo aprovechara para construir en él otras historias. Sin embargo, esta en concreto, no estaba hecha para mí.
Es un romance más profundo y oscuro. Un amor que va más allá de la conexión física o del cariño. Martin nos presenta una unión más de necesidad, de posesión, de pertenencia. Un sentimiento que anula al individuo. Resumiendo, un amor bastante tóxico.
Como comentaba esta es también una historia de ciencia ficción. A pesar de que se nos habla de un extenso mundo con múltiples planetas, la mayor parte de la trama transcurre en Worlon; un planeta errante que no pertenece a ninguna estrella, sino que flota libremente por el espacio. Es gracias a esta ambientación que la historia se me ha hecho más llevadera. El worldbuilding es espectacular, sin duda. La construcción del planeta, su flora y su fauna, las costumbres de cada planeta… Sería fascinante leer más historias ambientadas en este mundo. La verdad es que me he quedado con ganas de seguir explorándolo y descubrir más de sus secretos.
La trama de esta historia, sin embargo, se me ha hecho un poco pesada. La historia avanza lenta, con muchas explicaciones de por medio que hacen que te pierdas un poco. Tampoco hay mucho jugo que exprimirle a lo que es la historia en sí. Si no fuera por todo lo que la envuelve, a mí, personalmente, me hubiera aburrido bastante. Además los personajes me han parecido bastante fríos y distantes, me generaban mucha desconfianza, y eso tampoco me ha ayudado a amenizar el avance lento de la trama.
Así que, resumiendo, he disfrutado muchísimo del mundo que Martin ha creado y me encantaría que lo aprovechara para construir en él otras historias. Sin embargo, esta en concreto, no estaba hecha para mí.
September 30, 2025
Worlorn es un planeta semiabandonado. Parto de la idea de que todo el mundo conoce las exposiciones universales. Una ciudad que se postula como el centro donde todos los países vienen a mostrar lo más representativo de su cultura, tecnología, arte... Pues haceros a la idea de que eso se plantea en un planeta entero: eso es Worlorn. Un escaparate para toda la galaxia. Un mundo efímero como lo es una feria, el planeta está condenado a desaparecer porque se está saliendo de la órbita del sol que permite la vida en él.
El sol es una gigante estrella roja rodeada de varias enanas blancas. También es un sol moribundo.
Dirk T´larien recibe una piedra, el mensaje que porta es que debe hacer honor al cumplimiento de una promesa, su antiguo amor Gwen Delvano necesita su ayuda. Con la idea de recuperar el amor perdido Dirk visita el mundo de Worlorn. Sus ciudades abandonadas solo las habitan algunos nostálgicos de su belleza, aventureros y turistas.
Nostalgia es lo que rezuma de forma continua este texto de George R.R. Martin. El mundo que se muere, la estrella que se apaga, el amor que fue, las culturas que se pierden y se olvidan.
Lo más memorable de la novela es cómo RR desarrolla la cultura Kavalar. Sus tradiciones, historia, leyendas y una sociología que no puede dejarte indiferente. Muy marcada por la violencia, la posesión y el honor más rancio que puedas imaginar. Aplaudo el esfuerzo por generar una sociología muy novedosa, una forma de relaciones entre personas original y que está cosido al desarrollo de la trama. La cultura Kavalar es otro personaje en sí que desfallece, que está en las últimas y se reconoce herida.
RR narra muy bien, con buen ritmo. No dejan de sucederse episodios con acción y otros más descriptivos. Sin embargo el tono tan melancólico y apagado del contenido merma su marcha. Es un buen libro de ciencia ficción, pero que tampoco me ha llegado a encantar.
El sol es una gigante estrella roja rodeada de varias enanas blancas. También es un sol moribundo.
Dirk T´larien recibe una piedra, el mensaje que porta es que debe hacer honor al cumplimiento de una promesa, su antiguo amor Gwen Delvano necesita su ayuda. Con la idea de recuperar el amor perdido Dirk visita el mundo de Worlorn. Sus ciudades abandonadas solo las habitan algunos nostálgicos de su belleza, aventureros y turistas.
Nostalgia es lo que rezuma de forma continua este texto de George R.R. Martin. El mundo que se muere, la estrella que se apaga, el amor que fue, las culturas que se pierden y se olvidan.
Lo más memorable de la novela es cómo RR desarrolla la cultura Kavalar. Sus tradiciones, historia, leyendas y una sociología que no puede dejarte indiferente. Muy marcada por la violencia, la posesión y el honor más rancio que puedas imaginar. Aplaudo el esfuerzo por generar una sociología muy novedosa, una forma de relaciones entre personas original y que está cosido al desarrollo de la trama. La cultura Kavalar es otro personaje en sí que desfallece, que está en las últimas y se reconoce herida.
RR narra muy bien, con buen ritmo. No dejan de sucederse episodios con acción y otros más descriptivos. Sin embargo el tono tan melancólico y apagado del contenido merma su marcha. Es un buen libro de ciencia ficción, pero que tampoco me ha llegado a encantar.
December 12, 2022
This is a short grimdark SF novel that was a debut for George R.R. Martin, more famous for his fantasy series Song of Ice and Fire. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for December 2022 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The book was nominated for Hugo in 1978 but lost to Gateway
There is a rogue planet Worlorn that travels across the universe. No one cared about it until some time ago it was calculated that it will pass rather close to a system of twelve suns whose unnaturally precise location lead to rumors of their artificial setting but some ancient civilization. Coming close to the suns the planet will temporary become warm enough to be inhabited. Fourteen fringe worlds decide to join together and use Worlorn for a festival, an exercise in vanity, terraforming it and each constructing a city to show off its culture. For a decade the festival lasted, but now its days are long over – great cities are almost empty, and the planet gets farther away from the sun into an empty space, so that only power fields prolong its descent into darkness and cold. The setting reminds of the dying Earth trope, which has quite strong history in SF – from Twilight (1936) by John W. Campbell Jr. to The Dying Earth (1950) by Jack Vance and The Dancers at the End of Time (1977) by Michael Moorcock among others. And this book captures perfectly the futility of struggle against eventual fate, but just like heroes of Greek mythos, characters here are trying to fight the inevitable, for ‘the winter is coming…’
In this world comes Dirk t'Larien. He responded to a call from his old love Gwen Delvano, with whom he separated almost a decade ago. Gwen works as an environmental scientist on Worlorn, for each world important their plants and animals without any care of ecological balance, for all life will soon be over here. A side note, her job is a very interesting concept, which can be made in a SF book of its own, but it is largely undeveloped here. Instead, there is her new husband and his best friend, even if both words are quite imprecise descriptors of who there are and their relationship. For in this hi-tech universe they are descendants of a human colony that was cut off, degraded into barbarity, were hunted and exterminated by aliens, so the survivors created a warrior culture with women's role as breeders only and everyone around potential enemies or property, without things like human rights. The rest of the book consists of travels around Worlorn and a conflict created by the clash of cultures, with Dirk, Gwen and her husband Jaan Vikary playing roles of Lancelot, Genevieve and Arthur respectively.
For a debut novel, the book is quite strong, but it doesn’t fully shows the author’s mastery.
There is a rogue planet Worlorn that travels across the universe. No one cared about it until some time ago it was calculated that it will pass rather close to a system of twelve suns whose unnaturally precise location lead to rumors of their artificial setting but some ancient civilization. Coming close to the suns the planet will temporary become warm enough to be inhabited. Fourteen fringe worlds decide to join together and use Worlorn for a festival, an exercise in vanity, terraforming it and each constructing a city to show off its culture. For a decade the festival lasted, but now its days are long over – great cities are almost empty, and the planet gets farther away from the sun into an empty space, so that only power fields prolong its descent into darkness and cold. The setting reminds of the dying Earth trope, which has quite strong history in SF – from Twilight (1936) by John W. Campbell Jr. to The Dying Earth (1950) by Jack Vance and The Dancers at the End of Time (1977) by Michael Moorcock among others. And this book captures perfectly the futility of struggle against eventual fate, but just like heroes of Greek mythos, characters here are trying to fight the inevitable, for ‘the winter is coming…’
In this world comes Dirk t'Larien. He responded to a call from his old love Gwen Delvano, with whom he separated almost a decade ago. Gwen works as an environmental scientist on Worlorn, for each world important their plants and animals without any care of ecological balance, for all life will soon be over here. A side note, her job is a very interesting concept, which can be made in a SF book of its own, but it is largely undeveloped here. Instead, there is her new husband and his best friend, even if both words are quite imprecise descriptors of who there are and their relationship. For in this hi-tech universe they are descendants of a human colony that was cut off, degraded into barbarity, were hunted and exterminated by aliens, so the survivors created a warrior culture with women's role as breeders only and everyone around potential enemies or property, without things like human rights. The rest of the book consists of travels around Worlorn and a conflict created by the clash of cultures, with Dirk, Gwen and her husband Jaan Vikary playing roles of Lancelot, Genevieve and Arthur respectively.
For a debut novel, the book is quite strong, but it doesn’t fully shows the author’s mastery.
February 3, 2025
Незнайно защо се шири мнението, че това е космическа опера. Че е опера, съм абсолютно съгласен, но космическа - не е. В крайна сметка, жанрът няма особено значение, ако произведението е класно. Дали това е така със "Смъртта на светлината"?
Тук имаме една блуждаеща планета, която преминава през звездна система и това временно я превръща в обитаема такава. Най-развитите от разпокъсаните човешки планети са я използвали да покажат кой е по-по-най и са изградили собствени фестивални градове. Като написах "фестивални", всъщност става въпрос за фестивал, продължил десетина-двайсет години. Годините на купона са отминали и на планетата има едва няколко десетки човека от различни светове, обитаващи все по-заприличалите на призрачни градове.
На този фон там е "призован" от бившата си любима главният персонаж, който се надява да се събере с нея, макар и тя да е в нещоа като "брак" с двама представители на едно от най-патриархалните общества, произлизащо от планета на име Високи Кавалаан.
Нещата се оказват доста по-различни, отколкото е очаквал той и се включва през глава в игра, която може да му струва живота.
Макар и доброто наличие на изненади за читателя, този роман страда от това, че така и не ми запука особено за персонажите. Сюжетът е интересен сам по себе и, но персонажите са недостатъчно интересни, за да може читателят да се заинтересува и дори да се надява какво се случва с тях. Освен това, мисля че произведението е 2-3 пъти по-обемно, отколкото би трябвало. Особено в първите 2/3 е безкрайно разтеглено и съвсем спокойно можеше да е повест, а не 400-страничен роман.
Може би най-нехаресаното произведение на Джоджано Мертин, което съм чел. 3,5*
Тук имаме една блуждаеща планета, която преминава през звездна система и това временно я превръща в обитаема такава. Най-развитите от разпокъсаните човешки планети са я използвали да покажат кой е по-по-най и са изградили собствени фестивални градове. Като написах "фестивални", всъщност става въпрос за фестивал, продължил десетина-двайсет години. Годините на купона са отминали и на планетата има едва няколко десетки човека от различни светове, обитаващи все по-заприличалите на призрачни градове.
На този фон там е "призован" от бившата си любима главният персонаж, който се надява да се събере с нея, макар и тя да е в нещоа като "брак" с двама представители на едно от най-патриархалните общества, произлизащо от планета на име Високи Кавалаан.
Нещата се оказват доста по-различни, отколкото е очаквал той и се включва през глава в игра, която може да му струва живота.
Макар и доброто наличие на изненади за читателя, този роман страда от това, че така и не ми запука особено за персонажите. Сюжетът е интересен сам по себе и, но персонажите са недостатъчно интересни, за да може читателят да се заинтересува и дори да се надява какво се случва с тях. Освен това, мисля че произведението е 2-3 пъти по-обемно, отколкото би трябвало. Особено в първите 2/3 е безкрайно разтеглено и съвсем спокойно можеше да е повест, а не 400-страничен роман.
Може би най-нехаресаното произведение на Джоджано Мертин, което съм чел. 3,5*
February 17, 2024
La idea del libro me gusta, el ocaso de una civilización, que coincide con la decrepitud del planeta donde transcurre la trama, y también el trabajo del worldbuilding, pero encuentro los personajes muy desdibujados y que la trama muchas veces se pierde en escenas intrascendentes. Hay que tener en cuenta que es una novela de ciencia ficción de los 70, la narrativa es muy distinta y algunos de los conceptos que desarrolla han quedado obsoletos. Seguramente si George R.R. Martin lo hubiera escrito ahora, el libro hubiera brillado mucho más.
October 24, 2015
Review in Portuguese from Desbravando Livros:
O primeiro livro escrito por Martin já começa a mostrar uma das várias características do autor: a complexidade dos personagens. Este foi um livro que não me prendeu a atenção no começo, pois eu havia ficado um pouco confuso com os nomes dos planetas e seus mundos, mas no momento em que a história de Dirk t'Larien e Gwen Delvano começou a se desenrolar eu não conseguia tirar o olho do livro em algumas partes. A ação no livro é frenética, misturada com uma dose legal de fugas e reviravoltas, mas nada além disso.
No entanto, acabei não gostando muito do livro, tanto é que o final deixou muito MESMO a desejar. Havia pensado em algo bem mais grandioso, mas o que aconteceu no fim não me deixou nada satisfeito... Tudo ficou em aberto e não haverá continuação, então não tinha por que o Martin finalizar o livro daquela maneira e deixar os leitores de mão abanando.
Não julguem o bom velhinho Martin por esse livro, já que ele não tem absolutamente NADA A VER com As Crônicas de Gelo e Fogo e jamais chegará aos pés da série de fantasia épica escrita pelo autor. Recomendo que passem bem longe desse e partam direto para Westeros!
Pontos fortes: as (poucas) partes de ação.
Pontos fracos: o blábláblá em relação aos planetas e mundos (muito enrolativo).
Avaliação: 2/5
O primeiro livro escrito por Martin já começa a mostrar uma das várias características do autor: a complexidade dos personagens. Este foi um livro que não me prendeu a atenção no começo, pois eu havia ficado um pouco confuso com os nomes dos planetas e seus mundos, mas no momento em que a história de Dirk t'Larien e Gwen Delvano começou a se desenrolar eu não conseguia tirar o olho do livro em algumas partes. A ação no livro é frenética, misturada com uma dose legal de fugas e reviravoltas, mas nada além disso.
No entanto, acabei não gostando muito do livro, tanto é que o final deixou muito MESMO a desejar. Havia pensado em algo bem mais grandioso, mas o que aconteceu no fim não me deixou nada satisfeito... Tudo ficou em aberto e não haverá continuação, então não tinha por que o Martin finalizar o livro daquela maneira e deixar os leitores de mão abanando.
Não julguem o bom velhinho Martin por esse livro, já que ele não tem absolutamente NADA A VER com As Crônicas de Gelo e Fogo e jamais chegará aos pés da série de fantasia épica escrita pelo autor. Recomendo que passem bem longe desse e partam direto para Westeros!
Pontos fortes: as (poucas) partes de ação.
Pontos fracos: o blábláblá em relação aos planetas e mundos (muito enrolativo).
Avaliação: 2/5
August 4, 2023
The cavalarian culture and the planet Worlorn were fascinating, so I actually enjoyed that there wasn't really a plot for half of it and that the plot that did happen eventually was deeply connected to these ideas. The protagonists werent badly written, but since they are both pretty pathetic people, I didn't care for them much. The side characters were way more interesting, though.
If you are interested in SciFi cultures incl. alternative relationship structure and worldbuilding, this is really fun.
If you are interested in SciFi cultures incl. alternative relationship structure and worldbuilding, this is really fun.
August 10, 2022
Dass ich ein George R.R. Martin-Fan wurde, hat auch dieser Roman beigetragen. Ingredienzien: eine exotische Welt, faszinierende und vielgestaltige Figuren, eine Prise Sentimentalität und Romantik, Melancholie und eine spannende Handlung. Das alles in einem Science Fiction-Kosmos. Ich war damals noch ziemlich jung, noch ein Teenager. Aber GRRM hatte seine schriftstellerischen Fähigkeiten, seine spezifische Erzählstimme schon nahezu voll entwickelt.
April 26, 2017
Interesante historia en un mundo crepuscular, un planeta de los mundos exteriores cuya órbita le va alejando de un cúmulo de estrellas, "la rueda de fuego"... un mundo condenado a la oscuridad en el que ya apenas quedan habitantes.
Dirk t’Larien viaja a Worlorn con la esperanza de reencontrarse con su antiguo amor Gwen Delvano cuando esta le envía su joya susurrante en señal de que le necesita a su lado, pero Dirk encontrará a Gwen unida por jade-y-plata a Jaan Vikary y a su teyn Garse Janacek, dos miembros de la cultura Kavalar con los que mantiene una extraña relación difícil de entender a ojos de un poblador de los mundos interiores.
Me ha gustado el libro sobretodo por la habilidad del autor a la hora de mostrarnos con bastante detalle detalle la cultura, las costumbres y la historia de los Kavalares y por la descripción de algunas de las ciudades que quedan en este mundo moribundo, pero me ha resultado muy difícil empatizar con los personajes, son personajes bastante coherentes y puedo entender sus motivaciones y las razones que les pueden llevar a la toma de decisiones hasta cierto punto, pero me resulta en la mayoría de las ocasiones un proceso bastante forzado... yo desde luego no creo que llegara a las mismas conclusiones o decisiones si me viera en la mayoría de las situaciones que se presentan ante los personajes principales: Gwen, Dirk y Jaan.
Por otro lado la trama me parece bastante predecible, me he encontrado pocas sorpresas.
En todo caso la prosa de Martin está muy bien construida, y el libro tiene bastantes puntos a su favor, he disfrutado la lectura.
Dirk t’Larien viaja a Worlorn con la esperanza de reencontrarse con su antiguo amor Gwen Delvano cuando esta le envía su joya susurrante en señal de que le necesita a su lado, pero Dirk encontrará a Gwen unida por jade-y-plata a Jaan Vikary y a su teyn Garse Janacek, dos miembros de la cultura Kavalar con los que mantiene una extraña relación difícil de entender a ojos de un poblador de los mundos interiores.
Me ha gustado el libro sobretodo por la habilidad del autor a la hora de mostrarnos con bastante detalle detalle la cultura, las costumbres y la historia de los Kavalares y por la descripción de algunas de las ciudades que quedan en este mundo moribundo, pero me ha resultado muy difícil empatizar con los personajes, son personajes bastante coherentes y puedo entender sus motivaciones y las razones que les pueden llevar a la toma de decisiones hasta cierto punto, pero me resulta en la mayoría de las ocasiones un proceso bastante forzado... yo desde luego no creo que llegara a las mismas conclusiones o decisiones si me viera en la mayoría de las situaciones que se presentan ante los personajes principales: Gwen, Dirk y Jaan.
Por otro lado la trama me parece bastante predecible, me he encontrado pocas sorpresas.
En todo caso la prosa de Martin está muy bien construida, y el libro tiene bastantes puntos a su favor, he disfrutado la lectura.
December 11, 2012
I went back this month to re-read some of Martin's early SF. This was his first published novel, I believe -- he already had a short-fiction Hugo and a couple of nominations in his pocket.
Like nearly all of Martin's SF, this book is set in the Thousand Worlds: a loose far-future history spanning millennia of time and a range of narrative styles. The planet Worlorn is wonderfully named and wonderfully gothic: a rogue planet which happened to drift into the multiple star system called the Hellcrown, beyond the Tempter's Veil. The nearby stellar nations jumped on the opportunity for potlatch, and spent years terraforming and building temporary cities for a decade-long planetary Festival. And now the Festival is over, the tourists are gone, and empty Worlorn is drifting back into the interstellar night.
Tell me that isn't the best SF setting ever.
Dirk t'Larien is haunting some backwater of the Thousand Worlds when he gets a message from Worlorn: a psi-jewel etched with memories of his ex-lover, Gwen Delvano. They once traded promises to come, either to the other, if so summoned. So off he goes. It turns out that Gwen is studying the ecology of the dying planet, and is married... sort of.
The story centers on the society she has married into. The world of High Kavalaan has a history which will be familiar to Bujold fans: loss of spaceflight in a great interregnum, invasion by aliens, nuclear and biological assault, mutation, near-extinction -- and thus a societal swing to xenophobia, obsessive genetic purity, and over-the-top patriarchal wingnuttitude.
Unlike Barrayar, High Kavalaan isn't so much obsessed with honor as with face. Kavalars go armed and ready to duel for called insult. Their women are legally property, which brings us back to the storyline, of course. Jaan, Gwen's lover/husband/owner, is a cosmopolitan guy -- they met on the high-tech world of Avalon -- and their relationship wasn't a problem until he brought her home to meet the family. Specifically, to Jaan's shieldbrother/lover/husband Garse, who is, well, more progressive than Kavalar average but still a shock to Gwen.
The societal clash has pushed the trio out to Worlorn, nominally for ecological research, actually to get away from it all. Inevitably, they brought it with them. Plus there are *other* Kavalars on Worlorn, for their own not-so-progressive reasons. That's where Dirk walks in -- blind to the whole mess and still carrying a torch for the young Gwen. Tragedy encued.
This is unquestionably a novel about relationships, and unquestionably *not* a romance; I don't think Martin writes romance, ever. Don't go into this looking for hot OT3. All the relationships are broken, and the characters are trying to feel out new ones. The science-fictionality is that Gwen's position -- emotionally abused, caught between at least four men who all care for her and are hurting her in different ways -- is nonetheless a privileged one; most women on High Kavalaan are rape-fodder locked in basements. I think the point is to knock over the cultural norms and focus on the brokenness. (Readers may disagree about this. But it's safe to say that Martin *never* implies that Gwen should be grateful for what she's got, and at the end of the book she's created something better.)
Bujold, of course, spends books and years trying to draw what's admirable about Barrayar out from the mountain of blood and pain it rests on. Martin asks the same question about a tougher target. I think he's somewhat clumsy about it -- seriously, rape-fodder in basements, and people hunting humans for sport. We're supposed to believe that most of High Kavalaan has modernized, and is building starships and so on instead of fighting world-wars, but we don't get any sense of social change on this human level -- only Jaan's personal rebellion, and the varying attitudes of the other Kavalars. I think the story would have been stronger for a little more display of Kavalar society and its layers.
(Also, every other planet we might contrast it with is a total cipher. Dirk's viewpoint might as well be 1977-Earth-normal, and the other major society represented in the plot -- Kimdiss, home of another ecologist -- is pacifist cardboard.) (Although, to be fair, Bujold has the same problem in _Shards of Honor_. We really see nothing of Beta Colony, except as a "sane" foil to "mad" Barrayar, until that brief scene late in the book.)
Nonetheless, and after all that, Dirk *does* (and we do) get a sense of what High Kavalaan has that is valuable. It may not be much, it may not be what he was hoping for, and it may cost him -- the epilogue makes that clear. But it's better than clinging to a relationship that died seven years ago.
Like nearly all of Martin's SF, this book is set in the Thousand Worlds: a loose far-future history spanning millennia of time and a range of narrative styles. The planet Worlorn is wonderfully named and wonderfully gothic: a rogue planet which happened to drift into the multiple star system called the Hellcrown, beyond the Tempter's Veil. The nearby stellar nations jumped on the opportunity for potlatch, and spent years terraforming and building temporary cities for a decade-long planetary Festival. And now the Festival is over, the tourists are gone, and empty Worlorn is drifting back into the interstellar night.
Tell me that isn't the best SF setting ever.
Dirk t'Larien is haunting some backwater of the Thousand Worlds when he gets a message from Worlorn: a psi-jewel etched with memories of his ex-lover, Gwen Delvano. They once traded promises to come, either to the other, if so summoned. So off he goes. It turns out that Gwen is studying the ecology of the dying planet, and is married... sort of.
The story centers on the society she has married into. The world of High Kavalaan has a history which will be familiar to Bujold fans: loss of spaceflight in a great interregnum, invasion by aliens, nuclear and biological assault, mutation, near-extinction -- and thus a societal swing to xenophobia, obsessive genetic purity, and over-the-top patriarchal wingnuttitude.
Unlike Barrayar, High Kavalaan isn't so much obsessed with honor as with face. Kavalars go armed and ready to duel for called insult. Their women are legally property, which brings us back to the storyline, of course. Jaan, Gwen's lover/husband/owner, is a cosmopolitan guy -- they met on the high-tech world of Avalon -- and their relationship wasn't a problem until he brought her home to meet the family. Specifically, to Jaan's shieldbrother/lover/husband Garse, who is, well, more progressive than Kavalar average but still a shock to Gwen.
The societal clash has pushed the trio out to Worlorn, nominally for ecological research, actually to get away from it all. Inevitably, they brought it with them. Plus there are *other* Kavalars on Worlorn, for their own not-so-progressive reasons. That's where Dirk walks in -- blind to the whole mess and still carrying a torch for the young Gwen. Tragedy encued.
This is unquestionably a novel about relationships, and unquestionably *not* a romance; I don't think Martin writes romance, ever. Don't go into this looking for hot OT3. All the relationships are broken, and the characters are trying to feel out new ones. The science-fictionality is that Gwen's position -- emotionally abused, caught between at least four men who all care for her and are hurting her in different ways -- is nonetheless a privileged one; most women on High Kavalaan are rape-fodder locked in basements. I think the point is to knock over the cultural norms and focus on the brokenness. (Readers may disagree about this. But it's safe to say that Martin *never* implies that Gwen should be grateful for what she's got, and at the end of the book she's created something better.)
Bujold, of course, spends books and years trying to draw what's admirable about Barrayar out from the mountain of blood and pain it rests on. Martin asks the same question about a tougher target. I think he's somewhat clumsy about it -- seriously, rape-fodder in basements, and people hunting humans for sport. We're supposed to believe that most of High Kavalaan has modernized, and is building starships and so on instead of fighting world-wars, but we don't get any sense of social change on this human level -- only Jaan's personal rebellion, and the varying attitudes of the other Kavalars. I think the story would have been stronger for a little more display of Kavalar society and its layers.
(Also, every other planet we might contrast it with is a total cipher. Dirk's viewpoint might as well be 1977-Earth-normal, and the other major society represented in the plot -- Kimdiss, home of another ecologist -- is pacifist cardboard.) (Although, to be fair, Bujold has the same problem in _Shards of Honor_. We really see nothing of Beta Colony, except as a "sane" foil to "mad" Barrayar, until that brief scene late in the book.)
Nonetheless, and after all that, Dirk *does* (and we do) get a sense of what High Kavalaan has that is valuable. It may not be much, it may not be what he was hoping for, and it may cost him -- the epilogue makes that clear. But it's better than clinging to a relationship that died seven years ago.
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