Talk:Dying of the Light
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(The following book review was entered on the primary page. I have edited it down and preserved the original here.)
Note : This is a review I myself wrote for Amazon.com (you can finf it there). I presume there si no copyright violation in posting it here?
David Rasquinha
For a first book, "Dying of the Light" deserves high praise. The storyline is complex and the quality and depth of imagination that Martin displays is tremendous. The title is clearly drawn from Dylan Thomas' great poem with the well known lines : "Rage, rage against the dying of the light; Do not go gently into that good night". Dylan Thomas wrote the poem for his father (who was then blind and close to death), urging him to battle, rather than surrender. So it is but natural to find that "Dying of the Light" is a story of death. Death on many levels, and how death is faced by the dying.
To start with, the plant of Worlorn, the locale for the book, is itself dying; a rogue planet whose erratic course is taking it irreversibly far from its neighboring stars, into a region of cold and dark where no life will survive. Worlorn's 15 cities, built during the brief festival when it passed close enough to a red giant star to permit a brief window for life to thrive, are dying too. Built to celebrate the diverse cultures of 15 planetary systems, they have been largely abandoned, their systems and maintenance are failing and soon they will be cold dead shells. And of course the cast of characters is also flirting with death. Dirk t'Larien, the protagonist, finds life empty and of little attraction after his girlfriend Gwen Delvano drops him. Most poignant of all, the Kavalar race, into which she has married (the relationship is too complex to describe in a review so I use the word married) is itself dying in a cultural manner of speaking. Their home plant has survived a numerous attacks in a planetary war and in response they have evolved social institutions and human relationship patterns to cope with the depredation of the war. Yet now that the war is long past, they find themselves trapped between those who would recognise that the old ways need to be reviewed for the current day, and those who believe that any dilution of the old ways spells the end of Kavalar culture.
The battles then, of all these varying actors are played out beneath the dying light falling on Worlorn. At the end, many of the characters have indeed died (Martin leaves some endings deliberately ambiguous) but it is the manner in which they have faced their fears (of death and of life) that make the story great. This is not simplistic, easy reading science fiction, with lasers and spaceships and other bells and whistles, but rather mature science fiction, looking at human relationships in a context that is difficult to comprehend.
As with all Martin's work, the characters are humanly grey rather than stark black and white. The "good guys" are tainted by weaknesses, while the "bad guys" often have some redeeming features. "Dying of the Light" also foreshadows the breadth of imagination and the depth of focus that characterize Martin's subsequent works, most of all the Song of Ice and Fire series. Martin's descriptions of the various cultures (as embodied in the festival cities) is matchless. An excellent example is his description of the city of Kryne Lamiya, designed by its planetary culture in such a way that the winds which blow through its streets and bounce off its towers, play an actual symphony of music. This book is puny when viewed against the Ice and Fire series, but well worth a read all the same. I highly recommend it to Martin's fans and to all readers of quality science fiction.
- Wikipedia is non-point-of-view, meaning you cannot put opinions of works on the relevant pages. You can put up references to professional reviews, either print or online, but they must not be fan reviews. Fan and Amazon reviews are not regarded as viable sources. Reprinting reviews ad verbatim is indeed in violation of copyright, especially as Amazon reviews become the property of Amazon.com upon submission.--Werthead 11:24, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:GeorgeRRMartin DyingOfTheLight.jpg
Image:GeorgeRRMartin DyingOfTheLight.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.
If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 09:54, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
