I am a fan of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, so I expected to enjoy his take on the vampire novel.

Fevre Dream is set on the Mississippi river just before the Civil War, where an out-of-luck steamboat captain meets an odd stranger (a vampire) who makes him an offer he can't refuse. The novel follows their unlikely partnership over the next few years. Martin's vampires are a fairly run-of-the-mill mashup of various mythologies — they drink human blood and they live essentially forever, but sunlight burns them badly rather than immediately killing them, and religious artifacts have no effect on them.

The premise is good, and the arc is okay, but the plotting and storytelling are a little uneven. The end result is a minor work — enjoyable but not great.