Everyone knows about the Game of Thrones series. Whether you like the shows or read the books or both you know that George R.R. Martin can spin an epic yarn. His ability to create a world full of unique characters, political manipulation, and intense combat is legendary. He is able to engage an audience through intertwining stories that involve multiple plots and subplots that all relate to each other and end up coming together in a way that is both exciting and cohesive. This is the case in the Game of Thrones books and I recommend people go out and read them. I also recommend people read two other books that I had never heard of until I found them in a local bookstore.

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Fever Dream centers around the relationship between Abner Marsh and Joshua York. Joshua is a rich man who is a stranger to the rough and rugged world of the riverboat culture in the pre-civil war South but will soon learn how harsh it can get when he hires Abner Marsh to design and captain the fastest and most lavish steamboat the South has ever seen. It might even be able to beat the reigning champion The Eclipse if only she got the chance.

Abner is probably the ugliest steamboat captain that the South has ever sent but he's not stupid. He has a slow but steady mind to offset his quick temper and bad luck. He had five boats all destroyed by a recent winter storm and after the events that befall the Fevre Dream, he might just be the unluckiest man on the river as well as the ugliest. The Fevre Dream is his second chance to make his name in the steamboat world and his hopes are high until he starts to suspect that Joshua York isn't exactly what he says he is.

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Joshua is a strangely pale and charismatic man. He sleeps by day without exception and takes random trips off the boat for sometimes days at a time without a word of when he will be back. Abner Marsh wants to make a name in the steamboat trade and all the delays Joshua causes irks Abner to the point of confrontation but when he finds out the meaning of Joshua's nighttime excursions he is not assured. If anything the truth simply makes things worse and potentially more dangerous for everyone involved.

Everything comes to a steamy head when Joshua invites Damon Julian and his friends for a dinner aboard Abner's beloved Fevre Dream. Damon Julian is another pale oddity with ageless hypnotic eyes and a rueful smile. Damon does not like the peaceful proposition Joshua York offers him and like the ferocious river itself, Damon tries to take control of the Fevre Dream away from its loving owners. What ensues after the fateful dinner is nothing short of a rollercoaster of violence and mayhem. It's all so much fun.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes dark fantasy thrillers. It has such richly developed characters and perfectly crafted momentum that all lead toward an intricate climax that is as exciting as it is satisfying. George R. R. Martin writes with a combination of down-to-earth language and mindful poetry. It is a verbose text that meanders as much as the mighty rivers do in the story but like an unknown river it all leads downstream to somewhere unexpectedly glorious.

Tuf Voyaging is a stand-alone sci-fi novel that is 440 pages long. It follows the main character Haviland Tuf as he travels from planet to planet in an effort to benevolently utilize his newly acquired skills and technology of ecological engineering. He starts off as a savvy trader who is hired to transport a crew to a mysterious point in space that holds a priceless treasure. We soon discover that the treasure is a 1000-year-old derelict Ecological Engineering Corps (EEC) ship that was developed by old Earth scientists as a way to engage in biological warfare. The technological capabilities of this ship have long been lost to humanity until Tuf and the crew find it. I won’t spoil how he ends up captaining the ship.

Haviland Tuf is a shrewd and humorless man who loves cats and is incapable of small talk. He is highly intelligent and a master at understanding systems which makes him the perfect steward of a ship designed to utilize biological organisms from the size of bacteria to the size of tremendous monsters to potentially alter the ecology of entire planets. He first finds himself employed in this endeavor when his ownership of the EEC ship is threatened by a planet that wants to use the ship to solve their planet’s overpopulation issues. It seems that no matter where he goes and no matter how miraculous his offerings are, the people around him are constantly threatening him, incapable of helping themselves, and always underestimating his ability to come out on top. As he employs his godlike powers across the universe, he is in a constant battle to remain benevolent and outwit those who would try to take this power away from him or use this power for personal profit.

There are two aspects of George R.R. Martin’s writing that make him unique and compelling. The first is his ability to create uniquely identifiable characters. Haviland Tuf’s dialogue defines him and his idiosyncrasies are a joy to uncover. He is a one-of-a-kind character who always seems one step ahead and almost never has to resort to brutish force. He is calm and well-spoken and I kind of love him as a character. Every character in the George R.R. Martin pantheon seems to have their own style. They each have their own unique speech patterns, mannerisms, and personalities.

The second aspect of George R.R. Martin’s writings that I love is his ability to stray from predictable and stereotypical plotlines. He has the ability to think up circumstances, reactions, and outcomes that are unique to the tale at hand. They are rarely predictable and offer a level of creativity that is not always present in stories I encounter. For example, Haviland Tuf finds himself helping a planet with very little land and that primarily relies on the sea for food but in recent times their fishing vessels have been attacked by huge octopus-like monsters and they can no longer sustain themselves. They force Tuf into a hasty solution that ends up backfiring on them. Tuf could just leave them to their fate but ends up learning the true nature of the problem and works to save the planet once and for all. The solution he finds is completely unexpected and is a satisfying surprise.

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Tuf Voyaging is an excellent sci-fi novel that employs scientific concepts and clever problem-solving to propel its main character through tumultuous terrain. It is on par with my other favorite sci-fi book Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and that is saying a lot. Project Hail Mary is amazing and I highly recommend that to you as well. If you like sci-fi, Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin is a must-read!