Dying of the Light is a science-fiction novel by George R. R. Martin, published in 1977. It takes place in the "Thousand Worlds" universe, and is set on the Fringe planet of Worlorn during the post-Interregnum period (around the year ai-600). It is about a man named Dirk t'Larien, who is summoned across the galaxy to Worlorn by a whisperjewel, held by a love he thought he'd lost. But he discovers that Worlorn is dying, and Gwen Delvano is no longer the woman he once knew.
Plot Summary
— WARNING: THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS —
Worlorn is a rogue planet, incapable of supporting life for most of its existence; however for a generation it passed close enough to a red giant star to be habitable, and fourteen fantastic cities were built there to showcase the cultures of fourteen surrounding human-settled outworlds. This "Festival of the Fringe" is, briefly, a great success. But now Worlorn is heading into dark and sunless space; its cities are dying, and so is the world itself.
From Worlorn Dirk t’Larien receives a whisperjewel – a psi-encoded memory storage from his former lover Gwen Delvano. It’s a summons, based on an old promise made when they both had the jewels crafted for each other. Having never reconciled with the end of the relationship, Dirk departs for the rogue planet full of hope and dreams. Once there, though, Gwen welcomes him with puzzlement, looking distant and ill-at-ease, and soon Dirk discovers she’s bound to another man, Jaan Vikary, a highborn from the aggressive and patriarchal society of High Kavalaan. After meeting Jaan, he learns that Kavalar culture requires women to be little more than a chattel, shared between her mate and his teyn. A teyn is a sort of blood brother, a bond that stands as the foundation Kavalar culture. Jaan's teyn is named Garse Janacek is a conservative who strongly dislikes Gwen. Jaan, however, is a relatively progressive Kavalar, having been educated at the Academy of Human Knowledge on Avalon (where he and Gwen met), and he is attempting to reform his society.
Gwen's “marriage” is not an easy one, complicated by the peculiar customs of High Kavalaan, such as its preoccupation with racial purity and mutations. Dirk slowly comes to the conclusion that the whisperjewel represented a mute appeal from Gwen to save her from the unhappy liaison. The situation becomes more problematic as we learn that other Kavalars on Worlorn practice a form of hunt whose prey are the creatures they deem inferior and non-human, which includes everyone else by their standards. Jaan’s attempts at stopping the bloody sport and bringing his planet to a higher galactic standard further inflame the already volatile tempers.
Soon Dirk find himself enmeshed in a political and personal struggle, complicated by his feelings for Gwen and a slowly unfolding web of discoveries he makes about Worlorn and its inhabitants. By the novel's end, many of the characters have died, though some endings are deliberately left ambiguous.[1]
— END OF SPOILERS —
Themes
Artwork by Juan Miguel Aguilera, from the Spanish cover of Dying of the Light
In Dying of the Light, Martin poses several challenging existential questions. For example, he asks, how can we reconcile our ideals with reality? The protagonist Dirk has an idealised vision of Gwen, whom he calls Jenny. However, Gwen is her own person, with her own needs and wants. It is revealed that Dirk’s inability to accept Gwen as she is, and her inability to conform to his idealised perception, is the reason their relationship failed in the first place. Likewise, Jaan has an idealised vision of what Kavalar culture was and what it could be, but must contend with what it currently is - brutal, regressive, and self-destructive. At the beginning of the story, Dirk is again attempting to impose an idealistic story - that Gwen wants him back, but is being held captive by the brutish Jaan Vikkary, from whom he must rescue her. However, reality proves to more complicated and less romantic. It was not Gwen who activated the whisperjewel to call Dirk, and Jaan is not the villain he had expected. Dirk has no clear role in this world, which contributes to his aimless, disillusioned state throughout the novel.
Another question that Martin poses is: how can we find meaning or purpose in a universe that it seems so fragile and chaotic? The cities of Worlorn and the Festival of the Fringe were meant to be a celebration of life and a demonstration of the best art, architecture, music, food, and science that the surrounding worlds had to offer. It succeeded in being all of those things... but only temporarily. The brief window in which multiculturalism and creativity were celebrated has ended, and been replaced by violence and death. Does regression suggest that carnage is the natural state of existence? The Festival cities now stand empty and decaying, reflecting the impermanence of the civilisations who built them, and their culture, histories, memories, and lives, which are threatened with equal fates. Like Worlorn, the entire universe may one day become uninhabitable. It gives terrifying form to the T.S. Elliot passage: "this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper."
Names and their meanings play an important role throughout Dying of the Light. Jaan announces his full name as "Jaantony Riv Wolf high-Ironjade Vikary," which conveys information about his personality, rank, and holdfast-coalition. However, he and Gwen both contest the names bestowed upon them. Jaan rejects the way he was raised to glorify violence and practice xenophobia and travels to Avalon to educate himself and learn about other cultures, before returning to High Kavalaan with the goal of reforming his people. Gwen rejects the idealised role of "Jenny" that Dirk has cast for her, leaving Avalon to become her own person. Foreigners like Dirk are derided by some Kavalan as being "mockmen,” which are legendary beings bereft of any fixed codes and who have the ability to change their shape. This belief suggests that the Kavalar harbour an existential fear of altering or severing the link between names and things. The irony is that traditionalist Kavalar, such as Braithe, often ignore, reject, or coerce aspects of reality that fail to fit their code. In a broader sense, the names of Worlorn's cities are remembered, but now that the buildings and streets have been abandoned, they no longer embody the meanings behind those names. The various phenomena Dirk witnesses while passing through the cities evokes this quandary. For example, Kryne Lamiya was built so that the wind would produce music as it passed through its towers. However, the city is empty and soon the planet will be too, meaning that the music is being produced with no one around to hear it. And if no one is hearing it, how can it be recognized as music? What meaning do the sounds contain or evoke, without ears or minds or hearts to decipher them?
Dying of the Light is deeply elegiac in tone and theme. The fading world of Worlorn serves as a backdrop and metaphor for the failed relationship of Dirk and Gwen. After they flee Larteyn, the couple attempts to rekindle their relationship, but like the planet they are fleeing across, they gradually realise how hollow their former love has become. The planetary decay also reflects the dying culture of the Kavalar. Jaan Vikary concludes that his people will need to change their customs in order to survive. Most of the other Kavalar characters reject Jaan's argument and all of them end up dead. Nevertheless, Jaan and Gwen survive and manage to escape the planet with Dirk's help. This ending, while ambiguous, suggests that there is hope for people to transcend their circumstances and change their fate. Ultimately, the novel seems to suggest that people are a combination of the names and meanings assigned to them by their society, and the level to which they choose to question and evaluate the legitimacy of these names, meanings and the assumed links between them.
Author's Notes
Martin states that while his shared "future" universe began with The Hero, it reached its fullest development with Dying of the Light. He considers the novel to be the culmination of the science-fiction focused phase of his career, and believes it reflects the melancholic romantic personality he possessed in the mid-1970s.
Dying of the Light contains a comprehensive glossary explaining the various events, planets and cultures of the "Thousand World" universe.
Publication History
Dying of the Light was first serialized in abridged form under the title "After the Festival" in the April through July 1977 issues of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The title refers to the festival of fourteen worlds that precedes the story. In October of that year, an unabridged version was published by Simon & Schuster.
Adaptations
In 2012, Dying of the Light was released in audiobook format, read by Ian Glen. Glen played Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones, the television adaptation of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Reception
The Wikipedia entry for George R. R. Martin describes Dying of the Light as possessing "a strong sense of melancholy" and containing characters who are "often unhappy or, at least, unsatisfied, in many cases holding on to idealisms in spite of an otherwise chaotic and ruthless world, and often troubled by their own self-seeking or violent actions, even as they undertake them."[2]
In 1978, Dying of the Light was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and was nomatied for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
In 1979, it was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel.
In 2017, the Vassals of Kingsgrave podcast released a review of Dying of the Light:
"Dying of the Light" by George R. R. Martin (Review)-0
Connections to the "Thousand Worlds" Universe
Dying of the Light provides dates for several important events in the "Thousand Worlds" universe that occured after the Interregnum (ai):
- ai-0 – ai-Emeral is colonised from Daronne
- ai-46 – Kleronomas’ survey ship briefly passes Worlorn and maps its wastelands
- ai-97 – Tomo and Walberg land on Worlorn
- ai-137 – The World of the Blackwine Ocean is colonized from Old Poseidon
- ai-446 – An astronoment from Wolfiem studies Worlorn and publishes its co-ordinates
- ai-589 to ai-599 – The Festival of the Fringe is held on Worlorn
The novel contains historical references to the Double War, the Interregnum, and in particular, the Hrangan raids on Tara and High Khavalaan, which greatly influenced Kavalar culture.
The novel features the first use of the term "Jambles" to denote the worlds and cultures located between the Manrealm and the Fringe. It is mentioned by Jaan Vikary, who learned the term on Wolfheim.
Dirk mentions that he was born on Baldur, the same place where John Bowen from This Tower of Ashes originates, where Robb's and Lya's home is located in A Song for Lya, and where Sandkings is set. However, Dirk's family moved to Avalon while he was very young and he barely remembers the planet.
Dirk's and Gwen's initial relationship took place on Avalon. Also Jaan Vikary studied at the Academy for Human Knowledge on Avalon, which is where he met Gwen.
The story mentions duralloy and viewscreens, technology which is ubiquitous throughout the "Thousand Worlds" universe.
Allusions to Other GRRM Works
Jaan Vikary shares many traits with Prince Rhaegar Targaryen from Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Both characters are born into royalty and were sullen and isolated in their youth. Both also possess classical heroic qualities, such as boldness, strength, cunning, intelligence, and charisma. Both also attempt to reform their respective cultures and ultimately fail.
Dirk's journey through the abandoned cities of Worlorn is similar to Tyrion Lannister's voyage past the ruined cities of the Rhoyne in A Dance with Dragon (book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire). Both protagonists experience feelings of intense romantic melancholy, as they compare the present silence and decay of places like Kryne Lamiya (on Worlorn) and Chryane (on the River Rhoyne), to the sound, colour and passion that once occupied these places. This spatial emptiness is used by Martin to symbolise the depression and regret of the characters witnessing it.
The militant, hyper-masculine, highly misogynistic, honor-based culture of the Kavalar is very similar to the culture of the Dothraki in Essos. Also, the Kavalar practice of hunting and flaying human beings is similar to the grisly historical practices of House Bolton in the North.
Allusions to Other Media
Dying of the Light's title is drawn from Dylan Thomas' 1947 poem "Do not go gentle into that good night," which contains the lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." By the same token, the novel is about a series of characters facing the existential angst of failed relationships, dying cultures and worlds, and the abyss of a cold, uncaring universe, but choosing to live on and confront the future anyway.
Dying of the Light mentions a race of former Hrangan slaves called the Githyanki. This name was taken from the novel for use with a much different race in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game.
The novel contains a several allusions to the legend of King Arthur. For example, Gwen Delvano's name resembles to that of Lady Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. Jaan Vikary, a visionary leader of High Kavalaan plays the part of the king. Meanwhile, Dirk t'Larien plays Lancelot, the man with whom Gwen enters into a dangerous love affair. Like the legend, this affair inadvertently causes the deaths of many characters and contributes to the downfall of the kingdom. Additionally, the name Avalon, the planet where Dirk's and Gwen's love first kindled, is also taken from the legend, as the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged.
The novel also contains possible allusions to Michael Curtiz's 1942 film Casablanca. Dirk is like Rick Blaine, a former romantic turned bitter over being abandoned by his lover. Gwen is Ilsa Lund, who suddenly re-enters his life, stirring up unresolved feelings between the two. Jan is Victor Laszlo, the charismatic revolutionary, and the man for whom Gwen leaves Dirk. Both stories are set against the backdrop of widescale conflict. Like Rick, Dirk still loves his ex-girlfriend, but realises that there are bigger things at stake, that her and her husband are meant to be together, and chooses to help them escape together (in both cases into the air). Additionally, the theme song for Casablana, "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld, contains the lyrics "it's still the same old story / a fight for love and glory," which Martin has cited as the fundamental truth of all good genre fiction.
References