I was reading some discussions online about recommendations for vampire novels and a bunch of people recommended GRRM's Fevre Dream. I'd never heard of it so I read the description and it sounds... pretty bland? It's about a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River in the 1850s who gets hired by an aristocratic vampire. While I'm sure the description is avoiding spoilers, that all sounds very boring to me. Yet the amazon page proclaims it "A THRILLING REINVENTION OF THE VAMPIRE NOVEL" so I must be missing something.
I'm guessing this is one of those dramatic period pieces with thought-provoking conversations between well-defined characters. And maybe I'm just a simple-minded idiot who prefers action movies like Underworld, Blade, and Van Helsing and this novel simply isn't for me. That's fair. Or maybe that description is leaving out too much and it's actually an action-packed thrill-ride. I have no idea.
So If you've read Fevre Dream before, what's the appeal? What's so great about this novel? It seems highly regarded but that doesn't mean it's for me. I'm sure there are other people here who might enjoy it though, so definitely check it out if you're curious. Obviously the novel does something right, I just don't know what that is.
Like I've said multiple times now, it's fine if you prefer simpler writing but to completely dismiss writers like Tolstoy just because you're bored by them is just the height of ignorance.
It's you, not me, just accept that they aren't universally great. Again, your hubris is staggering, they aren't complex literature, they just old.
I'm curious what you consider to be great literature.