There was a time when GRRM was not a world famous author, but just an obscure cult writer.In Spain, DOTL was a hidden gem for years, even if it was translated as early as 1979. Talked about and referred to as a favorite, few had actually read it.
The title was audaciously picked from Dylan Thomas (Rage, rage against the Dying of the Light).
Its scenario is ominous, also impressive. Dirk t’Larien and Gwen Delvano, two ex lovers, meet on a rogue planet, Worlorn. What's a rogue planet? One not orbiting any star, but lost in deep space, except when temporarily approaching a star’s proximity.
Rogue planets are not fiction. They exist in reality, and many have already been identified (btw none back in 1977, when DOTL was first published).
Dirk travels to Worlorn, to reunite with Gwen, years after their love story was over. The planet had capriciously been terraformed, just to hold a big Festival of Cultures: those of all 14 outer planets (all inhabited by humans and their rich and different cultures).
The terraforming took advantage of the fact that Worlorn was to be, for just a few decades, within the proximity of a group of stars, thus receiving daylight. Now the Festival is over, and light is dying out. Cities abandoned; ice, decay and death spreading over.
This is the bleak place Dirk is asked by Gwen to travel to. After years of not hearing a word from her.
DOTL is a love story, sure. With such titles, we could perfectly come up with a new subgenre: Romantic Sf. But it is also adventure, violence and an anthropological feast.
The DOTL universe is populated by humans, all originated from Old Earth. Human condition remains unchanged, though (no genetic improvement here). Larteyn, the city in Worlorn modeled after High Kavalaan, with its virile culture of the medieval type, of clashing clans and ancient codes of honor, might give the reader an early taste of Game of Thrones.
