Pornokitsch

Although he's now famous for his epic and interminable fantasy saga, perhaps George RR Martin's finest hour took place almost three decades ago, with the little-known one-off, Fevre Dream (1982).

Fevre Dream is a haunting tale from the American age of steam. It harkens back to the Mark Twain era, when massive steamboats with gilded saloons cruised up and down the Mississippi, racing, sporting, entertaining and occasionally doing a bit of business. Martin is lavish with description of the boats and the river - the half-tamed wilderness of the central US and the half-tamed wildness of the men that pilot through it. 

Into this dramatic atmosphere, he introduces vampires. 

A lost and fragmented coven of vampires is spread through the US, alternately hiding and feasting as their needs demand. While some 'good' vampires see the age of steam as an opportunity to learn, grow and explore, others see it as a means to spread their evil more quickly. 

Thankfully, this is not a textbook on the politics of vampirism. Nor is it a seedy supernatural romance - although the occasional New Orleans setting makes a few comparisons to Anne Rice inevitable. The vampires of Fevre Dream are not romantic or passionate (or even particularly good looking), they're a perverted subculture in desperate need of shelter and survival.