History Literature / DyingOfTheLight

* PoorCommunicationKills: Much of the plot is driven by how badly the protagonists communicate with each other. One of the end results is the death of one of them killing another one due to being misinformed about his intentions. The remaining protagonists decide to respond by escalating their poor communication.

* Ahem: Right before Dirk asks Gwen why she sent the whisperjewel, [[spoiler: ManipulativeBastard Ruark coughs]] and Dirk is distracted by it momentarily. He does not ask about it again during the scene, and [[spoiler: in fact, not until MUCH later in the novel.]] [[spoiler: This prevents the early revelation of Ruark’s deception, as Ruark sent the whisperjewel, not Gwen.]]
* AlwaysABiggerFish: [[spoiler: A High Kavalaan banshee, a creature like a flying manta ray with its underside covered with tiny mouths, imported to Worlorn by the Kavalars, saves Dirk from a Braith hound when he's being hunted.]]
* [[spoiler: AntiClimax]]: After a frantic chase through Challenge and the forests and [[spoiler: the destruction of Kryne Lamiya, the antagonists all die while the main characters hide out in Larteyn. Dirk realizes that a person needs to have a code, and honors his duel with Bretan.]]

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Concocted by Garse in order to give Dirk a chance to escape the Braiths, and allow Garse to join with them to hunt down Jaan and then turn on them when they find Jaan. Garse brings Dirk to the Braiths as a "blood gift" and as expected they strip him naked and send him running through the woods before giving chase with their hounds. Unbeknownst to them, Garse and Dirk hid a laser rifle and a coat near a wrecked aircar, which Dirk heads straight for once he's set loose.]]

* [[spoiler: BolivianArmyEnding]]: [[spoiler: The story ends before we see the duel's outcome.]]

* ChekhovsGun: The story about the Banshee.
* DoNotGoGentle: A theme of the book. Also, the title comes from [[Literature/DoNotGoGentleIntoThatGoodNight the poem]].

* HeManWomanHater: The Kavalars, except Jaan Vikary.

* ProudWarriorRace: The Kavalar.
* [[PunctuatedPounding Punctuated Blasting]]: "And ''you'' do not duel. ''You''... ''do''... ''not''... ''duel!''"

* TookALevelInBadass: Dirk and Gwen.

* [[spoiler: TrackingDevice:]] This is how Chell and Bretan [[spoiler: trace Dirk to Challenge. Arkin planted a wildlife tracer on Dirk in exchange for Bretan protecting Gwen.]]

* KillEmAll: Nearly every character we are introduced to is dead by the end of the novel, with the exceptions of [[spoiler:Gwen, Jaan, Kiran, Bretan and Dirk, who is left to an uncertain fate in his final duel with the latter.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Every character has faced their worst fears, one way or another, but [[KillEmAll nearly the entire cast is dead]], [[spoiler:Jaan can never know the AwfulTruth about his killing of Garse]], and the novel ends bleakly, with [[spoiler:Dirk, finally over losing Gwen, [[BolivianArmyEnding possibly about to die at the hands of Bretan Braith]]. At the very least, [[FaceDeathWithDignity he doesn't seem too bothered about it]]]].

* WeaponOfChoice: When people start to turn up dead by firearm rather than lasers, [[spoiler: Jaan]] realizes that [[spoiler: Bretan]] is about.
* WouldHitAGirl: Myrik.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Jaantony Riv Wolf high-Ironjade Vikary. Kavalars partially name themselves.

''Literature/DyingOfTheLight'' is the debut novel of famed ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' author Creator/GeorgeRRMartin. It was first published in 1977 as "After The Festival", serialized in Analog Science Fiction And Fact.

* ContemptibleCover: [[http://www.georgerrmartin.com/cover-art-gallery/?id=238 Compare the more modern covers to the older ones.]]

* BittersweetEnding: Every character has faced their worst fears, one way or another, but [[KillEmAll nearly the entire cast is dead]], [[spoiler:Jaan can never know the AwfulTruth about his killing of Garse]], and the novel ends bleakly, with [[spoiler:Dirk, finally over losing Gwen, [[BolivianArmyEnding possibly about to die at the hands of Bretan Braith]] At the very least, [[FaceDeathWithDignity he doesn't seem too bothered about it]]]].

* BittersweetEnding: Every character has faced their worst fears, one way or another, but [[KillEmAll nearly the entire cast is dead]], and the novel ends with [[spoiler:Dirk, finally over losing Gwen, [[FaceDeathWithDignity possibly about to die at the hands of Bretan Braith]]]].

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Pretty soft. Ray guns, flying cars and weird alien creatures (such as a giant aquatic slug, mentioned only in passing, large enough for people to live inside) abound. It does however avert SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseofScale, with travel times between different regions of space taking months or years despite faster-than-light capability.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Any pairs of teyns, who are bonded as “holdfast brothers” for life. Curiously, their bond is considered stronger than the concubine-like bond between a man and his betheyn, or held-wife. While characters themselves, and Garse especially, deny a romantic component to their teyn relationships, it is explicitly stated towards the end of the book that Jaan romantically loves Garse, [[spoiler: making it all the more difficult for Jaan to deal with having killed him.]] Also, romantic love is strongly hinted between the teyns [[spoiler: Chell and Bretan]] toward the end of the novel.

* MeaningfulName: Worlorn is derived from 'Forlorn', meaning ''pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely'.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Ubiquitous among the Kavalar. It adds to the seventies feel of the novel.

* DoNotGoGentleIntoThatGoodNight: A theme of the book. Also, the title comes from the poem.

Worlorn was a rogue planet, a dead rock floating through space, and of no particular interest to anyone until it was realized that it would pass a star system as it left the galaxy. The outer worlds, joining together, terraformed Worlorn into a festival planet, each of the fourteen worlds building a city to showcase it's culture. For a good ten years it was the pride of the out-worlds. But now the window of habitability is closing, and the businesses have left. Shrouded in twilight, the vast cities are now inhabited only by stragglers, the computers dutifully keeping it all maintained as Worlorn awaits the final dying of the light.

''Literature/DyingOfTheLight'' is the debut novel of famed ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' author GeorgeRRMartin. It was first published in 1977 as "After The Festival", serialized in Analog Science Fiction And Fact.

* WouldHitAGirl: Myrik.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Pretty soft.

* ChekovsGun: The story about the Banshee.

* WeaponOfChoice: When people start to turn up dead by firearm, [[spoiler: Jaan]] realizes that [[spoiler: Bretan]] is about.

* PlanetaryRomance: