Nightflyers & Other Stories

A collection of unspectacular but entertaining short stories (one or two are in 'novella' territory) from early in the writing career of George R. R. Martin. GRRM is a natural-born storyteller, and especially good at characterization, but the stories by-and-large lack the height and inventiveness of his later work.

His sci-fi is sometimes a bit gamey: in contrast to his fantasy, where he is grounded in more realistic feudal systems, Martin goes on extreme flights of fancy for his alien worlds and some of the ideas you begin to see as brightly-coloured balloons that, if he keeps injecting air into them, will soon pop. The fanciful names and the galactic community of alien species you often find in by-rote genre sci-fi are here, and Martin show more falls into this common trap: the mechanics of how such communities would interact, in real terms, is hand-waved away. It can hinder the reader's attempts at suspension of disbelief, for the reader has to treat the stories as mere stories, rather than looking into the deeper themes. The reader has to paddle in the shallow end because they don't know if the deeper end will collapse.

'Nightflyers' is rightly made the centrepiece. It is the strongest piece of writing in the collection, a bit like Agatha Christie meets those old space-horror films like Alien and the second act of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Martin builds tension nicely, and while the story won't rock your world, it is an entertaining read.

The middle stories are, without meaning to be disparaging, the 'filler' pieces. 'Override' is a neat little story; I always like those genre stories which delve into ordinary people's lives in a fantastical world, rather than indulging in grand space-operas. 'Weekend in a War Zone' is the weakest story; it was a bit sketchy on the mechanics of why these 'weekend fights' occur and how. But it did predict the behaviour of online multiplayer gamers, so it does have novelty value. The two other fillers, 'And Seven Times Never Kill Man' and 'Nor the Many-Coloured Fires of a Star Ring' are two strange stories that you need to work at. They have decent atmosphere and – particularly the latter – some good concepts. But they are both reaching for something deeper they cannot really bear the weight of.

The final story, 'A Song for Lya' is, with 'Nightflyers', the most valuable addition. It is the only truly original one and one of the earliest; it might be the best thing the pre-Game of Thrones GRRM wrote (excepting Fevre Dream). Its denouement was rather signposted, but it did make some neat observations and didn't force itself into an easy, happy ending, which I respect. You can either dismiss it as space hippies (it was written in the early Seventies) or you can look at it as a tentative contemplation of the metaphysics of love and what it means to be alone. I chose the second course, and was rewarded. show less

I've never read anything by George R.R. Martin, and someone had recommended this book to me since I like horror and science fiction (Alien is one of my favorite films). And many folks love George R.R. Martin. The premise sounded promising so I thought I give it a try and I am sad to report that I was disappointed by this novella.

Nightflyers was first published in 1980, won the Locus Award for best novella, and was nominated for a Hugo Award. It was made into an unsuccessful film in 1987. The story is about a scientist who's hired a scientific team & a ship to rendezvous with a supposedly mythical ship that has been traveling the universe for eons. The ship's captain doesn't reveal himself to the scientists, except by hologram, and this show more becomes a problem for them. They start to speculate why, and then start dying, one-by-one. The beginning of the story is beautifully written and wonderfully engaging. The set up and premise is intriguing. But unfortunately, the story doesn't retain the promise of this beginning.

Things begin to get “scary” when passengers start dying off, one by one, similar to And Then There Were None by mystery writer Agatha Christie. Some of the deaths are quite gruesome and the psychological terror of being trapped on a small spaceship with a murderer is somewhat palpable, making this a mystery, science fiction, and horror story. Cool. Cool.

So why isn’t this novella good? The plot of Nightflyers sadly isn’t compelling, especially after the murders begin. It’s George R.R. Martin, so we know that none of his characters are safe. Sadly, I didn’t like any of his characters (they were honestly all very bland), so I didn’t care if their heads exploded, they got chopped in half by a laser, got forced out an airlock, or whatever. There was no character to cheer on and there was no shock to the murders.
In the end, you just don’t care about the hysterical scientists and their untimely demises -- and that’s a bummer because the premise of this book was very promising.

I wish I could recommend this one but I honestly, beside a few fascinating ideas here and there, was bored by this novella.

If you’re intrigued by the premise go watch Alien or read Agatha Christie instead. show less

I have to admit that, although I love George R.R. Martin's writing, I didn't have the highest of hopes for this collection of short stories by him, written in the 1970's., simply because author's early works are not always as good as later ones.. and the cheesy cover art didn't help either, I must admit.

However - I was wrong. The stories in this collection are truly top-flight sci-fi, with a horror edge. All demonstrate Martin's amazing talent for characterization, and are both emotionally effective and thought-provoking.

Nightflyers:

The title story is the most formulaic - it's a bit like 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Alien.
A diverse team of research investigators on a badly-funded space mission run into trouble, and gradually meet diverse show more (and unpleasant) ends. Is their mysterious captain to blame? Or is the truth yet spookier than that?
However, familiarity of the horror plot structure aside, the story succeeds (where many such tales do not) in being genuinely tense and scary.
This story (novelette?) was made into a movie in 1987, which I've never seen. However, it apparently stars Michael Praed (of the BBC's Robin Hood fame), which makes me want to see it right there!

Override:

A short but effective story which explores labor relations on an alien planet.
On an unspoiled paradise planet, executed criminals from offworld are mechanically turned into remote-controlled zombies used for onerous mining labor. But when a corporate boss who thinks the practice is disgusting threatens a corporate takeover which would ban the corpse-handlers, violence ensues.
Notable for its remarkable use of perspective - the reader doesn't really side with what one might expect...


Weekend in a War Zone:

In a not-so-distant future, hardworking citizens can take the weekend off and play tennis, golf... or pay to sign up for a weekend of war games, tromping through the woods, roughing it, and 'playing soldier' - much as many people do in today's paintball games - except in these games, the guns are real, and casualties are frequent. A nerdy businessman signs up for one of these weekends for the first time, hoping to impress his boss into giving him a promotion - but ends up discovering a side to himself he hadn't guessed at.
Excellent psychological insight....


And Seven Times Never Kill Man:

A group of militaristic Christian-esque fundamentalists colonizes a world inhabited by a furry, peaceful intelligent alien race whom they view as animals to be slaughtered, in order to clear the way for settlement. An independent trader is shocked and horrified by the violence, and tries to organize a resistance - but the effort is worse than pathetic. BUT - an unpredictable twist ensues!


Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring:

A brief but interesting musing on religion and the origins of universes, as a scientist experiments with wormhole technology.


A Song for Lya:

A competent and professional psychic couple are asked to investigate why human colonists are converting in disturbing numbers to an alien religious suicide cult. But what they discover may rip them apart.... A melancholy musing on love and the true desires of humanity... show less

Der Klappentext klang echt klasse und ich bin mit extrem viel Freude an das Buch gegangen. Leider muss ich sagen, dass George R. R. Martin mich bisher mit seinen Ausflügen ins Scifi nicht wirklich überzeugen konnte. Während er in seinen Fantasywerken eine berauschende Wortgewalt an den Tag legt, habe ich das Gefühl, dass ihm bei seinen Scifi-Romanen nie die richtigen Worte einfallen wollen. Und das spürt man beim Lesen dann schon sehr. Nicht nur, dass die Handlung lieblos hingeklatscht wird, die Figuren bleiben noch dazu extrem oberflächlich und vermissen jede Tiefe, die man aus seiner Game of Thrones-Reihe kennt. Bei Nightflyers kam noch hinzu, dass es einfach alles schräg und unwirklich wirkte und die Handlung für mich sehr show more vorhersehbar war. Müsste ich den Roman mit einem Satz zusammenfassen, dann würde ich sagen, es sei Martins Versuch, Hitchcocks Psycho ins Weltall zu verlegen nur ohne berühmte Duschszene.

Die Figuren im Buch lassen sich nur schwer auseinanderhalten. Einzig Melantha Jhirl stach heraus, aber auch hier erachtete Martin es als nötig, in jedem ihrer Dialoge einbauen zu müssen, dass sie doch ein verbessertes Modell sei. Das ging mir als Leserin spätestens beim dritten Mal mächtig auf den Zeiger. Zwischen der nicht wirklich vorhandenen Handlung und jeglicher fehlender Spannung, gab’s mächtig viel Sex der Sorte jeder mit jedem, was nichts zum Buch beisteuerte und allein deswegen nicht nur gezwungen wirkte sondern auch einfach nur nervte.

Was sich im Buch wirklich lohnt sind die Illustrationen. Die sind einfach herausragend und erzählen in meinen Augen mehr eine Geschichte, als es die Wörter und Zeilen zwischen Buchdeckel und Buchrücken tun. Sie sind es auch, die die Bewertung etwas hochziehen.

Fazit:

Dass aus diesen 203 Seiten eine ganze Fernsehserie gestrickt werden soll, erscheint mir schleierhaft. Andererseits könnte ich mir vorstellen, dass man für das Fernsehpublikum wesentlich mehr draus machen kann, als das Buch tatsächlich bietet. Der einzige Vorteil bei Nightflyers ist, dass die 203 Seiten schnell gelesen sind und man am Ende nicht das Gefühl hat, einen riesigen Teil seiner Zeit verschwendet zu haben. Man kann es also lesen, oder man kann es auch bleiben lassen. Am Ende hat man so oder so nicht wirklich was verpasst. show less

Dragons have always been cool, Video games have always been cool, real ale has always been cool. (Union) Rugby has always been cool, Science Fiction has always been cool, and Fantasy has always been cool. Football has always been shit, same as radio 4 depressing plays that the controller seems to think everyone has been to Cambridge/Oxford and therefore they like this sort of thing as it’s so highbrow. Kill a mockingbird yada yada, the Royal Shakespeare Taliban society again shit. Give me dragon slaying and space ship battles any day of the week. There's very little in life that can't be improved by adding dragons. Anyway, since when was a game of thrones considered to be fantasy? To me, it is fantasy with the guts ripped out of it. show more Take away the undead and the dragons, and you would see no difference to the overall story. It is a medieval soap drama with fantasy elements tacked on. Fair enough, Martins wants to move the genre on - he wants to go beyond epic sagas and doomed heroes, and the romance that underpins all fantasy, but what has he replaced it with? Sex and misogyny. And death...meaningless death...If you constantly kill off your characters left right and centre as it also happens in "Nightflyers", you're admitting a failure to move their development on. After all, it's the easiest thing in the world to kill a character and start again with somebody else, it's a lot harder to have him face the consequences of his or her actions. That takes a skilled author. Fantasy used to be about something. Even Conan had more intellectual heft than the present generation of so called 'fantasy' fiction. Granted, it was a thing of mostly ugly meanings if you looked at it hard, but it least it was carving out a place to stand on and defend. Instead of a genera where the magic was used to place a light on man's imagination and philosophy, it's become a canvas of sound and fury signifying nothing. 90% of the fantasy on the shelf these days is indistinguishable. "Nightflyers" and some of the stories in this volume suffer from this same malady as well. There is more complex fantasy around than Martin, but it tends to not be as commercial. Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is certainly more complicated and dealing with a much vaster set of themes (he even has a Conan-like character who actually channels Howard's philosophical viewpoint instead of just having muscles and a sword). Scott Bakker's "Prince of Nothing" series deals with philosophy, existentialism and nihilism. Matt Stover's "Acts of Caine" series might just melt your brain. That's not to say they are all better than Martin, and none touch Martin's gift for varied characterisation, but the genre is in a much healthier state now because of the authors that Martin helped get off the ground and get on the shelf by simply re-popularising the genre. Elizabeth Bear's excellent "Eternal Sky Trilogy" can be read as a subtle rebuke on Martin's overly-simplistic take on the Mongols with the Dothraki, for example. show less

Novella/short story sf collection from the 1970s. Martin’s complex characters and extremely grim but not entirely fatalistic worldbuilding were underway, but sometimes missed their mark. The story that affected me most, And Seven Times Never Kill Man, involving aliens genocidally slaughtered by a human cult, has a denouement that left me pretty confused about the mechanics, but was still creepy. For devoted fans only, I think.

2.5 stars. I just finished watching the SYFY series, and was curious about how it matched up with the novella, as the ending of the series wasn’t quite satisfactory to me. There are really very few similarities between the two besides the names of characters, and the fact that sex seems to be an inordinately important thing, but for no observable reason. There’s really just one established relationship, there’s no jealousy, it drives no drama at all, but we get to find out who everyone is “sexing.” It’s barely even described, just kind of catalogued. Pretty much the definition of gratuitous.

The premise of the story is really interesting, and I like how he dealt with some of the action, but a lot of the characters just kind show more of fell flat, there was barely enough time to find out who they were, so it actually helped that Martin often used their full names or job titles to name them. The action happened very quickly, which was somewhat disappointing, as there was little opportunity to build tension or the anticipation of dread. Add to that the fact that I don’t find Martin’s writing to be particularly impressive, and that’s about it. I liked the ending ok, it was different than what I had assumed it would be halfway through, but it makes sense and seems fitting. show less