Customer Reviews

Nightflyers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nightflyers: In the title story, nine people set off on the Nightflyer, a space trader owned and operated by Royd Eris, in search of the Volcryn, a mythical race of sentient beings traveling through space for more than eighteen thousand years. As they travel through space to the outer edges, they begin to realize something is wrong. Their captain shows up only as a hologram, and their only telepath begins to sense something wrong. One by one the passengers begin dying, and the survivors discover they are not alone on the ship. Now they must trust the captain they have never met face to face, and as the Volcryn come within range of the Nightflyer, they learn also that the massive, alien, quiet ship is not what was expected either.

Override: Imagine you make a decent living as a corpse handler on a pretty planet named Grotto. To you, working with the corpses is a job, not all that unpleasant, but others on Grotto call you and your kind "Meatminds" and want to do away with corpse labor. And then, you discover someone has an "override box", and they are able to take control of the corpses away from you. Miles away from town, without control of your corpses, will you survive?

Weekend In A War Zone: Welcome to Maneuver, Inc., where you can pay a great deal of money to sign up for some weekend war games. Only unlike a weekend of tennis, you might not come back alive, because these games are real.

And Seven Times Never Kill A Man: On the world of Corlos, the Children of Bakkalon reside within the City of Steel Angels. Outside the city are the forest folk called the Jaenshi, living quiet lives in harmony with planet and gathering around their clan's pyramid. The Steel Angels come out from their city and destroy the pyramids, hunting and killing the Jaenshi, calling them soulless animals. The trader neKrol has come to Corlos in his ship, the Lights of Jolostar, in an effort to save the Jaenshi. Is there room on this planet for more than one race?

Nor The Many-Colored Fires Of A Star Ring: All around the galaxy are the Star Rings, "gates" to different parts of the universe. Kerin and Jenny are at the Nowhere Ring, ready to try Jenny's theory of a self-sustaining ring using no nullspace engines.

A Song For Lya: Robb and Lya are summoned to the planet Shkea, where the
Terran planetary administrator has become concerned with the number of humans joining the Shkeen Cult of the Union. With their psi talents, they travel to the city to learn of the creatures called Greeshka and their role in the cult. It is the only religion of the Shkeen, and one of the Talented will fall victim to this cult of love.

Since reading A GAME OF THRONES, I have been trying to hunt down all of G R R Martin's earlier out-of-print works -I haven't heard one bad word about any of them yet. NIGHTFLYERS is one of the few I have found thus far, and it was well worth my effort. It contains six excellent short stories of horror and science fiction.

The title-novelette, "Nightflyers" is by far the best... A team of nine specialists takes flight on the Nightflyer in pursuit of a legendary alien spacecraft, eons old. But things on the Nightflyer aren't exactly as they seem, and it's captain isn't sharing all he knows.

"Override" and "A Song For Lya" are two more great pieces, but they can also be found in another of his collections, A SONG FOR LYA. A fourth great story, "Weekend In A War Zone" takes a look at one of our future forms of entertainment- recreational warfare! I wouldn't have minded if that story were a lot longer.

The last two stories are just ok, but all in all, this collection is well worth your time. Because of his recent popularity, Martin's older works should be hitting shelves again soon, but if you can't take the wait- check the libraries and used bookstores like I did

I picked this up after reading the three books completed so far in Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I thought I couldn't go wrong with an author who had written those books so well. However, these stories were written many years ago, and I think it shows.

I found several of them kind of, well, cheesy. "Nightflyers" kept refering to who had "sexed" with who, for example. Some of them seemed like stories I would have liked a lot when I was 14, but now I could see plot twists telegraphed from miles away. I did like "Weekend in a War Zone" and "Song for Lya." I could see the endings coming on these also, but the ride was more enjoyable.

It's pretty rare to find a collection of short stories that doesn't have at least one 'dud' in it, but this is one such collection. Every story was really good with the exception of the title story, _Nightflyers_, which was absolutely fabulous and is now one of my favorite sci-fi stories. All the stories have a dark element of horror or creepiness. You have spirit possessed spaceships, corpses being animated and used for manual labor, aliens hosting on humans in the guise of gods, etc...

This is not hard sci-fi, which is exactly why I like it. The horror/sci-fi mix reminds me of the first _Alien_ movie and of _Event Horizon_.

Yet another great collection of short stories by the Master. The title story is about the crew of the Nightflyer that is in search of an ancient race of people who travel through space. But there is madness on the ship and the crew becomes in danger from the unseen and mysterious captain. This story was made into a rather poor movie, but the short story is fantastic nonetheless. Other stories in this compilation are the twilight zone like "Weekend in a War Zone" where people pay to battle other people with their lives at stake. "Overide" is another story of Martin's Corpse Handlers - dead bodies that are implanted with computer chips to make the dead body do labour for the living handlers. This collection finishes of with the wonderful story A Song for Lya - a Hugo winning tale of sorrow and lost love - truly one of Martins best. A definite buy for someone looking for a great read or to tide yourself over until the next instalment of the Song of Ice and Fire.

Relic113

I bought this thinking "Nightfliers" was the whole book. I was wrong; it was a collection of stories, and ironically, Nightfliers was one of the weaker tales.

This book has a few gems: "Override" and "Weekend in a War Zone" were fantastic!

I was introduced to Martin's style through the short story "Sandkings" (not in this book), and this book had plenty more of his hard SF/horror style and Hitchcockian twists.

I recommend this book to get an enjoyable sampling of this writing master's style.

Nightflyers is a collection of stories concerned, in the main, with science fiction style horror. The title story is the quest for an alien ship. The journey does not go well, as many people start to forget to stay alive.

Overall, this is an extremely high quality collection, coming in at a 3.83 average per tale.


Nightflyers : Nightflyers [short story] - George R. R. Martin
Nightflyers : Override - George R. R. Martin
Nightflyers : Weekend in a War Zone - George R. R. Martin
Nightflyers : And Seven Times Never Kill Man - George R. R. Martin
Nightflyers : Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring - George R. R. Martin
Nightflyers : A Song for Lya - George R. R. Martin


Scary spaceship slaughter single.

4 out of 5


Deadman prospects look bloody picky.

4 out of 5


My side, your side, it is all killpoints to me.

3.5 out of 5


Space preacher cult gets pyramid power taste of their own prior killer solution.

3.5 out of 5


Experimental energy overload universal lightshow.

4 out of 5


Post suicide Union Joining rejection.

4 out of 5

NIGHTFLYERS is a collection of 7 SF stories written by George R.R. Martin between 1973 and 1981.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Nightflyers"

The Volcryn legend tells of an ancient race whose giant ships travel through interstellar space, bound ever outward to the edges of the galaxy. Seeking the truth of the myth, Karoly has assembled an expedition of linguists, biologists, technitians and telepaths; and chartered a flight in an attempt to intercept the path of the volcryn and make first contact. Soon the telepaths begin to feel fear, sensing danger, that someone is watching them, and the touch of a cold and inhuman mind. Suspicions alight on the reclusive captain, a secretive man who never shows his face to his passengers, speaking with them only through a hologram projection of himself. Iin the confines of a ship in the depths of space, tensions and paranoia rise among nine innocents trapped with a murderer who can be anywhere, and do anything. I really enjoyed the novella/short story. Questioning what is alien and the different meanings of distance, the story plays on fears on many different levels. I also enjoyed the homages to Hitchcock's "Psycho," Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," and Agatha Christie's "And Then there Were None."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Override"

Matt is a successful prospector on a beautiful colonial world. He works for a mining company, leading his team of deadmen (corpses with synthabrains that he can manipulate via telepathic control) to mine for swirlstones. But when a local magnate buys out the company and vows to drive all the corpse handlers off the planet, Matt learns that there is no loyalty among the living nor the dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Weekend in a War Zone"

Andrew Birch has just paid a large sum of money to spend a weekend at war, receiving from Maneuver Inc. a uniform(ill fitting and cold), a gun (made of plastic, but the bullets it shoots are real enough), and a hellicopter ride out to the war zone. Seated between a coworker hates and a veteran who's been maneuvering on the weekends for the last 10 years, Andie can't help thinking that people die on these trips. Maybe this won't help him get that promotion at work after all, he thinks, and playing tennis or golf is a much safer(not to mention cheaper) endeavor. As Andie joins a group searching for Concoms in the mountains ( killpoints earn a discount for next time), the reader realizes that this isn't a real war at all; the only war between Maneuver Inc and Concom (Consolidated Combat) is the corporate war between profit margins. Their customers keep coming back, paying to go out and shoot at each other, taking the risk that they themselves might die. But then, that's what makes it interesting, right? "A man hasn't lived until he's seen death," claims Maneuver's advertisements. I really enjoyed this story. The stream-of-consciousness narrative brings the reader very close to Andie as he struggles to live out the weekend. While the ending is not entirely surprising, it is nonetheless very effective.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"And Seven Times Never Kill A Man"

What happens when a pacifist culture faces off against a highly militaristic society following a manifest destiny? When on either side pragmaticism has fallen to forces that know no reason. Well, what do you think happens?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring"

This is an unusual stroy for GRRM--it has a lighter tone, despite its darkest of settings. A scientific breakthrough has given man the stars. Exploiting anomalies in space man built star-rings that send passing ships---to other galaxies or other times or parallel worlds--well, no one is sure. The strangest of the portals leads to the infinite empty darkness of Nowhere...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"A Song for Lya"

Beautiful and Haunting, this is one of my favorite of Martin's stories. "And here we are as on a darkling plain..." A Song for Lya returns to Mathew Arnold's famous question. It's the story of a love that can have no secrets, of an alien culture that is still in its infancy after fourteen thousand years, and of a young telepath who succumbs to the chilling consequences of its religion. Whether from this collection, or from the "A Song for Lya" compillation, or from Dreamsongs, if you have enjoyed any of GRRM's works, this story is one you should read.

The title story of this book, Nightflyers, had an interesting setting, some good characterization, and a genuinely suspenseful beginning. Overall it was an enjoyable read.

However, the plot eventually disintegrated into a horror stereotype similar to that of the Event Horizon. The speculations surrounding the mysterious ship's captain ended up being a lot more interesting than the truth. Also, I found the main character to be unsympathetic and arrogant enough to be unlikable. She constantly repeated that she was the "improved model" and that she was capable of thinking "three steps ahead", but demonstrated her abilities in robotic and unpersonible ways. The secondary characters were personified in a much better way, and showed both repulsive and humane characteristics equally, making me sympathise with them as "real" people.

Two of the stories in this collection are also in "A Song for Lya". Override was underdeveloped and similar to Nightflyers in feeling, although not in setting, and was not a story that I would have chosen to reprint. A Song for Lya is an excellent story about aloneness and reaction to religion. Although there were some stereotypes, the last few pages of the story were rich with the reality of human nature.

If you like short sci-fi or psychological horror stories, I recommend this book. I have given it such a high rating because of my love for the writings of George RR Martin, but feel that these stories are inferior to his Song of Ice and Fire novels.

Tho most of this collection is recycled from earlier George R.R. Martin short-story packages, there R a few new stories -- "Nightflyers" is a very good, very vivid interstellar horror story, with a lot more going 4 it than just the mystery at its center -- good believable characters, involving happenings, & most of all the Volcryn, another haunting creation of George at his very best. "Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring" is a sequel to George's earlier story "The Second Kind of Loneliness," & is also outstanding. "Weekend in a War Zone" is average, nothing special. The other stories include his classic "Song for Lya" (which U should already have read), "Override," & a couple others. Worth it just 4 the stories U can't find elsewhere.