Take a photo of a barcode or cover
hank_moody 's review for:
Nightflyers and Other Stories
by George R.R. Martin
Thanks to the popularity of the fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice", Martin's older works came to the fore, so publishers are using the opportunity to publish them in a new attire for younger generations of readers. One of these is a collection called "Nightflyers and other stories" published for the first time in 1985. It is a collection of six SF stories/novellas that Martin wrote and published in various magazines during the 1970s and early 1980s, of which "Nightflyers" was already adapted twice, a movie in 1987 and SyFy series from 2018.
It is with that novella that opens this collection and as such should shake the reader to the core, a perfect blend of science fiction and horror. It's a novella about a nine-member expedition of scientists and an enigmatic captain of the “Nightflyer” spaceship who goes looking for a mysterious alien race called volcrynto discover advanced methods of interstellar travel, but before they reach their goal, strange things start to happen, and one by one they are getting killed.
At the editor's request, Martin expanded the original story by 7,000 words, but unfortunately, it didn't improve it. The characters are still superficial and almost all are cut out of cardboard, Martin acts as a chauvinist while describing women and needlessly using sex without excessive importance to the plot or development of characters. Although, there are interesting ideas and this would seem much more interesting as a full-blooded novel, where a lot of things could be worked out and fleshed out. Like this, it looks like a skeleton of a novel that serves as a sales pitch to the publishing houses.
"Override" has space western atmosphere combined with voodoo. His modern version, at least. A short and efficient story that is not overly special, but is a rounded whole, and as such is extremely readable.
"Weekend in a War Zone" by far the worst story in this collection. Feels forced and is predictable from the very beginning. The story of corporate people who pay to fight real wars on weekends instead of playing tennis. It feels like something that Martin wrote as an exercise in a creative writing workshop. Far below his level.
"And Seven Times Never Kill a Man" could be described as a mixture of the Warhammer 40K and Star Wars universe, with the addition of Cameron's "Avatar". Interesting idea and Martin's play with religion, as in "Nightflyers", and the plot itself makes this story very attractive, but in the end, this was still too much of a bite for Martin in this form. Like "Nightflyers", this story cries out for an extension into a novel where its potential would be fully fulfilled.
"Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring" seems more like an excerpt from a novel than a standalone story. Like the previous stories of this collection, it shows that Martin's imagination is impressive, but he fails at the realization. Like others, probably rushed writing just to get published.
"A Song for Lya" is a novella that closes this collection and is worth as much as the rest of it, if not more. The story of a pair of telepaths hired to find out why more and more people are turning to the unusual religion on the planet Shkea practiced by its inhabitants, a race that technologically stuck in Stone Age. Martin said this novella was inspired by his first serious romance, which is noticeable. An emotional story through which Martin plays again with the traditional concept of God and explores it further.
In addition to all of them being placed in the same world "Thousand Worlds", these stories explore themes of religion, technological advances of humanity, and telepathic powers, but each of them can be imagined as one of the episodes of Netflix's series "LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS". A collection worth reading only because of the last novella or if you're a diehard Martin fan.
It is with that novella that opens this collection and as such should shake the reader to the core, a perfect blend of science fiction and horror. It's a novella about a nine-member expedition of scientists and an enigmatic captain of the “Nightflyer” spaceship who goes looking for a mysterious alien race called volcrynto discover advanced methods of interstellar travel, but before they reach their goal, strange things start to happen, and one by one they are getting killed.
At the editor's request, Martin expanded the original story by 7,000 words, but unfortunately, it didn't improve it. The characters are still superficial and almost all are cut out of cardboard, Martin acts as a chauvinist while describing women and needlessly using sex without excessive importance to the plot or development of characters. Although, there are interesting ideas and this would seem much more interesting as a full-blooded novel, where a lot of things could be worked out and fleshed out. Like this, it looks like a skeleton of a novel that serves as a sales pitch to the publishing houses.
"Override" has space western atmosphere combined with voodoo. His modern version, at least. A short and efficient story that is not overly special, but is a rounded whole, and as such is extremely readable.
"Weekend in a War Zone" by far the worst story in this collection. Feels forced and is predictable from the very beginning. The story of corporate people who pay to fight real wars on weekends instead of playing tennis. It feels like something that Martin wrote as an exercise in a creative writing workshop. Far below his level.
"And Seven Times Never Kill a Man" could be described as a mixture of the Warhammer 40K and Star Wars universe, with the addition of Cameron's "Avatar". Interesting idea and Martin's play with religion, as in "Nightflyers", and the plot itself makes this story very attractive, but in the end, this was still too much of a bite for Martin in this form. Like "Nightflyers", this story cries out for an extension into a novel where its potential would be fully fulfilled.
"Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring" seems more like an excerpt from a novel than a standalone story. Like the previous stories of this collection, it shows that Martin's imagination is impressive, but he fails at the realization. Like others, probably rushed writing just to get published.
"A Song for Lya" is a novella that closes this collection and is worth as much as the rest of it, if not more. The story of a pair of telepaths hired to find out why more and more people are turning to the unusual religion on the planet Shkea practiced by its inhabitants, a race that technologically stuck in Stone Age. Martin said this novella was inspired by his first serious romance, which is noticeable. An emotional story through which Martin plays again with the traditional concept of God and explores it further.
In addition to all of them being placed in the same world "Thousand Worlds", these stories explore themes of religion, technological advances of humanity, and telepathic powers, but each of them can be imagined as one of the episodes of Netflix's series "LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS". A collection worth reading only because of the last novella or if you're a diehard Martin fan.