Night Flyers

by Vernor Vinge and George R.R. Martin

Book Overview

1st printing PBO, 1981 (Dell SF, not Ace). Unread copy is very lightly rubbed on edges. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440107571
• ISBN13: 9780440107576
• Release Date: February 1981
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Not Free SF Reader

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

Seven Tales from a Master Story Teller

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 e

Awesome...

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

5 of the best George R.R. Martin Sci-Fi early Sci-Fi stories

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.

Horror In Deep Space

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