Nightflyers

Publisher's Summary

From the number one best-selling author of A Game of Thrones - a chilling mystery set on a seemingly haunted spaceship, soon to be an original series on Syfy.

This is the definitive edition of an electrifying tale that combines the deep-space thrills of Alien, the psychological horror of The Shining, and, of course, the inimitable vision of George R. R. Martin.

When a scientific expedition is launched to study a mysterious alien race, the only ship available is the Nightflyer, a fully autonomous vessel manned by a single human. But Captain Royd Eris remains locked away, interacting with his passengers only as a disembodied voice - or a projected hologram no more substantial than a ghost.

Yet that’s not the only reason the ship seems haunted. The team’s telepath, Thale Lasamer, senses another presence aboard the Nightflyer - something dangerous, volatile, and alien. Captain Eris claims to know nothing about the elusive intruder, and when someone, or something, begins killing off the expedition’s members, he’s unable - or unwilling - to stem the bloody tide.

Only Melantha Jhirl, a genetically enhanced outcast with greater strength, stamina, and intelligence than other humans, has a chance of solving the mystery - and stopping the malevolent being that’s wiping out her shipmates.

But first she has to keep herself alive.

©2018 George R. R. Martin (P)2018 Random House Audio

Not what I expected

I will probably take a beating for this, but in all honesty I found this book very underwhelming. I knew it was an old novella of Martin's from back in his heavy sci-fi days, but I had never heard it before and this recording is new. I was waiting for it to come out and was really excited about it, and as soon as it was released I put my other book on hold and started listening to this right away.

Given the synopsis and the introduction, I was expecting a dark, sci-fi horror tale, with tones of Alien and maybe Event Horizon. I think the summary compared it to both Alien and the Shining. So I visualized the vast emptiness of space, strange things happening while not knowing who to trust, and a sense of some madness lurking just beneath the surface. This, I imagined, would be brought to perfect life by George R.R. Martin's signature grim mood and expert plotting.

But it wasn't like that. The mood was not dark, for one thing. It was much more like a classic 1970s space opera, which, to be fair, is sort of what it is. This recording is new, but it was originally published in 1980. There is a lot about sex--which was used as a verb, oddly, as in "she sexed only once, with so-and-so" and "they sexed often, but not with each other." Not that it matters whether the author wants to use words stylistically to convey a future society different than our own, perhaps, but I think in this case it illustrates the mood prevalent in this story. People are going around sleeping with everyone on the ship, it seems. It's fine if that's your thing, but again, it just really isn't the mood I think was advertised.

Also, I have to say that the plotting fell short for me. A full hour in, and I still didn't feel particularly involved in the story. When you account for the introduction (which also built up the horror aspect and left me expecting something that never came), that's almost 25 percent. Even once things started to happen, I still don't think there was much of a payoff for the time invested.

I'm not sure, but maybe this would have been better with another narrator. Ms. Ojo is very talented to be sure, and I have loved listening to her other works, but I think maybe her style is not particularly suited to cosmic horror, if that's what this was. I also question some of the accent choices she made. One particular character had a heavy African accent and spent a lot of time explaining the history and belief systems of alien races in long, complex terms, and the accent made him all but unintelligible. He started talking about the cosmological system of some guys who *might* have been called the Nortaluush (please don't quote me; this is almost certainly wrong), and I had to rewind at least twice.

All in all, I would advise you to not get your hopes up with this one. If you love Martin, then I know you will go ahead and get it no matter what I say, but try to manage your expectations. If you go into it expecting the same things I did, you will be disappointed.

23 of 26 people found this review helpful

Meh..

Underwhelming. I've listened to it twice now thinking I missed something. I didn't. perhaps the reading didn't impart the gravity of the situation or there was not enough tension built.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

great story, terrible reader

this narrators voice sounds like she put marbles in her mouth when she makes some of them. this is horrible, but it sounds like she is making fun of mentally disabled people. really hard to listen to

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Shockingly Awful

Just... so so awful. From the writing to the narration, it's just so painfully awful.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Enjoyed it!!

I very much enjoyed this audio read... just enough space and haunting to keep my attention! The performance was executional though each character could have used a little more personality. At times she sounded like a cyborg herself... like Siri. I recommend this for a time passer.

Terrific!

A phenomenal story of the mind's abilities that just happens to take place in far outer space. Ms. Ojo's narration is brilliant!

To short

I like it, alot. it was a neat little short story and one cool Monster story, as Grr would say.

I wish there was more like this and I wish he had more time to write more like these buuuut than again fingers crossed for winds of winter and dream of spring!!

Let down by some odd narration choices

The story itself is good, but its hard to get past the narration. Some of the voices that she gives to the characters just don't work. As an example, one of them sounds like they're recovering from dental surgery.

TV killed the Audio book (for me)

Good performance. I watched the SYFY series and killed my “imagination “ for the Audio book version. I didn’t enjoy as much as I could have.

Weirdly abbreviated

I was hoping for more in this story. Everything I heard seemed like a shortcut. Some thoughts or character dev were pretty well developed. Other chunks of character were rushed and left me feeling unfullfilled.