Nightflyers

My first taste of GRRM not in his Song of Ice and Fire series. I was intrigued going into this as his ASOIAF is a fantastic series, well deserving of its plaudits. With that in mind there were big things expected here from me.

Nightflyers plays along many of the classic themes of sci-fi horror/mystery, with the claustrophobic sense of dread of being on a spaceship isolated from the rest of humanity. The eventual identity of the threat in this story is reasonably well foreboded without it being spelled out - so far so good. The book does fall into quite a few sci-fi tropes however, especially with its stilted, Asimovian style dialogue in places.

There was some interesting potential in one of the main things foreboded in the book with the mysterious species moving through the dark spaces between stars without actually visiting them. In the end this intriguing plot device is almost an after thought. It is a shame it was not developed further.

This is a good sci-fi. It doesnt reach the great heights that GRRM has reached in some of his other works, but the story is told well and the concepts are interesting. Solid if not spectacular.

The illustrated version is also rather pretty!

I had gone through the authors books some time ago and added Nightflyers and Other Stories to my wishlist without even reading the bio. I then recently saw someone review it on Readerly under this Illustrated edition and had to grab it. A true scifi horror? And by Martin no less? Hot damn. 
For me this stands out as something that would immediately be linked to Event Horizon, but also this year's Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes as well. I found multiple articles asking if Nightflyers (due to the latest adaption) was based on EH entirely. Which struck me as super odd because no one pointed out that NF actually predates it. Apparently EH is based on an older movie that's based on an even older novel, but is uncredited. Dead Silence is kind of a spiritual retelling of both in a way. Regardless, Martin's ran so these other two had to walk, sadly. 
D'Branin and his team have hired the Nightflyer to take them after an elusive (and heavily debated) alien race. The ship is almost fully autonomous, being controlled by only a single man. Yet he refuses to show himself. Is he a ghost? An AI computer? Something even more dangerous and nefarious? And when things go wrong, just because he's the easiest to blame, is he the villain? 
This was atmospheric, engaging, creepy and overall a blast. Claustrophobic and evil, you can feel the cabin fever growing. 
Personally a 5/5* for me, can't believe I've never read before. David Palumbo's art is amazing and so worth it. Lots of use of the word ‘sexed'.

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R26NF28VD9ES3H?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

I've been reading George R.R. Martin since the 1970s, but, for some reason, I had never read Nightflyers. In fact, I got it confused with a completely different book by Martin Cruz Smith, “Nightwings,” and I thought this was a vampire story. (Or maybe I was led in that direction by Martin's “Fevre Dream.”)

In any event, after watching several episodes of the SyFy Channel's serialized version, I thought it was time to give the book a read (or a listen, since I consumed this as an audiobook.) I was particularly interested in finding out what the significance of the character known as an “L1” telepath was.

Well, throw that out. The SyFy Channel's version is only loosely based on the book. The two have the same basic plot line and the characters are the same, but the setting is completely different. the SyFy Channel puts its story at the end of the present century, whereas Martin placed his in one of his classic story settings, i.e., after the fall of the Federal Empire in the aftermath of the Human-Hrangan War.

So, if you read Martin's version, you start out with a far richer background that fits into other Martin Stories, e.g., “Dying of the Light” and “Tuff Traveling.”

The story makes for a good read/listen. Martin presents his set-up, introduces his characters, and then starts tightening the mystery and the tension bit by bit. This edition is blessed with Martin's introduction where he explains that he likes to mash genres and this is a science fiction/horror genres. The horror element becomes very apparent toward the end with zombies and ghosts entering the plotline, but all with a science fiction twist.

I think the book is better than the series, but both are entertaining.