The focus of today´s most media science fiction focuses on a George RR Martin that contrary to what could be expected, continues to do its thing, creating more and more stories beyond the saga Song of ice and fire, catapulted to mass glory in its cinematographic side.
Undoubtedly, the general recognition and the huge profits always serve as the perfect accolade to continue creating or, why not, to recover some of those stories already published and revisited over the years. This case of Nightflyers was already published at the time under the title Nocturnal nomads, it was the bright 80s and the CiFi was living one of its golden times. Until today, the growing monster of Netflix has served to reprint this interesting story.
And so this short novel from Martin´s tender years comes to us. A story with echoes of the first Odyssey in space, but with the addition of that claustrophobic tension that popularized the Alien saga. The question is the balance, that the work is convincing for those who seek that transcendental point between the stars and for those who enjoy interplanetary confrontations or expeditions into the unknown that lead to thrillers of the cosmos.
We find ourselves with a horror story in a soulless outer space in which nine eccentric expeditionaries are determined to contact the Volcryn without considering the consequences. What awaits them, as they direct their ship to disaster, freezes anyone's soul. Not a single glimmer of hope guides us between some of these characters with whom we empathize perfectly for the occasion of panic.
A captain of the ship who always arouses suspicion and misgivings. A crew in which those characters stand out with whom we achieve that empathy necessary for mimicking the plot. Maximum use of the rhythm, perhaps due to the author's youthful frenzy, which turns the narrative into, rather, a short novel.
Death soon appears on this journey and however extensive the cosmos may be, there is no place to hide. The question is to guess if it could not have been all programmed, by the perverse mind that seems to play with them or by one of the members of a soon-to-be-cursed expedition.
You can now buy the novel Nightflyers, the new publication by George RR Martin, here: