Nightflyers
George R. R. Martin
St. Martin's Press
Fiction, Horror/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: When a researcher sets out to prove the truth behind a galactic legend, he hires the enigmatic vessel Nightflyer for the journey deep into interstellar race. The captain, Royd, is a recluse who never mingles with the crew or even leaves his quarters, appearing only via hologram or as a disembodied voice on the comms. As the trip stretches into weeks, tensions among the crew rise, making some question just why the man is so elusive... questions that take a turn when people start dying.
REVIEW: This novella takes the premise of many a haunted house or ghost ship tale and transports it to the depths of space, raising the stakes considerably; you can't just run out the door or grab a life boat when you're surrounded by hard vacuum. It generally works, establishing the basics of the crew, the mission, and a sense of foreboding early on, as well as the general "rules" of the far-future society where gene-modders create "improved" humans and telepathic abilities are recognized and studied, if still rare; one of the crew's telepaths is the first to raise the red flag about the danger on board. Some of the crew blend together around the edges, but the important ones are distinct enough to keep track of. The danger builds even as the culprit remains elusive, with a subplot about the mission - to establish the truth of a race known as the volcryn, whose vast ships have been reported in numerous species' mythologies but have never been confirmed and never made contact with any who claimed to see them - competing at times for attention. Things come together at last for a reasonably satisfying conclusion. It came close to losing a half mark for some dithering in the buildup, plus sometimes the characters grated and felt a little dumber than they should be about certain things. On the whole, though, the overall horror atmosphere carried it.
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