A review by geve_
Nightflyers by George R.R. Martin
3.0
It was okay. I love scifi horror and it has to go pretty wrong for me to give it less than 3 stars. The premise is kinda cool, a team of scientists/researchers are on a mission to find some uncontacted aliens who have been located in a specific area of space. They contract a ship and captain to take them there. Then things go wrong...
There are some things I really loved about the story and some things I really hated, and the rest was pretty meh. I guess the things I loved outshined the hate by just a touch, so this gets 3 stars.
The bad:
-The main characters are very bad. the captain is not likeable or interesting, although a bit sympathetic a character at some points. The hero is extremely sexy and smart, but in that kind of way that men really like, not in an authentic way. Like she's acting in a way that is less about her and more about what men will appreciate in her, which was pretty disappointing because she could otherwise have been a fun character (like say, Ripley, the ultimate scifi horror protag). She also constantly talks about how she's a improved model of human, then insinuates several times that it makes her better at fucking, which begs the question, who exactly was deciding what improvements to make? Cause if it was GRRM I'm guessing it was tit and sex related.
-The rest of the characters are also pretty much boring, except one, but I'll cover that one in the good.
-The twist was very lame, the the next twist was also very lame. The fact that it was he is a clone of his mother was pretty twisted in a fun way, but the fact that she's still controlling the ship as a ghost was meh, whatever, it didn't ruin the book for me, it was just meh. I rolled my eyes and read on. Then the twist that she has psi powers is meh. Just kinda reading this shit to get to the more fun parts.
-the relationship between Melantha and Royd was weird. I guess it's fine to be weird but when there is this powerful amazing woman and she for some reason goes for a weird 68 yo gross dude it's like, uh, yeah sure. There are zero cases where hot, perfect, powerful intelligent male characters go for old, fat gross women characters. And there's really no explanation for it. At first it sounded to me like she was just interested in him because he's someone new, she propositions him and it seems like he's a sexual conquest/experience for her, but that's not how it actually goes, so whatever. I guess when it comes to her relationship with a gross senior citizen who she knows nothing about and spends no real time with, she suddenly has more depth. weird.
The good:
-I really liked d'Branin. He's the only character I liked. He's so driven and naive, he just wants to find these aliens. And he's totally wrong about everything. (I almost liked Melantha too, she's fine)
-I liked that the volcryn turn out to just be weird animals that shuttle themselves around space with telekinesis. They aren't some ancient civ with amazing tech, they're just straight up animals.
-I like that Melantha is just stuck in this ship with the two ghosts, knowing that she'll jsut die out there at some point.
-I just fundamentally love scifi horror. I love when shit goes wrong on ships and people get lost drifting in space, that's my fav, so check that box for this one at least.
TLDR: Mommy bad, Future improved model women are very strong and sexy and fuck all the time and will fuck old gross men, but at least there are ghosts in space and the aliens are nothing and everyone dies except the final girl.
There are some things I really loved about the story and some things I really hated, and the rest was pretty meh. I guess the things I loved outshined the hate by just a touch, so this gets 3 stars.
Spoiler
The bad:
-The main characters are very bad. the captain is not likeable or interesting, although a bit sympathetic a character at some points. The hero is extremely sexy and smart, but in that kind of way that men really like, not in an authentic way. Like she's acting in a way that is less about her and more about what men will appreciate in her, which was pretty disappointing because she could otherwise have been a fun character (like say, Ripley, the ultimate scifi horror protag). She also constantly talks about how she's a improved model of human, then insinuates several times that it makes her better at fucking, which begs the question, who exactly was deciding what improvements to make? Cause if it was GRRM I'm guessing it was tit and sex related.
-The rest of the characters are also pretty much boring, except one, but I'll cover that one in the good.
-The twist was very lame, the the next twist was also very lame. The fact that it was he is a clone of his mother was pretty twisted in a fun way, but the fact that she's still controlling the ship as a ghost was meh, whatever, it didn't ruin the book for me, it was just meh. I rolled my eyes and read on. Then the twist that she has psi powers is meh. Just kinda reading this shit to get to the more fun parts.
-the relationship between Melantha and Royd was weird. I guess it's fine to be weird but when there is this powerful amazing woman and she for some reason goes for a weird 68 yo gross dude it's like, uh, yeah sure. There are zero cases where hot, perfect, powerful intelligent male characters go for old, fat gross women characters. And there's really no explanation for it. At first it sounded to me like she was just interested in him because he's someone new, she propositions him and it seems like he's a sexual conquest/experience for her, but that's not how it actually goes, so whatever. I guess when it comes to her relationship with a gross senior citizen who she knows nothing about and spends no real time with, she suddenly has more depth. weird.
The good:
-I really liked d'Branin. He's the only character I liked. He's so driven and naive, he just wants to find these aliens. And he's totally wrong about everything. (I almost liked Melantha too, she's fine)
-I liked that the volcryn turn out to just be weird animals that shuttle themselves around space with telekinesis. They aren't some ancient civ with amazing tech, they're just straight up animals.
-I like that Melantha is just stuck in this ship with the two ghosts, knowing that she'll jsut die out there at some point.
-I just fundamentally love scifi horror. I love when shit goes wrong on ships and people get lost drifting in space, that's my fav, so check that box for this one at least.
TLDR: Mommy bad, Future improved model women are very strong and sexy and fuck all the time and will fuck old gross men, but at least there are ghosts in space and the aliens are nothing and everyone dies except the final girl.