Nightflyers [Paperback]

Override: Imagine you make a decent living as a corpse handler on a pretty planet named Grotto. To you, working with the corpses is a job, not all that unpleasant, but others on Grotto call you and your kind "Meatminds" and want to do away with corpse labor. And then, you discover someone has an "override box", and they are able to take control of the corpses away from you. Miles away from town, without control of your corpses, will you survive?

Weekend In A War Zone: Welcome to Maneuver, Inc., where you can pay a great deal of money to sign up for some weekend war games. Only unlike a weekend of tennis, you might not come back alive, because these games are real.

And Seven Times Never Kill A Man: On the world of Corlos, the Children of Bakkalon reside within the City of Steel Angels. Outside the city are the forest folk called the Jaenshi, living quiet lives in harmony with planet and gathering around their clan's pyramid. The Steel Angels come out from their city and destroy the pyramids, hunting and killing the Jaenshi, calling them soulless animals. The trader neKrol has come to Corlos in his ship, the Lights of Jolostar, in an effort to save the Jaenshi. Is there room on this planet for more than one race?

Nor The Many-Colored Fires Of A Star Ring: All around the galaxy are the Star Rings, "gates" to different parts of the universe. Kerin and Jenny are at the Nowhere Ring, ready to try Jenny's theory of a self-sustaining ring using no nullspace engines.

A Song For Lya: Robb and Lya are summoned to the planet Shkea, where the
Terran planetary administrator has become concerned with the number of humans joining the Shkeen Cult of the Union. With their psi talents, they travel to the city to learn of the creatures called Greeshka and their role in the cult. It is the only religion of the Shkeen, and one of the Talented will fall victim to this cult of love.

The title-novelette, "Nightflyers" is by far the best... A team of nine specialists takes flight on the Nightflyer in pursuit of a legendary alien spacecraft, eons old. But things on the Nightflyer aren't exactly as they seem, and it's captain isn't sharing all he knows.

"Override" and "A Song For Lya" are two more great pieces, but they can also be found in another of his collections, A SONG FOR LYA. A fourth great story, "Weekend In A War Zone" takes a look at one of our future forms of entertainment- recreational warfare! I wouldn't have minded if that story were a lot longer.

The last two stories are just ok, but all in all, this collection is well worth your time. Because of his recent popularity, Martin's older works should be hitting shelves again soon, but if you can't take the wait- check the libraries and used bookstores like I did

I found several of them kind of, well, cheesy. "Nightflyers" kept refering to who had "sexed" with who, for example. Some of them seemed like stories I would have liked a lot when I was 14, but now I could see plot twists telegraphed from miles away. I did like "Weekend in a War Zone" and "Song for Lya." I could see the endings coming on these also, but the ride was more enjoyable.