A Song for Lya: And Other Stories [Paperback]

Sci-Fi and Horror are blended to excellent result in this collection of 10 short stories, featuring telepaths, ghosts, strange life forms, and very imaginative worlds. The standouts were "With Morning Comes Mistfall", "Override", and the Hugo Award-Winning title-story, "A Song For Lya", but in truth- there wasn't a bad apple in the bunch.

My personal favorite was, "Dark, Dark Were The Tunnels" where Nuclear Armageddon has destroyed the face of the Earth long ago, and only two groups of people have survived. It took me a few pages to realize just what I was reading, but then it really pulled me in!

Several of these stories have also appeared in Martin's later collections, but unfortunately, they too are all out-of-print at the moment. However, the popularity of A Song Of Ice And Fire means that many of these collections and stories will soon be republished in the near future. So if you can't find them in libraries or used bookstores... be patient!

The most notable of the stories, "A Song For Lya" arguably still ranks as Martin's finest work. "Lya" is a beautifully sad meditation on love and loss, telling a moving tale of a young, vital woman who is willingly absorbed into The Greeshka, a strange collective "religion" that ultimately sucks the individuality out of those who choose to join it. It deservedly won the Hugo Award as best novella of 1973. "With Morning Comes Mistfall" is an equally powerful story, a melancholic examination of what happens when the cold pursuit of knowledge ultimately leads to the destruction of an important, beautiful myth.

Other stories include: "Override", in which animated corpses are used as cheap labor in a mining colony, "Dark, Dark Were The Tunnels", a claustrophobic horror tale about a devolved worm-like man who makes disastrous contact with humans exploring his deep underground home turf, and "The Second Kind of Loneliness", a Poe-like tale of isolation, loneliness and madness in a remote space outpost.

This is a nice, oversized paperback repackaging of one of George R.R. Martin's best short story collections. The simple fact that it's the only such collection currently available by this fine writer makes it an absolute must-buy.