Nightflyers (book)

Nightflyers is a 1980 science fiction horror novella written by George R. R. Martin. In 1985, a short story collection of the same name was released which included the original novella. The book was adapted into a film in 1987, and a television adaptation by Syfy is set to premiere on December 2, 2018.

Novella
Nightflyers is a 23,000-word novella that was written and published in 1980 by George R. R. Martin. It was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. A year later, Martin's editor, James Frenkel, requested that Martin increase the story to a 30,000-word work which was then published by Dell Publishing along with True Names by Vernor Vinge as part of the Binary Star series. As part of the extended material, Martin expanded on the backstories of several characters and named previously unidentified secondary characters.

Nightflyers is part of the fictional "Thousands Worlds" universe that Martin created which includes some of his other works such as Dying of the Light, Sandkings, A Song for Lya, The Way of Cross and Dragon, and the short stories in the Tuf Voyaging collection.

Nightflyers won the Locus Award for best novella in 1981, and the Analog Readers Poll for best novella/novelette. The work was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella, and won the Seiun Award in Japan for foreign short fiction in 1983.

Collection
The collection containing Nightflyers is the fifth by Martin and was first published in December 1985. It contains the following stories and novellas:
 * Nightflyers
 * Override
 * Weekend in a War Zone
 * And Seven Times Never Kill Man
 * Nor the Many-Colored Fires of a Star Ring
 * A Song for Lya

Film
Nightflyers was adapted into a film in 1987 by writer/producer Robert Jaffe. The film follows a group of scientist who embarked upon a space voyage in order to find a musterious alien creature. During the voyage, they are terrorized by the ship's malevolent computer. The film was directed by Robert Collector under the pseudonym "T. C. Blake". The film stars Catherine Mary Stewart and Michael Praed. Martin revealed that Jaffe adapted the script from his original novella rather than the expanded one, as several secondary characters had different names from the ones he gave them in the expanded version. The film grossed $1,149,470 at the box office.

Television
Syfy announced in 2016 that it was developed a television series based on Nightflyers. The series is primarily based on the 1987 film adaptation, with Jaffe acting as a producer. The pilot episode was written by Jeff Buhler. Due to an exclusive contract with HBO, Martin will not be involved in either writing or producing the show. Filming began in early 2018, and the series is set to premiere on December 2, 2018.