Earth is in need of help, as is pretty common in sci-fi. So a group of scientist, colonists, and others head out into deep space to find a mysterious object, the volcryn, that seems to be giving off the same energy signature as telepaths on Earth do. Yes, there are telepaths on earth, and there is even one on the ship, Thale, who is dangerous, but also might be their only way to contact the volcryn. However, from the get go, things are not going like they should on the ship, the Captain Royd Eris is hidden away only showing up as a hologram, things are breaking down, and for this mission, everyone is on edge. As they go further into space and get closer to the volcryn, more things go poorly and it is clear that someone on the ship does not want them to reach the volcryn, all while the main character, Karoly d’Branin becomes more and more obsessed with finding reaching their end goal. Will they survive all the way to the end?

This show reminded me a lot of Helix, another SyFy channel show, set in space. It’s about who you can trust, or who you shouldn’t trust on the ship. And if what you’re going after is going to be worth the cost. I think that it Nightflyers, without delving into too much plot detail, is fairly standard in a lot of it’s handling of sci-fi tropes. I don’t think that’s always a bad thing, because there are a lot of interesting story elements, but for the most part, it feels fairly typical to stuff that I’ve already seen and stuff that has been a part of sci-fi for a long time. It does delve into some interesting areas about grief and humanity, but for the most part it leans into the horror and sci-fi elements in ways that you’d expect.

So while the sci-fi elements might not always be the most unique, I thought that it did a good job blending the elements of sci-fi and horror. And in the horror you actually get some more unique things, which tie back into the sci-fi nature of the show. With horror, I do believe that it is a bit all over the place at times. You some where it’s very psychological and other times where people are being frozen or jump scares or a pathogen loose in the air. But I have a soft spot for the blend of horror and sci-fi in my heart, because both of them can really dig into issues that would be too abstracted in a more realistic setting.

I think that the concept of the show works, I think while it is fairly standard, the story of the show works. I feel like they mess up some pacing in the show, there’s a large time jump for no good reason at one point in time, just to set-up the next horrific thing happening. I think the time jump is confusing as well, because it’s a slow burn show. Most of the elements are played out slowly over a long period of time and it works well in the show. You can tell the story is based off of George RR Martin, the Song of Ice and Fire series has a slow burn as well, and this matches it where a lot of the horror is based things and confusion moving slowly and building tension versus jump scares.

Would I recommend this show? It was pretty enjoyable and because it’s one season only, I think there are enough interesting horror and sci-fi elements in it that makes it worth checking out. The world building for something that basically only takes place on a spaceship is done really well. There’s a good amount of depth there, and that depth builds throughout the whole of the show, not just the the start with an info dump, but you never feel like they are info dumping on you and that you don’t have the information that you need. If you enjoy fairly heavy sci-fi with a good dose of horror thrown in, it’s definitely a show that is worth watching.

Have you seen the show, read the novella? How do they compare, is the novella worth reading if you’ve seen the show?

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A quick overview what NaNoWriMo is. Each November people from across the world write 50,000 word (or so) novellas. That is the minimum amount of words that you can write to complete the challenge, though some people go over that by a ways. 50,000 words is an average 1,667 words per day (give or take a third of a word). So in the evenings, after work, Kristen and I will turn on some music (sometimes) and knock out large chunks of our stories.

So what does one need to do to write their own story for NaNoWriMo?

First, hop onto http://nanowrimo.org/

It’s a quick, simple, and best of all it is free to sign-up. Now, they do like it if you donate, or support their sponsors, but that isn’t something that you have to do. Along with that they’ll ask you to create a description for your story. The cool thing on there is that as you work on your story, you can copy and paste your story in, and it’ll show you how many words you’ve written, if you are on target, and other fun stats about amount of words written in your city, country, and around the world, so you can watch the word count grow.

Next, get a story idea together

This is probably the hardest part. While I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head, many of them aren’t ideal for NaNoWriMo. You can write a story that is going to be a million words long, but I’ve found it really helpful to write a story that is going to be just over those 50k words. The reason that I like it is because it means that I’m going to have a rough draft but a finished complete story. It’s tricky after writing about every day for a month to not drop out of the time is up. So I’ve found it easier to just have a complete story in your mind and write that in the month. That way you get a sense of accomplishment, and maybe you can use that to write a longer story, but start with a complete story for NaNoWriMo, and come January, you’ll feel better about your writing.

Finally, block off time

Now, you don’t need to write five hours every day and get it done in two weeks. That is one possible way to write for NaNoWriMo, but very few of us actually have that sort of time. Most of the time it is better to start with a reasonable period of time. Figure out how long it takes you to write 1,667 words. Now, keep in mind that this is a rough draft of those words. So you shouldn’t be stopping and editing. Sure, if a typo is glaring at you, you can go get rid of that stupid red underline (or figure out how to turn them off). But if you realize that something you’ve previously written doesn’t make a ton of sense in your story, you can fix it another time. This is a rough draft, your goal is to write 50k words. If you go back and rewrite the same chunk of text ten times, you might hit 50k words, but you aren’t going to have a completed story. It’s okay if the first draft isn’t as good as you want it to be, that is why it is a draft, and that is why you write it over and over again, but right now, you are just blocking off time to write 1,667 words. You also might find that writing that many words doesn’t take you that long (or maybe it takes you a really long time). So adjust your writing schedule accordingly. For myself, I can turn out a post for Nerdologists that is half the word total in about thirty minutes, and it isn’t odd for me to write 3,000+ words at a time. Kristen it is more work for her to write as quickly, so it takes her longer and sometimes she’ll need a weekend where she sits down and writes for an extra three hours so she can finish. Figure that out about yourself, and adjust your time accordingly.

So, hopefully this is something that you are interested in doing, or something that you hadn’t heard of before and might do now. It is really a lot of fun and the sense of accomplishment at the end is great.

What sort of story would you write?