7.8 /10 1 Votes
Originally published June 1974 | 3.9/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Awards Hugo Award for Best Novella Nominations Nebula Award for Best Novella Similar George R R Martin books, Hugo Award for Best Novella winners | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Song For Lya is a science fiction novella by American writer George R.R. Martin. It was published in Analog Magazine in 1974 and won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1975. It deals with two telepaths named Robb and Lyanna who visit a planet to find out why the inhabitants worship a mold-like organism and ultimately choose to be absorbed by it. In his essay "The Light of Distant Stars", Martin has said it was inspired by the first serious romance he was involved in.
Connections to other works
A Song for Lya is set in the same fictional universe as several of Martin's other works, including With Morning Comes Mistfall, The Way of Cross and Dragon, Dying of the Light, and the stories collected in Tuf Voyaging.
In his later book series A Song of Ice and Fire, the names Robb and Lyanna are used for two members of House Stark, Robb being the son of Eddard Stark and Lyanna being Eddard's younger sister.