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The Stone City

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The human crew of the faster-than-light ship Pegasus are on an exploratory mission to the galactic core when they are stranded at the edge of the manrealm, their ship confiscated by the fox-like Dun'lai ... one of the many bizarre alien species dwelling on the desert planet Grayrest. The desolate world is the rumored home of an ancient alien civilization, their legacy being an immense abandoned city of stone. After a year of hardship and tragedy, only two members of the Pegasus crew have not given up hope, and are convinced that the Dun'lai will release their ship, or get them a berth in another ship ... any ship will do ... in exchange for a map of the Stone City. But neither are willing to descend into the underlayers of the city, where the captain went exploring and never came back.

39 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1977

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195 people want to read

About the author

George R.R. Martin

1,503 books120k followers
George Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.

In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.

In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.

Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.

Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...

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5 stars
36 (14%)
4 stars
62 (24%)
3 stars
94 (36%)
2 stars
48 (18%)
1 star
15 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Michelle F.
232 reviews95 followers
February 15, 2022
As my little threeple Skype book club makes its way through Martin's shorts and novellas, “The Stone City” has emerged as one of my favourites...

The blurb doesn't do justice to the layers of this story, and how identifiable they each can be.

Holt's driving desire to explore and experience – nicely mirrored by the amazing stories of his mentor, Cain – is an echo of the excitement and belief of childhood.

The frustration and fear of being trapped on a planet at the edge of what is known is powerfully conveyed. Everything seems outside of Holt's control, and the rules don't quite make sense. The metaphor here is blatant and resonant, right down to the way his team members lose hope and succumb to vices or degradation as the only tangible means of some kind of escape.

The heavy ambiguity of the ending, even that it can be read in multiple ways, is depressingly clever.

And this is a weighty, crushing-disappointment type of tale, no matter how you read the ending. (Reviewer Ellie gave an interpretation that I hadn't thought of, which makes it powerfully personal for a lot of us book lovers)

Martin himself said that he was keen on exploring how bizarre things can get the further you step away from what is known. His success in this is particularly effective; there is an oddness throughout that is tangible without detracting from sense. It is quite literally dream-like, which is always a fascination of mine.

In any case, despite its heaviness, The Stone City is a fine piece of Sci-Fi, and worth a read. As I am typing this review many months later, I find it has stuck with me both personally and intellectually. I think that may be some of the highest praise I can ever give.
Profile Image for Xfi.
552 reviews88 followers
August 6, 2018
Pequeña historia de ciencia ficción de apenas 50 páginas. Publicada en 1977 mucho antes de que Martin se hiciera famoso con su hielo y fuego donde ya podemos ver algunas características de su estilo: montones de personajes, nombre extraños, razas sin fin a cada cual más imaginativa.
Historia acertada de paradojas temporales y mundos posibles, daría para una buena saga.
Profile Image for Alberto Martín de Hijas.
1,246 reviews56 followers
May 18, 2023
Relato sobre un explorador espacial atrapado en un mundo decadente. Tiene un punto que me recordó a Jack Vance (Aunque Martin es menos cínico y más pesimista que aquel) Un texto muy descriptivo que avanza y retrocede en el tiempo y con un final agridulce que se presta a múltiples interpretaciones. Otros lectores consideran este relato una metáfora sobre la lectura, interpretación de la que no estoy convencido pero me parece verosímil.
Profile Image for David.
178 reviews6 followers
October 10, 2025
There’s a thing that happens in a lot of sci-fi and fantasy where a character who’s never left their home village (or home planet if it’s sci-fi) will meet another character who’s been EVERYWHERE, and that second character will tell a bunch of stories about all the strange places they’ve been, and even repeat stories they’ve heard about strange happenings out past the edges of the known world or galaxy or whatever. I am a sucker for that kind of thing, I absolutely love it. Anytime it happens I’m immediately like “grab some popcorn everybody, this crusty old sea salt is going to tell us all about that spot on the map that’s completely blank except for the words ‘Here there be dragons!’” Even my nonfiction reading reflects the fascination I have with this sort of thing. I’m forever reading history books about explorers and sailors. I just love finding out about the next place that’s out there.

The Stone City is basically one of those scenes stretched out to the length of a short story. Just scene after scene of “let me tell you about this planet where everyone has six heads. And then I’ll tell you about this planet where everyone only wears blue cable knit sweaters. And then there’s this nebula where everybody who lives there is named Kevin.” I could read that sort of thing forever and be very happy doing so.

There’s other stuff happening here of course. There’s a pretty powerful poverty metaphor, about heartless bureaucracies and cruel systems that feel as if they serve no purpose other than to grind down the already downtrodden even further, and the desire of people trapped in these systems to experience everything the world has to offer, but being unable to experience it for one’s self and so instead looking for different (and often futile) ways to escape. That all certainly resonated with me, but quite honestly it was kind of secondary to what I actually got out of this one. The surface level read was what made me enjoy this story as much as I did.

Don’t know how fun this one would be for someone who doesn’t share my love for this sort of thing, but this story scratched a very specific itch for me and so it’s an easy five stars.
Profile Image for Ellie.
63 reviews15 followers
May 30, 2017
When I first read George RR Martin's 'The Stone City', I didn't think much of it. While I found it interesting to read with complex world-building, I found the plot of a stranded traveller in an alien world to be somewhat uninspiring. However, when I realised that the story itself is a metaphor for poverty in a corrupt economic system, I found a sudden appreciation for 'The Stone City'.

The story itself seems to be heavily inspired by George's upbringing in a poor, industrial suburb close to shipyards. While the main character, Holt, works "within the system" in his attempt to board a ship to escape, he is rejected repeatedly and forced into thievery to make ends meet. The other members of his ship (who are stranded as he is) mostly give up their efforts at escape, and turn to drugs, prostitution, suicide, religious zealotry or go missing altogether. The ending itself is bittersweet:

This is perhaps one of my favourite George RR Martin sci-fi work as it is a deeply personal story representing a broken system built to never favour the stranded or the poor.
Profile Image for rastronomicals.
43 reviews2 followers
May 20, 2014
Phenomenal, and one of the best portraits of a galaxy teeming with exceedingly strange life I have ever read. Martin's Thousand Worlds, in general, but especially here, is a universe that allows man, but is not necessarily *for* him. It is eerie, and though GRRM has written some scary stuff, nothing may be quite as scary as this.
Profile Image for André.
51 reviews19 followers
May 25, 2017
Very eerie and frustrating, reminding me, like the author wrote, of Kafka and Lovecraft. A sorrowful and nostalgic universe. Liked it.
Profile Image for Divia.
556 reviews
July 19, 2020
I think I got lost in this story. There were many flashbacks and sometimes I kept on wondering what was really going on and what was the point. I didn't like reading it. I felt bored for a while and lost interest at times. My mind wandered a bit and I mixed up flashbacks with the current time period, even though GRRM sectioned these things off. I just didn't feel this story.

I finally felt like I was getting somewhere when Holt killed the foxman and fled into the stone city. Finally! Some action! I knew this was the present. When the annoying foxman said he needed the captain's signature I felt for him. He was a goner. Killing him was the only catharsis for that moment. He had it in his grasp - escape from that God forsaken world; and then it was gone; it disappeared with his captain. That is painful. Maybe I did follow some of the story.

Then it was like getting lost in the House of the Undying, even though I thought he visited something like that earlier in the story. I was so confused in the stone city. There were so many visions and then when Holt said that he'd go back but had to visit planets through the various doors; I knew. I knew that he was lost in there but somewhat happy? He could see so many worlds, and he did, while the rest of the universe grew old and the races on that planet wasted away. Holt still went on from star to star in the stone city.

It's escaping but not truly escaping. Blissful yet not real? In a way he got off the planet but didn't. Instead he's trapped there forever, traveling, which is what he dreamed of as a child. FOREVER.

I don't really know how to feel about it. I am giving it 2 stars because I felt as lost and frustrated as the protagonist. Maybe some time in the future I will read it again and change my mind.


I read this story a second time and I gave it 3 stars because I actually liked it the second time around.

The Stone City is a metaphor for reading. You're still trapped where you are but you escape into other worlds through reading.

The story also explores the terrible systems that ultimately cause more harm than good as well as the mental issues that can come from being in a bad situation. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you are brave and face life head on, you just don't get what you want in the way that you want it.

Poor Michael Holt. I felt bad for him the second times around as well. Even though he's on the same planet at least he's not miserable and his getting to explore as he wanted to. I still feel bad for him that he didn't get to actually go out there but had to settle for what the stone city offered.

My first reads don't always allow me to pick up on themes that resonate like the second read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Hamad AlMannai.
469 reviews10 followers
May 21, 2024
Published in 1977. It takes place in the "Thousand Worlds" universe, and is set on the Damoosh Space planet of Grayrest during the post-Interregnum period (around the year ai-800). It is about a man whose ship and crew have been stranded on an alien planet for months, and whose only chance of escape is to explore an ancient underground city. This is a really good story and the ending is poetically ambiguous that reminds me of Daenerys' visions in the House of the Dying in Essos. We also get a lot of the geography and timeline of the thousand world's universe from this story.
also.. "The concept of the Damoosh wisdompools is very similar to the concept of the Old Gods and the Weirwood trees in A Song of Ice and Fire. In both stories, a wise telepathic elder commits his mind to the natural environment, to preserve and dispense knowledge to worthy pilgrims. The network of wisdompools and Weirwoods allows the elders to see and communicate far distances in the present, as well as access the past and future."
Profile Image for Siobhan.
5,048 reviews597 followers
March 24, 2022
The Stone City was a story that started off well, leaving me curious about where the story would go. Sadly, as the story progressed, I found my interest in it started to fade. It was one of those stories that could have offered so much, but the way the story was told did not work for me. Between the fact that it flickered between points in time and the fact that the details I was interested in were never looked at as deeply as I had hoped, this one didn’t quite work for me.

While I did not love this in the way the start had me hoping, there were some interesting points in this one, and I can certainly see it working for other people.
Profile Image for Alicia Chapa.
8 reviews1 follower
September 10, 2020
George R. R. Martin debería de hacer mucho más terror y ciencia ficción.

Por favor, Martin, el mundo lo necesita.
Profile Image for Kitty Red-Eye.
737 reviews38 followers
January 4, 2016
What a horrible planet! I found it so boring and depressing initially that I had to put the story away for a while. But then all of a sudden it became so much better, it changed gear completely and the ending was of the most creepy things I've read in years(?). Funny how the same was the case with House of the Worm, another GRRM story I initially disliked but then loved at the end.

Clear House of the Undying reference here. Only worse.
Profile Image for Conan The Librarian .
452 reviews26 followers
September 25, 2014
Es un relato interesante y me gustaron mucho las razas alienígenas que aparecen en él así como la manera en que la historia es contada a través de flashbacks, pero en momentos se siente como que el protagonista solo va de un lado para otro sin un objetivo fijo y eso de dejar un final abierto no me agradó mucho en este caso.

No se, quizá solo sea yo pero no me gustó mucho.
Profile Image for Cole Skene.
23 reviews1 follower
September 16, 2017
This one reminded me of that episode of Spongebob where he's stuck in Rock Bottom. Come to think of it, I think the meaning of that name was lost on me as a child, makes a lot more sense now. Anyways, interesting read, and well worth the DMV-level monotony of the first act for that crazy ending! Would recommend as a late-stage thousand worlds read.
Profile Image for Jessy.
1,026 reviews69 followers
December 31, 2018
No me convenció del todo. La verdad es que la idea me parece muy buena, pero entre tantos personajes, ninguna explicación de las razas y varias cositas más, siento que no entendí del todo lo que pasaba. Esto da para una saga muy muy larga, no creo que haber usado esta idea en un relato haya sido lo mejor.
Profile Image for Lara Lawson .
31 reviews3 followers
July 1, 2021
This story jumps back and forth in time, which sometimes makes it hard to follow, as we get to know our protagonist, a man driven to see the most unknown parts of the universe. The ending is satisfying, as it ties together the mystery that runs throughout and the history we were given intermittently throughout.
Profile Image for Alejo.
7 reviews
October 4, 2022
Lo releí luego de algunos años. Me gusta esa premisa de túneles, arquitectura imposible y personajes incomprensibles, todo lo anterior situado en un lugar en el que incluso "la física y lógica humana fallan". El cuento, a mi parecer, captura la atención de modo consistente, pero el desenlace es algo apresurado y tópico. En cualquier caso, los cuentos y noveletas de los "1000 Mundos" de GRRM me siguen pareciendo cautivantes.
Profile Image for C.E.C..
459 reviews
January 23, 2025
3.5 estrellas
El final llega a ser confuso al punto de lo ridículo más o menos, pero por lo demás está entrete, la narración cae bien con cómo va entretejiendo el pasado y el presente, y se entiende la idea - creo.
Profile Image for Jesús.
110 reviews6 followers
August 18, 2017
Muy interesante relato. Se trata de un giro de tuerca a la típica imagen del aventurero espacial. Muy chulo el final.
Profile Image for Sahian Said.
2 reviews
April 8, 2023
My first 2 starts for a GRRM story. I felt it a little bit confusing and I found not a single sense in the story.
Profile Image for LoveAnnie.
200 reviews2 followers
January 5, 2023
Este libro a pesar de ser corto sentí que tenía toneladas de información y descripciones que hicieron la lectura insoportable. El mundo que recrea el autor es más digno de una saga que de un relato.
Profile Image for Zai.
1,021 reviews28 followers
June 19, 2024
En un tiempo lejano, la Humanidad se ha extendido por los límites de nuestra Galaxia. Un humano que habita en un lejano mundo se enrola en una nave de carga alienígena, dando con sus huesos en un extraño mundo utilizado de paso, donde al lado del espaciopuerto existe una ciudad de piedra subterránea en la cual existen unos seres fantasmales contra toda creencia de los dueños actuales del espaciopuerto, una raza de seres mitad zorros, mitad hombres.

Ha sido complicado leer este relato, primero por la diversidad de nombres impronunciables que salen en el relato y segundo porque George R. R. Martin no nos explica mucho de las diversas razas con nombres raros que conviven en La ciudad de piedra, ni una triste guía a la que recurrir nos ha puesto, así que ha sido difícil enterarme de que o quienes son, como son y demás cosas….

Holt es un “humano” que vive rodeado de seres raros,(alguna especie de extraterrestres), en La ciudad de piedra, está esperando a que le den un permiso para poder viajar en una nave sea humana o no.

La narrativa del autor es realmente buena, pero siendo sincera ni aún eso logra salvar el libro, ha habido muchas partes, en las cuales, no me estaba enterando de nada y si no fuera porque es un relato corto y porque lo he leído para un reto puedo asegurar que lo habría abandonado.

La novela se lee de forma lenta porque con tanto nombre extraño, he tenido que volver atrás y releer algunas páginas varias veces para intentar comprender lo que ponía y porque el autor no diferencia los acontecimientos que recuerda Holt del pasado de los que están ocurriendo en el presente, sólo me he dado cuenta de cuales son, cuando ya he estado leyendo un tramo.

Y el final, que decir del final, es un despropósito en toda regla. No sé, si yo no he entendido el libro, o George cuando lo escribió estaba bajo los efectos de alguna droga…
Profile Image for Aero Windwalker.
27 reviews1 follower
July 19, 2016
I failed to understand the story because I guess I was just reading the lines and wasn't actually quite interested.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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