Customer Reviews (1)

A classic ahead of its time
I was utterly amazed by "Babel-17".Though written in 1966, I felt Delany was so far ahead of his time in so many of the concepts presented in this book.We have Rydra Wong, poetess to the galaxies, who is an extremely self-possessed, strong female protaganist (something in short supply even in this day and age and almost unheard of when this book was written).We have body shaping, piercing, mutilation - did Delany actually foresee the youth of today in his crystal ball as he jotted his prose down on paper?We have custom-made soldiers, futuristic weapons that nowadays don't seem so farfetched, multiple partner marriages.

"Babel-17" is a short book but it does not read like one.You actually have to think about what you are reading, savor each word, mull over possible meanings, and then go on to the next sentence.It was a wondrous banquet of a story to savor.I consider it to be one of the best books I have ever read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

SF Master Delany's Short Stories of Worlds BEyond 2001
From the cover:From Ganymede to Gomorrah, a bizarre breed of planet-hopping humans sell their sexless, neutered bodies. . . so that others may explore the outer limits of sexual perversion.Far beneath the surface of the planet earth, a doomed architect lives out the rest of his years in a hideous life-sustaining coffin. . .in a world where not dying is the ultimate form of punishment.And in a remove outpost near Canada, a lone cluster of Hell's Angels prepared for the final battle with a society which demands that all men share in the good life. . .whether they want to or not.This is the universe of Samuel Delany.Ten tales of speculative fiction. ... Read more

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George Edgar Slusser discusses author Samuel R. Delany's work, from his first paperbacks, to his latest success, "Triton." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I wish to comment on STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND
Samuel R. Delany has been my favorite author for years, but only recently have I realized the brilliance of the ending of STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND. The book weaves an entangling matrix of love and desire amidst geopolitical and interplanetary intrigue. In the end the love interest is removed by the mysterious enemy, leaving the protagonist to ache. Indeed, it leaves the reader to ache for the promised sequel, THE SPLENDOR AND MISERY OF BODIES, OF CITIES, which has not come. Twelve years later this tactic by Delany has continued to haunt me in the same halls of my heart where my lost loves lie. Brilliant! Bravo to Delany for not writing the second book, for indeed, who is ever promised another day of love? If we live in the forever tomorrow, where is today? Bravo! --- D.F. Huettner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent issue of this fine journal, devoted to two important American writers
Samuel R. Delany and Edmund White have the following obvious points in common: they are roughly the same age (Delany is 67, White 69), they both lived for many years in New York City (Delany was born there), both have written fiction and nonfiction in a wide variety of genres, styles and forms, and both teach now at major East coast universities located not far from each other (Delany at Temple in Philadelphia, White at Princeton).Both are also out gay men, and homosexuality has informed much of the fiction and nonfiction of each, in particular the significant autobiographical writings that they have published.

There the overt similarities probably end; I say "probably" because I really don't know either writer's ouevre (both are fairly prolific) all that well - White's not at all apart from a couple of pieces in this journal.White strikes me as a more direct and mainstream stylist; Delany is nothing if not difficult, even obtuse.This issue of the terrific thrice-yearly 'Review of Contemporary Fiction' collects 12 pieces by or about the writings of White, and 13 on Delany.I've read White's piece on the Norwegian Nobel-prize winning writer Knut Hamsun, in which he grapples with his love for the work and his disgust with the fascist-sympathizing man behind it; it's short but very powerful, one of the best briefs I've seen on the difficulty of reconciling art and man.The rest of the White stuff I haven't explored, and probably will wait to do so until I've read some of his full-length works.

I have perused most of the Delany section though; for newcomers to his work I'd suggest taking a look at James Sallis' introduction - focusing on Delany's concerns with language - and K. Leslie Steiner's short interview, which discusses the authors views on the relationships between science fiction as genre and literature.Robert Elliott Fox's short meditation on Delany's very very long and dense DHALGREN again explores language for the most part; Mac Laidlaw's funny bit about his years of NOT reading this massive "unreadable" novel is a nice counterpoint.There are short checklists for both White and Delany at the ends of their respective sections.

The volume is rounded out by a couple dozen book reviews, mostly of fiction, much of it interesting and still on my to-read list, including works by Robert Coover and Steven Millhauser, and there is an index to the three issues of 1996.A complete listing of the contents may be found on the website of the publisher, the Dalkey Archive.This is the only issue of TROCF that I actually own, but I'm definitely interested in others - those interested in modernist or postmodern fiction could do much worse than to pick up this volume, and those on such writers as George Perec, Joseph McElroy, and William H. Gass among other relatively obscure writers of difficult - but hopefully lasting - fiction. ... Read more

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"Fox offers a clear and important, if brief, consideration of the fiction of Baraka, Reed, and Delany. He renders an especially important service by establishing the relationship among three fictionists whose work has been substantially neglected. . . . Readers will find this volume useful as a starting point for the investigation of recent Afro-American fiction and as an example of the application of poststructuralist criticism to Afro-American fiction." Choice ... Read more

Product Description
As this novel begins, the peaceful village of Çiron faces conquest and domination by the army of Myetra, as led by a cruel prince. The Myetrans subdue Çiron, killing many and enslaving the rest.

But Rahm escapes—and then befriends one of the fearsome Winged Ones, humanoids with batlike wings. Meanwhile, led by the young village garbage collector and an itinerant singer, the Çironians resist where they can, as the Myetran lieutenant Kire struggles with his conscience and tries to ease the Çironians' burden.

They Fly at Çiron—appearing here in its first paperback publication—offers "vintage Delany in his finest fantasy mode" (Ursula K. Le Guin).
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Simplistic, but plenty of action
In this Delaney novel a vicious, technologically superior invader crushes a village which knows nothing of murder, much less war.

Expanded from a 1961 short story, the utopian-style village is almost painfully dated. Nevertheless, this short novel is fun to read, primarily for its lively writing and the ingenuity of its technologically innocent characters - brawny Rahm, the clever wily garbage man Qualt and the singer Naa.

Their guerilla tactics of sabotage are enhanced by the aid of a flying sentient race that lives in the mountain tops and has a culture somewhere between vicious and benign.

The allegorical elements are simplistic but the action seldom falters.

Peace and war
A Myetran army advances and slaughters nearly everyone in its path. One of the officers, Kire, struggles to obey his consciencerather than his commander. At Ciron, where the local villagers are a peaceful lot, the Myetrans think they've gained the upper hand, but one of the Cironians named Rahm begins to fight back. By enlisting the aid of the Winged Ones, Rahm and a few of his fellow villagers defeat the army, and find themselves changed in the bargain. There are a lot of themes being addressed here, and not all are successfully elaborated. Delany hints at a lot of things (sexuality, politics, the nature of patriotism, etc), but ultimately glosses over some things in an effort to make the story streamlined. It's a good book overall, and well worth reading. After getting over the slow start, I was rather enthralled, especially by the low key sensuality throughout the story. I'd never really read anything by Delany before, and this book intrigued me enough to check out other books by him.

not that great
I did not enjoy this book at all.After reading it, I could care less about any of the chracters in it.I had to struggle to get to the end.

not what I was expecting
I began reading "They Fly at Ciron" expecting a social commentary, and I'd heard good things about Delany as a writer so was expecting something special; and the first few bits of the story were actually rather interesting.However, as I continued reading the story turned from interesting social commentary to something right out of an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel.The story started to feel like an incomplete, immature rough draft, and was full of inconsistencies and holes.Delany mentions in the preface that "They Fly at Ciron" is a re-worked version of one of his earliest stories.It rather seems to me he should have worked on it a little bit more.There's the skeleton of a good story, but it doesn't quite seem finished yet.I gave up half-way through.

Not Delany's best work, but still a great read
"They Fly at Ciron" is another suprising novel from a little known but excellent sci-fi writter. Even while's not my favourite Delany book, this story of a "ancient" civilization which meets a muchmore technologically-advanced one is a book irediscover every once in awhile. An excellent read. ... Read more

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One woman's quest to die with dignity may doom them all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

An embarrassment to the written word
Self-indulgent, narcissistic, hateful, and contrived. That pretty much sums it up. This is by far the worst book I've ever had the unfortunate experience of reading. It is simply an embarrassment to human-kind's ability to produce written works. As far as the blurbs on the back and the introduction, they're pure garbage. This a far cry from a work of any literary value. And I don't say that lightly. I've been forced to read quite a number of fairly terrible works and still in most instances have been able to find some silver lining somewhere. This 'beauty' here is a first for me in the sense that there is absolutely nothing redeeming about this, this... what could only be appropriately described as an expose on why one really ought to find a different line of work than writing.

Here is the book in a nutshell: A very angry self-righteous narrator who along with some other hapless people crash-lands on a barren world with no chance of rescue proceeds to murder everyone around her for the first 40-50 pages because she is nihilistic and hates everything, most of all the others' instinct to survive. (I'm not even going to bother with wasting time dissecting the horrible dialogue, the grotesquely caricature characters, lack of anything resembling character motivation or development, or lack of any effective description of the environment) The rest of the book, which is more than half of it, consists of nothing but a long disjointed rant by the narrator about hating everything, including herself, and recounting pointless anecdotes from her youth about the futility of righteous causes, Neo-Christianity, and Communism in the face of "imperialist dogma" of the powers that be.

The fact that some sadistic soul actually wrote this, decided that other people needed to read this (this is where the sadism becomes self-evident), and knew enough other like-minded sadists to actually edit, print, publish, and favorably review this book, (hence, again making the sadism self-evident) despite a thousand blatantly obvious clues that this would be a horrible waste of human effort, time, and trees, as well leaving a permanent blemish in the annals of the written works of humankind, is a testament to the wonder and majesty of the liberty afforded by the Constitutionally embedded right to free speech, and also a stark reminder to all would-be-writers that just because one can say something in print doesn't mean one should.

The greatest tragedy in all of this, and really the insult adding to the injury, is that I bought it while perusing a university bookstore in my spare time, from a section of the store dedicated to reading materials for English Major classes. That means that some very misguided and reckless 'teacher' (I use the term loosely) actually forces college students to read this garbage as if it is an example of good literature.

Avoid at all costs. If you really want "out there" books read Ursula K. Le Guin, read Philip K. Dick, read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, read Jorge Luis Borges, read Italo Calvino, read Victor Pelevin, read anything else. Just please stay away from this book.

One of the best SF novels I have ever read.
John W. Campbell's formula for great science fiction was, famously, "ask the next question."That's exactly what this bracing, challenging, bleak, funny, deeply subversive novel does, elegantly undercutting decades of unexamined science-fiction adventure cliches.

Recommended for anyone who ever wanted to lay into Compulsory Optimism with a meat ax."The human race is fine.We're just not there."

the highly capable, depressed woman
This is an old book, in print more than 30 years, but as it has minimal topical references it has not become as dated as some SF of the 70s. It is a gray, gloomy, depressing story that remains a downer right through the last sentence--there's no last-minute discovery of ameaning to life to redeem the book.

The first-person narrator is a highly capable, intelligent woman with loads of forethought and a sardonic attitude. If she mustered any of these qualities in support of anything positive, she'd be -- well, she'd be Alyx, Russ's better-known hero. But this is Alyx's depressed, repressed evil twin. Alyx has a wise tolerance for people who are weaker or slower-witted than she; this person has only contempt.

The circumstances are that that a few people have survived a crash-landing on a completely unmapped planet in an unknown place. The narrator instantly and clearly apprehends that they will never be rescued; they have neither the skills nor the equipment to create a viable colony; and they will probably all die of allergies to the unfamiliar planet's biota as soon as their stored food runs out -- and at best will die in squalor as their equipment wears out and life descends to the stone age. None of the others are ready to admit this reality; they cling to the hope that they can somehow survive. The guys start planning cabins and latrine systems and talking about which women should first contribute babies to the colony.

The narrator just wants to die and get it over with. And she has quick, painless poison capsules. Why doesn't she just off herself and be done with it? Well, because if she did, the book would only be 20 pages long (and not a bad thing at that). Instead, and from motives that are never clear to me, she wants all the others to agree with her, to see as clearly as she does that they are doomed. She plays games with them, out-thinking them at every turn. She leads them on and when they try to dominate her by force, she begins killing them. Having slain everyone else in the party, she still doesn't kill herself. She hangs on for many more pages reviewing her past and hallucinating conversations with the people she killed. If she achieves any insight or clarity in these pages, I missed it.

P.S. Why is Samuel R. Delaney listed on this edition as a co-author? The edition I just reread (Dell Publishing Co. paperback, printed 1977) lists Russ as the sole author, with an enthusiastic cover blurb by Delaney.

Dead boring.
This a story of a woman being bored to death. Really, she dies of it. There are some other characters to begin with, but they're a bit boring and she kills them half way through the book. Then we're left with this murderer, and her morbid fascination with, well, death, and her slow, well, death. There's that D word again. The book's actually more interesting then it sounds, but it's still dead boring. The writing is pretty good, but really, the plot is a killer. There's nothing going on, and the murderer's morbid thoughts and recollections are not that interesting, especially as the sane reader will probably not sympathize with the one and only character offered in the second half of the book.
Other reviewers seemed awed by the fact this book deals with, you guessed it, death. This book should have been killed in its infancy.

wonderfully subversive
If I had read this book when I was fifteen, I do believe my life would have been entirely different.This is wonderfully subversive stuff, addressing all the problems any science fiction fan has with the "starship separated from civilization" plot, with a protagonist you will love to be appalled by. ... Read more

Product Description
A gay African-American fiction anthology features works by award-winning authors and promising newcomers including A. Cinque+a6 Hick, Bil Wright, Larry Duplechan, and Jaime Manrique, and pays tribute to a range of cultural events. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

an okay anthology about a great topic
This is an anthology about black gay men.Unfortunately, the tales inside are not as fierce or defiant as the title would suggest.In many of the pieces, issues of race and sexuality take the back seat to "l'art pour l'art", typical literature.The pieces near the back are better than the introductory ones.The piece by James Earl Hardy (who almost never writes short stories) is great.Jaime Manrique has a piece here and I've never seen him write about black issues (he writes almost exclusively of latino ones).I am glad I have a copy of this book, but I liked "Brother to Brother" and other books on the topic much better. ... Read more