Customer Reviews (1)

On Display: The Guts of Science Fiction
When this was first published in 1977, there was very little first-rate critical analysis of science fiction, or even much analysis of any degree of excellence. Delany, as part and parcel of his young career as a science fiction writer, who by the time of this book had already published several novels, from fair to outstanding in quality (Nova, The Einstein Intersection, Babel-17, The Jewels of Aptor, The Fall of the Towers), also did some deep delving into just what science fiction is, what makes it tick, what makes for good sf, what many of the common failings of sf are, why sf is distinct from mundane fiction. This work is significant in that it helped raise the consciousness level of sf within the hallowed halls of academia while at the same time raised the bar for working sf writers, forcing them to really look at both the how and why of what they were writing.

This particular edition (2009) is an updated version of the original publication, and there are changes to its contents to include some later essays and deleted some others as they were available in other Delany books on writing, in addition to changing their order to be more subject oriented rather than chronological. These changes do not detract from the overall character of this book, and you can still derive a sense of just where the sf world was in the late sixties and early seventies from this.

This is not a book for the faint of heart whose eyes glaze over at the first polysyllabic word, as this work is absolutely replete with them. Nor is it a book for the average fan of sf, who just wants his sense of wonder tickled and doesn't care to investigate just how this sense of wonder is created and refined. But for those willing to work a little bit while reading this, some of what is here is quite illuminating. The book is composed of several essays, some short, some quite long ("On Reading the Dispossessed" runs to some 60 pages). Some of the essays seem to wander quite far from their nominal subject, as parenthetical asides, but usually by the end of the piece the reason for the asides will become strikingly clear. Part of those asides are some expositions from Delany's life, and form an interesting composition in their own right about how a writer's life experiences influence what and how that writer writes. While this aspect of writing has frequently been the subject of much critical work on major mundane writers, Delany eschews much of this when trying to define and analyzeparticular sf writers and their works, focusing much more on the details of the written work, sometimes down to individual word choices and the resonance/discordance such choices invoke (such as Heinlein's "The door dilated"), although he does acknowledge in several places that his own upbringing and his environmental surrounds influence how he reads and interprets other's works.

But there is also evidence of just how young Delany was when he wrote some of these pieces, as there is a certain level of arrogance and conceit in his statements of what is good and what is not, along with a certain obsessiveness with details that are really not that important to the overall scheme of things. This is quite marked in his long dissertation on Ursala K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, where he starts by dissecting the opening paragraph of the book. For the sentence "Where it [the wall] crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate, it degenerated into mere geometry, an idea of a boundary." he states quite flatly that "this is mere fatuousness. If there is an idea here, degenerate, mere, and geometry in concert do not fix it".This comes across as Delany trying to impose his own rules of stylistic excellence on another writer, as to me this particular line by Le Guin is exactly what sets both a tone and that feeling of 'other' so essential to a science fiction novel. In fact, the entire dissertation on Le Guin's book comes across as overly harsh, though Delany clearly does point out some things in the book that were either not well thought out or not presented as clearly as they could have been. And perhaps his detailed analysis of all of the failings of this book were prompted by his sense that Le Guin's book was both important and a major milestone in the evolution of sf, that poorer works were not worthy of this level of analysis.

But throughout this work, you can get a sense of the passion Delany has for excellence in the arts, and why such analysis is both important and can help future work be all the better. Much of sf today has been colored and influenced both by his own works of fiction, and by his insights into what makes science fiction so essentially different from mundane works, insights that are well presented in this work.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
... Read more

Product Description
1981 Locus Poll Award, Best Anthology (Place: 15). Compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg, this is a mammoth anthology of great science fiction short novels, including: Beyond Bedlam, by Wyman Guin; Equinoctial [1978 Locus Poll Award, Best Novella (Place: 12)], by John Varley; By His Bootstraps, by Robert A. Heinlein; The Golden Helix, by Theodore Sturgeon; Born With the Dead [winner, 1974 Nebula Award, 1975 Locus Poll Award. Nominated, 1975 Hugo Award], by Robert Silverberg; Second Game [nominated, 1958 Hugo Award], by Katherine MacLean and Charles V. De Vet; The Dead Past, by Isaac Asimov; The Road to the Sea, by Arthur C. Clarke; The Star Pit [nominated, 1968 Hugo Award], by Samuel R. Delany; Giant Killer [nominated, 1996 Retro Hugo Award], by A. Bertram Chandler; A Case of Conscience [incorporated into the novel of the same name as Book One], by James Blish; Dio, by Damon Knight; Houston, Houston, Do You Read? [winner, 1976 Nebula Award, 1977 Hugo Award. 1977 Locus Poll Award, Best Novella (Place: 3)], by James Tiptree, Jr.; On the Storm Planet [nominated, 1965 Nebula Award], by Cordwainer Smith; The Miracle-Workers [nominated, 1959 Hugo Award], by Jack Vance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Republication of "The Bridge of Lost Desire"
This work was first published by the title mentioned in the review title, in 1987 (November) by St. Martins Press/New York.I have verified this by viewing the content page of "Return to Neveryon".While this is perhaps an unimportant detail, the search was sparked by the review below, and of course, my desire to find any other Samuel R. Delany (SRD) books about Neveryon (disappointed).

However, the book is a satisfying conclusion to the four published texts in the series, perhaps beginning with "Triton", mentioned briefly in one of the appendices as having a significant role in the development of what Delany (in the guise of an alter-ego K. Leslie Steiner) calles "The Modular Calculus", a philosophical attempt to construct a measure of the degree of approach of a "model of reality" (that is, a book or series of books) to the "reality" itself.Thus, one may infer that the entire Neveryon series and the book Triton, (only mentioned in passing in the appendix to the third book of the series "Flight from Neveryon") is part of a philosophical musing by the author on the nature of society, civilization and the development and nature of the self, as demonstrated by various inhabitants of the "model" or fictional world he has created.Despite these deeper philosophical conjectures, the book is a fascinating romp through what is perhaps, and perhaps not, an alternate world.Enjoy!

Brings it all back home
Delany finishes his series of Neveryon novels but focusing on the character who not only kicked off the series but has provided most of the impetus for the events in the novels, either as a main character, through cameo roles, or through an offscreen yet tangible presence.Delany's stories in this volume are less self-consciously experimental (at least in structure) than the last volume and thus come across as more conventional.They really aren't, most of them explore topics in semniotics, a subject I really don't have that great a knowledge of and as usual probably missed most of the bigger points he's trying to make.But the stories make for interesting reads on their own.The first story (which is the longest) has Gorgik, at the end of his career, tell a story about himself to a barbarian boy who could care less.This one is probably the least exciting since it's basically all monologue, but it's still entertaining and delves a bit more into the nature of perception versus reality (at least that's how I read it).The second story is a lot of fun and barely even involves Gorgik, instead telling the tale of a petty criminal, moving back and forth along his life, creating a very complex charactization, and highlighting more aspects of Delany's very intricately created culture.The last story ends the series on a high note and is a slightly rewritten version of the first story from the first volume, showing Gorgik's formative years.It's not too different from the original (if at all) I thought some sections were tweaked slightly and some parts were expanded upon more, but overall it was great the first time and it's just as good the second time.One thing that's neat about the stories is how they inform each other, there aren't explicit connections between them but the connections are there (plus the chronology goes backward, adding another level of meaning) especially between the second and last stories (the one you'd least think would be connected) and it shows a level of thought and plotting and an attention to structure that you don't normally see in fantasy.All in all, a nice cap to a fun series, one of the best pure sword and sorcery series to come along in a while.What they lacked in blood and guts they made up in imagination and pure thought and for that reason they'll stand head and shoulders over other fantasy books that seek to continue the status quo and tell the same old stories. ... Read more

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memoir: life in an urban commune, 1967-68 NYC ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Bedroom for Twenty
This is the second major autobiographical work Delany published, detailing his experiences as part of the rock group/commune Heavenly Breakfast during 1967, and falling directly after the events of his Motion of Light in Water.

Delany's rich prose does an outstanding job of illuminating the conditions the commune lived in: the four-to-a-bed, communal baths, kitchen arrangements for 15 or so, scrounging for food and dollars, personal hygiene, arguments, discussions, lover arrangements, drugs, and occasionally some working sessions for the band.For those who reached their maturity around this time, who felt the siren call of the counter-culture, every line of this book will resonate, will force memories of and the feel of that time. The character portraits he paints reek of authenticity; the dialogue is real; nothing is left out, no matter how filthy, degrading, lovely, exhalting, boring, unusual or commonplace.

Pieces of this experience clearly were incorporated in his massive Dhalgren, and this book and the earlier Motion of Light in Water will help illuminate much of the frequently obscure situations of that book.

Between the two books, Delany reveals himself as a man of great and diverse talents: songwriter/singer/guitar player, actor, author, poet (though he doesn't think much of his own work, preferring that of his then wife, Marilyn Hacker), critic, organizer, peace-maker. Rather oddly, though, Delany himself doesn't seem to be the forefront character of this piece, but more of an observer of the scene.

Heavenly Breakfast, perhaps because it is so short and covers only a single year of his life, is not as rich as Motion, but is still full of his intense images and great prose: "In the other room, the woman-voice wound its obstacle course through consonant-studded invectives." Not many would describe an argument that way.

A great trip down memory lane; a sure portrait of a time and place that may never come again.

Worth having
I read this book first in 1995 when I was 24 and re-read it on december 2001.
The first time, this book had a great impact on me. Among one it describes the social aspects of a group of people living in a small space. It also depicts the influence it has on the perspective of one of them in a touchy scene where one of the people enters a shoe-store to buy new shoes for a job she gets.
As with other more personal work of Delany he somehow stays out of the picture himself most of the time. (Read "Mad Man", "Triton", "Dhalgren" and "Grains of sand" for instance, and then take the rich inner world of the lead person in "Babel 17" as contrast.)
"Heavenly breakfast" is set in a somewhat later time frame then "Motion of light and water"

The beauty of this book is the (mostly) non-judging way Delany percieves the world in that period.

A three-dimensional look at '60s-style communes
Having read about a dozen of Samuel R. Delany's 30-odd books, it must be said that Heavenly Breakfast is his most straight-forward. Those used to--in love with--his convolute cogitations simply will not find them here(with the exception of about a half dozen paragraphs).The narrative islike ground glass crunching beneath your feet;you're aware of every stepyou take in this late '60s, East Village cul-de-sac. Indeed, the strengthof this book is the fact that Delany shows us three different styles ofcommunal living (Heavenly Breakfast being one) and while he evincespreferences, he settles you on each level so you can get the feel foryourself.Ever-present is Delany's gift to put you in the room with thesepeople (Grendahl, Dave, Little Dave, Reema, Electric Baby among others) whobathe in a big enamel tub in the kitchen, squat to let nature takes itscourse in sight of each other, sleep at least four to a bed and"ball" next to one another.The problem with this book is thatit's just too short. I could have spent weeks--rather than meredays--drifting through the Age of Aquarius with a struggling rock band(also named Heavenly Breakfast and the galvinizing force behind thecommune). The characters are--as with most with most Delany characters--amythical impossible millimeter from stepping off the page and offering youa toke of the joint they're passing around. For fans of Dhalgren, this is aMUST, exposing many of the real-life roots of that monolithic work. Foranyone else, imagine a place that "combines the best points of a jail,a mental hospital, a brothel"... "without any of theirdisadvantages."

an interesting historical document from a later star
This is Delany at his most esoteric; he's writing about his existence as amember of a 2-room, roughly 20-person hippie commune in New York in thelate 60's.

It's most impressive when he matter-of-factly takes youthrough topics of hygeine, or sleeping arrangements, or sex, or food, orhow the commune managed to have money, electricity, or fun.

On the flipside, it's at its worst when he talks about the philosophical systems ofthe commune: its social controls, relations with other communes, and whatthe whole meaning of it all is.

In other words, it's a bit typical of thewritings about the 60s, except with the advantage of having been written bya phenomenal writer, who can writeabout the experience of beingmarginalized from a pretty authentic point of view (Delany is anAfrican-American, gay man).

Definitely not the first Delany book to read,but also a necessary book for the adventuresome fan. ... Read more

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Paperback edition of the Nebula Award-Winning novel. ... Read more

Product Description
A key figure in modern science fiction and fantasy, Samuel R. Delany (b. 1942) is also one of the most acclaimed figures in contemporary literary theory and gay/lesbian literature. As a gay African American writer, Delany's cerebral, experimental prose crosses lines of genre, gender, sexuality, and class. Several of his works--Dhalgren, The Einstein Intersection, Babel-17, Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand, and the Nevéryon quartet are considered landmarks of "new wave" science fiction. His essays and critical works approach a wide variety of subjects from a perspective that is both resolutely philosophical and deeply provocative.

Conversations with Samuel R. Delany collects interviews with the writer from 1980 to 2007. Delany considers the interview an especially fruitful form for the generation of ideas, and he has made it an integral part of his own work. In fact, two of his critical works are collections of interviews and correspondence. He insists that all interviews with him be written correspondence so that he is allowed the time and space to deliberate on each response. As a result, the conversations presented here are as rigorously constructed, elusive, and intellectually stimulating as his essays. ... Read more

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Ace Double # M-121. First printing of Alpha Yes, Terra NO!. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

early glimpse of some ideas developed in Dhalgren
Equinox offers an interesting early glimpse of some themes fully developed in Dhalgren; interracial attraction/aversion, the ambiguous relation of sex and violence, and how people deal with mental and/or physical extremes when suddenly confronted. While nota piece of "great literature", it definitely is a provocative read, and is a must for anybody studying the development of the author's oeuvre. ... Read more

Product Description
Vol 18, #10. Cover by Chaffee illustrating "High Weir" by Samuel R. Delany. Also, "Deathchild" by Sterling E. Lanier; "Paddlewheel on the Styx" by Lohr Miller; "The Proxy Intelligence" by A. E. van Vogt; "Or Battle's Sound" by Harry Harrison; "Pupa Knows Best" by James Tiptree, Jr. Also, Report on Japanese Science Fiction (essay) by Takumi Shibano. Interior art by Gaughan, Finlay, Adkins, Brand. ... Read more

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Weird Sci fi invades the moon Triton.
Really far out story of the colonists on the moon Triton.

For the lovers of Delany sci fi. ... Read more

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Interplanetary war, capture and escape, diplomatic intrigues that topple worlds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

points the way toward heaven 17, brother
oh boy boys can be girls unreadable un penerable its is easy to loose track just like stars in my pockets these books are very awkward sentences become laborist to read u try to discern anything its not a labour of love its a labor of bondage Bron a VAMPIRE in a future society is unhappy small time fry in the ointment of society hes misunderstood boo hoo he is she sennanigans authors point is he is good can kinda deconstruct sci fi cliches with his own like kinda dislectic which i think the writer claims to be along with all the other lame sereotype LIKE rat is mentally challenge RAT IS A HUNK OF LUST HUMPING BRAIN OF ID GIVEN AN OVERDOSE OF iq ferilizer IN stars hes used hes a slave slightly retro in a future bleak SCIENCE MAKE BELIEVE FUTURE TECHNOLOGY HUBBLE BUBBLE,YES THERES PLENTY OF RUN ON STREAM OF THOUGHTS FAR REMOVED IN THE FUTURE DUMBED DOWN YES THERE IS THE BUBBLE OVERHEAD YES WERE ON JUPITER SATURNS WAX FUTURE POETRY POTERY SOCIETY AWKWARD CASE INSECT LIKE CASTE SYSTEM juvenile im getting tired spider rat mark shakesphere flash frown this is far down in the reading pile from ole school competence Inspiring i can write this dreck but not read CONFUSE THE REAL FROM THE TRUE. HIS VERY OWN DIALECT WHEN I WAS SEVENTEEN I HAD THE CHEAP ORIGINAL LIKE A LOT OF HIS BOOKS THE COVER WAS MORE VALUABLE TO MEANING THAN THE DIATRIBE OF AIMLESS LABOUR OF DISJOINT IF U WERE AN ALIEN CULTURE LIGHT YEAR AHEAD IN THOUGHT AND INTELIGENCE why be bothered after reading this why be bothered reading or even invading this culture.Still enjoy reading it KINDA IN A EXERIMENT ITS HAZY MAKES ME LAZY GIVE UP GO ON BACK AND FORTH .

Some Informal Remarks Toward the Modular Calculus, Part One
TRITON is the story of Bron Helstrom, an ex-Martian gigolo residing in a male dormontory on Triton. Delany's "science" is ludicrous to say the least, but his characterizations and portraits of society breaking apart into tribes of people with similar notions or physical appearances is fascinating. Bron's exposure to some street art shakes him up and by the end of the book Bron is not the same character he was at the beginning. This book is a tough read, but it is worth the effort. If you want accurate depictions of satillite life, see Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey series; if you want to explore the eternal mysteries of sexuality and gender, then read TRITON and join Bron on his quest for finding his place within society.

Great novel!
This is a hell of a good book.Reading it a second time through, I was most impressed by Delaney's subtle irony--Triton is an itnensely comic novel.But it's also a profound interrogation of gender.Delaney's important, and Triton is a great read.

Delany Loses It
It was with this book that Delany systematically began to dash the hopes of fans who had breathlessly awaited every new book up through "Nova".The writing skill is still there, no question.But Delany's pornographical and intellectual self-indulgence begin their corrosive process on his work.How sad.All that imagination and storytelling skill undermined by meaningless (and often tasteless) philosophical and sexual noodlings. In a parallel universe, Delany kept writing appealing and entertaining books in the vein of his early science fiction.Too bad we don't live in that universe.

A different view.
A book is a machine to generate interpretations, as Eco wrote. Thus, not one interpretation can be the correct one, and all we can do is to add to what other people have experienced at some point while reading a book.

Due to my own life experience, I perceive, perhaps, several more levels to this novel. The first time I read it, about 20 years ago, I was 10 and didn't understand many of the subtleties. However, the fact that the main character was so out of touch with the reality around him and that he had failed miserably to adapt to his changing surroundings, and, in the end, finds a "way out" for all the wrong reasons, made me think.

And think hard.

This book forced me to re-examine my own motivations several years later, because, besides the humour (sometimes even mockery) of our current socio-political systems, the book has a point. Bron Helmstron, the main character, becomes a woman not because he feels he's one, but because he wants to please the image of women she had as a man. He becomes a woman created from an intellectual male psyche.

Of course the issue of gender is at the core of the novel. Adaptation, sexism (Bron is perhaps the last old-mindset sexist in this heterotopic future) and monosexism -that is, the loving yourself as a projection but in a different gender role.

I asked myself many questions after re-reading this book at 22 (I'm a male-to-female transsexual): what are my motivations? I'm doing this as a rebellion against the rigidity of gender in our society? Am I doing this because I'm so selfish I've fallen in love with my own image in a different gender-role? Am I doing this out of selfishness, or because I've failed adapting myself to the world? Or because I'm so utterly sexist that, by adhering to the stereotype of what femineity should be, I am trying to put order to my own world?

This is one of my "top ten" books of all times. It made me grow as a person, and discover in myself that, unlike Bron, I was going through this route because I wanted to be honest with myself, not out of selfishness or emotional laziness.

Highly recommended if you don't mind some pretentiousness and have an open mind -and some background on feminist theory wouldn't hurt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Testing my patience
On the future Earth of an indeterminate time, mankind has been reduced to living in a small coastal area clustered about the island nation of Toramon.On one side, they are bounded by ocean and on the other a radiation barrier.The government of Toramon is preparing to make war against a mysterious force that lives beyond the barrier, but it has become clear to some that the real purpose behind the proposed war is tied to the economic problems and population pressures of the kingdom.Who is living beyond the barrier and what kind of understanding can be reached with them?

This is a truly schizophrenic novel.The first two thirds are brilliant.Samuel R. Delany introduces a fascinating and complex culture.His large cast of characters is drawn from all levels of society, and he handles them very skillfully.By the end of the book, though, it seems clear that this was never intended to be a self-contained story.The questions that drive the narrative and motivate the characters are left unanswered, and events sort of peter out inconclusively.Since this is the first part of a trilogy, it is reasonable to assume that these questions will be answered later.At that time, I may revise my opinion of this book.(...) ... Read more

Product Description
The 1968 Gray Hardcover Book Club Edition with Jacket Cover. Both Book and Jacket Cover are in NEW Like Condition, with Green page tops. A truly Collectable Edition. Jacket Cover is bright Red/Pink with Handsome Design. A rare find for this young outstanding Author who wrote this book at the age of 25-26. Money Back Guarantee. (A1) ... Read more