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xaymaca's review against another edition
4.0
Retro review: I had a "Delany period" , in the 80s , his books seemed to always on the shelves and he seemed highly regarded in the non-SF literary set. This book is weird, kind of like Conan vs the monetary system. My memory is vague and this will be revisited, but I remember it being very odd but also very brilliant as well.
juushika's review against another edition
4.0
Sword and Sorcery is turned on its head and made into a setting to explore issues of race, sexuality, slavery, economics, and language within the nested narrative that is Nevèrÿon. This is ponderous despite itself--the philosophical, talky style frequently drowns out the readability of the short fiction format and sword and sorcery genre. But going in with those expectations--expectations which the framing narrative insists on--also make it a compelling and effective experiment. It's tongue-in-cheek in tone, demanding in content, and intentionally metatextual; Delaney's ruminations on social structures and social tools are as pedantic as they are creative, and they're intimately tied to the protagonist's stories. I find that I like this more than I enjoy it, because I admire what it does but the reading experience perpetually kept me at a distance. I would still recommend it to the interested reader.
spidergirl502's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
radiosaturday's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
greenbean_christine's review against another edition
I truly did love this book during my time in the Speculative Fiction class. I love Gorgik and all the characters. I just am not in the mood for this kind of genre right now. I just need to do one more Chapter then I am done!
ismemestar's review against another edition
4.0
Finally I see what people who love Delany have been telling me is here (Triton, the only other long Delany I've read, did not work for me). Lovely mosaic novel, with lots of pieces that come together, but not perfectly, and with pieces missing. Makes you want to discover more. Feels like fantasy but with very few of the usual hallmarks of the genre, but with a distinctive feel of anthropological discovery and nostalgia but-not-totally for the imagined past (or imagined other culture) that I really love. I get the feeling this will improve on reread when trying to remember half-mentioned details and names from previous tales within this work is less of a struggle, but even without that I enjoyed this!
dukegregory's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
A kind of indescribable read. It's kind of an exercise in applie cultural/literary theory via the tropes of sword-and-sorcery fiction. The basics of sword and sorcery contorted into a postmodern consideration of semiotics, post-structuralism, and translation theory, historiography, gender theory, Hegelian sexual politics, and many many references (including Sontag, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida, Barthes, etc.). These tales are interconnected short stories that feel tightly woven enough to border on being a loose novel. Delany's voice is playful and somehow both mythic and contemporary. Also somehow simultaneously dense and readable. I feel like I don't know what to write about this. It's barely fantasy (dragons exist and the distant past setting is speculative), and its priorities lie in questions of narrative and language rather than fabulist splendor. Delany bookends it with a preface and appendix in conversation with one another as written by fictional academics with the same letters in their initials. And just really works. I need to read the rest of the series!
A kind of indescribable read. It's kind of an exercise in applie cultural/literary theory via the tropes of sword-and-sorcery fiction. The basics of sword and sorcery contorted into a postmodern consideration of semiotics, post-structuralism, and translation theory, historiography, gender theory, Hegelian sexual politics, and many many references (including Sontag, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Lacan, Derrida, Barthes, etc.). These tales are interconnected short stories that feel tightly woven enough to border on being a loose novel. Delany's voice is playful and somehow both mythic and contemporary. Also somehow simultaneously dense and readable. I feel like I don't know what to write about this. It's barely fantasy (dragons exist and the distant past setting is speculative), and its priorities lie in questions of narrative and language rather than fabulist splendor. Delany bookends it with a preface and appendix in conversation with one another as written by fictional academics with the same letters in their initials. And just really works. I need to read the rest of the series!
randipity's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
lucardus's review against another edition
3.0
Nicht ganz die "superexotische" Fantasy, die ich erwartet hatte, aber (bis auf die mir nicht so zugängliche 2. Story, die ich eher zäh fand) sehr schön erzählte "non mainstream" Fantasy. Erinnert ein wenig an leGuins Erdsee aber ohne deren Zauber einzufangen. Der Barbar "Sarg" vom Buchrücken ist im Buch glücklicherweise ein "Sark", was wohl nicht nur ihm besser gefallen dürfte.
3 Sterne sind wahrscheinlich etwas zu wenig, aber 4 sind es auch nicht, dazu hab ich mich durch eine Story zu sehr gequält.
3 Sterne sind wahrscheinlich etwas zu wenig, aber 4 sind es auch nicht, dazu hab ich mich durch eine Story zu sehr gequält.