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Title: Tales of Nevèrÿon (Return to Nevèrÿon Book 1)
Author: Samuel R. Delany
Published: New York: Open Road Media, 2014 (1979)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 203,775
Text Number: 601
Read Because: mentioned in Five Books about Loving Everybody, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 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.
Author: Samuel R. Delany
Published: New York: Open Road Media, 2014 (1979)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 203,775
Text Number: 601
Read Because: mentioned in Five Books about Loving Everybody, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 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.
