New Releases by Samuel R. Delany

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

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).

A collection of substantial written interviews.

In this chronicle of a long-ago land on civilization''s brink, Gorgik the Liberator''s slave revolt takes an unexpected turn. Flight from Neveryon contains a novella, a long story, and a full-length novel.

First foray into pornography by a writer of science fiction. A philosophy students becomes interested in a dead philosopher who was a pervert. In time he begins imitating the man and in the process reaches the depths of perversion. By the author of They Fly at Ciron.

"Acclaimed science fiction novelist Samuel Delany wrote Hogg over twenty years ago. Since then it has been one of America''s most famous "unpublishable" novels. The subject matter of Hogg is America''s culture of sexual violence and degeneration. This theme is not, however, examined from the politically safe perspective of the victim. Rather, Delany explores his disturbing protagonist, Hogg, on his own turf - rape, pederasty, sexual excess. Delany does not adopt an overt moral position, but the book is one of the most moral in recent American fiction. It exposes an area of violence and sexual abuse from the inside. As such, it is a brave book."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"For nearly thirty years, in his fiction and non-fiction, Samuel R. Delaney has explored to the roots various realms of discourse: sociteies, language, sexualities ... and the ever-shifting interpenetrations, transgressions, limitations, and dissolutions that play and replay between them. Now he turns his unflinching critical eye to the most mysterious realm of all: his own life, writing, and soul.":--Dust jacket flap.

City''s black ghetto Harlem at the start of World War II, Samuel R. Delany married white poet Marilyn Hacker right out of high school. The interracial couple moved into the city''s new bohemian quarter, the Lower East Side, in summer 1961. Through the decade''s opening years, new art, new sexual practices, new music, and new political awareness burgeoned among the crowded streets and cheap railroad apartments. Beautifully, vividly, insightfully, Delany calls up this era of exploration and adventure as he details his development as a black gay writer in an open marriage, with tertiary walk-ons by Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael, W. H. Auden, and James Baldwin, and a panoply of brilliantly drawn secondary characters. Winner of the 1989 Hugo Award for Non-fiction.

The last volume of the eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon''s chronicle a long-ago land on civilization''s brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or even on the Mediterranean. Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery. Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude. Does this contaminate his mission - or intensify it? Presumably elaborated from an ancient text of unknown geographical origin, the stories are sunk in translators'' and commentators'' introductions and appendices, forming a richly comic frame.

Essays about science fiction.

A novel of myth and literacy, Nevèrÿona tells how young Pryn, who can write in this largely pre-literate land, flees her mountain village on a dragon''s back for Neveryon''s capital port, Kolhari, to aid Gorgik''s rebelllion. Now on the Bridge of Lost Desire, now in Madam Keyne''s emotionally embattled gardens, now at an empty, moonlit mansion in Nevèrÿon - Kolhari''s old artistocractic neighbourhood - and finally through a journey into the dangerous south, Pryn finds more answers - and questions - about Nevèrÿon''s power structure.

Science fiction-roman.