Samuel R. Delany Books

I always thought of Samuel Delaney as a writer of science fiction, my least favorite genre, so this is my first book by him. I was impressed and delighted. The worst thing I can say about it is that Mr. Delaney has a love of dependent clauses strung along inside comma-copious sentences that were sometimes hard to read. But he has awesome insights too, and compassion and wisdom lace every page. Makes me wish I was old enough to partake of that culture.

This book promises to be a history and social commentary on Times Square's sleazy recent past. But in reality the book is told from a very narrow and restrictive point-of-view (. . . )There's nothing wrong with that except he practically ignores the fact that the West 42nd Street sex shops, peep shows, and massage parlors were also an attraction for heterosexual men. The reader will get painfully tired of reading endless descriptions of Delaney's sexual exploits among the XXX theater crowd. Additionally, the handfull of black and white photos of the empty storefronts of the "Forty Deuce" were taken after most of the shops had been driven out of business. Without good photos of the way 42nd Street used to be, the vibrant nature of the area is greatly diminished and Delaney's text doesn't make up for it. If you are looking for a social history of the old Times Square, something balanced and better illustrated, try Josh Alan Friedman's "Tales of Times Square" instead.

A remarkable book, with both the frankest discussion of people's sexual desires and needs of any book I've read in years, and a compelling argument about the crucial role places like the old Times Square play in the life of a city. A paeon to America's cities and an intimate history of a culture being destroyed. Delany's masterful prose makes this brief book a treat to read. A great stocking stuffer for the intellectually and sexually adventurous.

Samuel Delaney has done the near imposible - he has written a book that is both titillating and informing. Dividing his cogent 21st Century social philosophy into two parts is at first disconcerting: Why are we reading (buying) a book that lets us in on the gossip of firsthand observation of Times Square New York, then in a page turn becomes a sophisticated academic treatise on our current social problems, in the City, and in a Country? Once past this mirage of a hurdle Delaney makes it patently clear why he chose this format. If we are introduced to a problem in a seductive manner, we pay closer attention to the bigger issues. This superb little book is illuminating in its exploration of where we are in our interpersonal relationships, our interplay with those around us (street, neighborhood, city, country), and our current drive to homogenize our world. Beautifully written, immensely readable, and a very important contribution to our social perceptions!

A confused "Amazon Customer" is repeatedly inserting blurbs from other periodicals into the "customer review" section of this page, AND failing to give "star" ratings to these inserts -- thus steadily dragging down the star-rating of this book. Since the blurbs are positive and have been repeatedly entered, I assume this "Amazon Customer" wants people to be interested in the book. Well, by failing to give a star rating, you're doing exactly the opposite! So either stop inserting blurbs altogether, or start giving them star ratings. This book is too cool to be muddied up by your confusion.

The more I read of Delany, including his theoretical, non-fiction and autobiographical work, the more I recognise the incredibly skilful way in which he TRANSFORMS his experiences and desires into fiction. This book is a love story. Those who finish the book may agree with me; those who baulk at the sexual practices vividly (and, to non-enthusiasts, overwhelmingly) described may be baffled by this comment. Yet description of the central character's excitement in the gradual merging of his two interests (philosophical investigations and sexual investigations) is an extraordinary ride through emotion, thought and language. Times Square Red/Blue has hints of where some of the ideas came from. Bread and Wine probably more. This is Anti-Pornography - see The Scorpion Garden in Straits of Messina - a Queer affirmation and celebration. Read it for the superb writing as much as for the story, the politics, the sex.

While many readers have focused on the sex, with which, yes, `The Mad Man' is rife, this is only one element in the novel among many. As a straight reader, I found myself engrossed in what is essentially a high-brow murder-mystery.

Timothy Hasler, a brilliant Korean-American philosopher and linguist, has been knifed to death at the Pit, a seedy gay bar. Years later, John Marr, a Ph.D. candidate whose dissertation is based on Hasler's work, becomes obsessed with uncovering the circumstances surrounding Hasler's death. A gay man himself, Marr is outraged at "the self-righteous drivel" that one academician uses to excuse himself from completing a biography of Hasler---that is, he was horrified by Hasler's sexual tastes. In search of answers, Marr retraces Hasler's footsteps, even taking an apartment in the building where Hasler once lived. More and more, Marr turns up in quarters of the city generally avoided by the bourgeoisie.

"In these doorways, bars, porn-magazine and peep-show shops, the movie theaters where sight itself is so dimmed, in such theatrical darkness true vision is ... largely absent. In one sense, all the encounters ... here take place on some dreary Audenesque plain where a thousand people mill, where no one knows anyone else, and there is nowhere to sit down. [...] Any exchange resembling real conversation takes place quietly and ceases when someone else walks by."

Hyper-educated, for the most part middle class, Marr unexpectedly finds himself involved in a series of intimate encounters with the homeless men in his neighborhood. His sexual exploits gradually drift further and further from the mainstream until a passage in one of Hasler's journal's makes perfect sense both to him and to the reader.
" ...To live within the tethers of desire is-again and again-to be shocked at how far they have come loose from reason ..."

Delany, however, is not merely interested in sexual liberation, in adults pursuing their desires no matter how bizarre (so long as everyone consents and violence is not involved), he meticulously presents an assertion that, like an image in a hall of mirrors, repeat itself, evolving into analogy and gaining in magnitude as it does. Take for example, the so-called "Hasler grammars", described as "the realization that large-scale, messy, informal systems are necessary in order to develop, on top of them, precise, hard-edged, tractable systems ..." In other words, clear and observable order is built upon a foundation rather nebulously composed of what would be considered chaotic. Apply this linguistic construct to recent Manhattan history and it is, in a sense, a message to Rudy Giuliani that without the city's underworld and its denizens, the law and order---the Disneyland---he so wants New York to be, simply could not be; one exists only in relation to the other.

From the rarefied and esoteric to the instinctive and purely carnal, from the grand analogy to the concrete detail minutely observed, `The Mad Man' is a dense weave that rivals Delany's most richly layered narratives. Recently re-released in an exceptionally handsome edition, I recommend it to any reader who wants an author to engage him, or her, in a multi-level game of chess.

While few will personally identify with the events in The Mad Man, it's a book which is thought-provoking and challenging in a very fundamental way. Delaney explores parts of the human psyche and sexual appetite which seem nearly impossible to understand, yet carries the willing reader to a point of insight and self-identification which seems surprising at the start. At times revolting, titillating, and bizarre, it's an always-fascinating walk down a path which few will travel in real life. At the same time, it's a mental "gedankexperiment" which will broaden the reader's idea of normal, and ultimately will change their worldview.

I was looking for The Ballad of Beta-2 and Empire Star, a two-in-one Delany title that does not seem to be on amazon. I agree with the other reviewer: Ballad of Beta-2 is a quick and interesting mystery, highly recommended. The other tale that it is bound with, in my copy, Empire Star, is more complex (and not as haunting), but still a rewarding bit of short Delany SF. Delany can be very bizarre (as in Dhalgren) but he can also write good old-fashioned SF. !

I found "The ballad of beta 2" lying on a used books shelf, on sale, and brought it just for the sake of it. What a surprise! A catching yet dark plot, excelent writing and a GREAT ending which fits all the missing pieces that the book builds up. I found this book so interesting that i brought other novels by Delany, and i still beleive he is an very underrated writer. 4 stars because it gets a bit too long (for my taste that is), otherwise a GREAT read!

A collection of ten stories with settings ranging from foreign worlds to a tiny fishing village in Greece. Delany, as always, writes lyrically and with a great graciousness and clarity. If there was a fault it would be that I was inclined to find some of these a little bit slight. For people who keep track of these things, the stories included are:

The Star Pit
Dog in a Fisherman's Net (* my favorite!)
Corona
Aye, And Gomorrah
Driftglass
We, In Some Strange Power's Employ, Move On A Rigorous Line
Cage of Brass
High Weir
Time Considered As A Helix of Semi-Precious Stones
Night and the Loves of Joe Dicostanzo

I've read this book four or five times over the years, and continue to marvel at Delany's awesome stylistic resources. Several of the stories are very moving, all are interesting, and all are exceptionally well-written. The stories cover the conflict between old and new (in the future), personal loss, the nature of freedom within the limits of the universe, and one odd, self-reflective narrative. Well worth seeking out for beauty in narrating and narrative.

These are incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking stories, but they're not pure entertainment. While they are not quite as abstruse as something like Philip Dick, they do require some work on the part of the reader in order to be appreciated fully. Readers who want a pure fun sci-fi adventure will likely find these somewhat disappointing, as will those who prefer a thoroughly fleshed out and minutely detailed universe. That isn't the purpose of these stories. These are short sketches, intended to investigate ideas about perception and existence. Taken for what they are, they are wonderful gems, both of them.

Linguistic heroine saves the day.


One of those books where the author comes up with something a bit strange and different, especially as far as the crewing of Rydra's ship goes.

A brilliant young woman's help is needed to deal with communicate with aliens, otherwise much bloodshed.

Along with this she has to deal with military politics into the bargain.

A very cool book.


4.5 out of 5

This is not easy-reading sci-fi with gun battles and action sequences. It has all that, but the story is an amazing journey through a wild, corse world created by Delany. I found it hard to keep up with each new perspective and character he created because they were so varied and creative. The heart of the story and its true genius is language. The story gets so wrapped up in language though that without a linguistics background, the reader is going to have problems reading this and following along. But if you do, you'll love it and the possibilities. If you don't, you still have one heck of a world to explore.

This story is almost a marketing device for the power and possibility of language. After reading this, you'll at least think about things a little bit differently or want to actually take a few courses on Linguistics. You'll love the world of Delany too. The story is challenging but well worth it.

This is THE work of genius. As far as I am concerned, there is no other masterpiece that surpasses the ingenuity of this book.
How could the author have possibly written this in the 60s? His vision of the multi-lingual future of the humanity and its effect on the human (and machine) behaviours is almost psychic. I would not have understood any of this, had I read it in the 60s.
The book is full of surprises, vivid and memorable episodes, and intricate and profound word plays, which will start to show double, triple, and quadruple meanings as you read on.
Do not get distracted while you read this one, because one little sentence maldigested here and there might spoil your fun later.
Truly intelligent piece of work that has a remarkably liberating and empowering effect on you. Highly recommended.

I liked B17 well enough I guess, it was just too short. I don't feel like I got to know the characters well enough; they remained shallow caricatures. The protagonist is one of your prototypical sf 'superbeings,' like Ender, Paul Muad'dib, etc. who is miraculously able to foil every obstacle set before her. I don't mind this device, except in this extremely compressed book. Somehow, her daring and implausible heroics are made all the more cheesy for lack of details and explanation. The plot certainly moves along at a brisk pace after she assembles the crew, but the speed comes at the expense of a truly immersive experience which is, for me at least, necessary to maintain that suspension of disbelief that scifi writers, especially, ought to be concerned with.

The good things: Delany writes very well, much better than a lot of the wooden prose that describes a lot of the genre (Niven, etc.). It reads almost like poetry, which is nice. The ideas about language and identity are interesting and thought-provoking. I wish he had made this more of an epic, where we get to know the characters more intimately.

Oh well, I liked it, and I suppose the fact thjat I wished it was longer only indicates what a good book it was. I'm planning on reading more Delany, that's for sure.

Oh, by the way, the included novella is wonderful. Loved it.

I had the pleasure of reading this book before it reached the final draft. I have found the book almost as valuable as the teaching I recieved from the man himself. Though this is not a book for the light reader, if you give it time Delany will reveal many truths about writing and writers. Yes, it's academic, because this book is aimed at those who seek to become writers, and that is as much an academic pursuit as an artistic one. Delany won't coddle you and won't give you feel good platitudes about what it takes to be a writer. What he will give you is a solid basis for starting a writing career. It's not a pretty road to travel, and certainly not an easy one. This is an excellent roadmap.

Delany has one of the most penetrating minds of anyone writing in English. This book should be a first resource for anyone considering writing novels--Delany discusses it as the serious pursuit that it is. I find myself reconsidering many aspects of my own writing, and not always comfortably. I'll be a better writer for it.

I am of the opinion that Samuel Delany's Dhalgren is one of the most important novels of the last forty years. It is as challenging as Gravity's Rainbow, but much more rewarding and politically complicated. And as a friend said once, it makes you feel kind of funny when you read it.

I love most of Delany's work, the essays on French theory, the memoirs on growing up black, queer and dyslexic in New York City, the science fiction, most of the gay erotica (though not even I can stomach Hogg) just about all of it really. So, when I saw this volume of his collected writings on writing, I had high hopes. I was disappointed. Delany on just about anything is an interesting, but here, I think he fell short. Good books on writing are hard to come by, beyond the technical nature of writing, there is little that can really be imparted in an essay, and especially an essay by a guy who is more comfortable with Lacan and spaceships than he is with self help talk of finding the writers voice.

That is not to say there are not some helpful tidbits in here, there are. There is some solid technical advice, and some interesting rambling about what it means to be a writer, creating worlds day in and day out. Unfortunately, though much of this I found below the usual level of Delany brilliance. If you're looking for some good Delany, instead of About Writing, read Dhalgren, Nova, Longer Views, The Motion of Light in Water and 1984

Frankly, I found this deeply disappointing. I read a few of Delany's books a few years ago and liked them for their full-on romanticism, their vision and enthusiasm. But these essays are fundamentally dull. Maybe it's their subjects. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but Dr Dryasdust and his colleagues. How did this fine Romantic become such a dreary academic ?

About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, And Five Interviews by literary critic, writers workshop teacher, and world renowned science fiction author Samuel R Delany (Professor of English and Creative Writing, Temple University, Philadelphia) is an informed and informative study of the expertise necessary for a writer in any genre to become more organized, more knowledgeable, and more effective with the ultimate goal of profitable publication. As an analysis of modern and contemporary writing styles, About Writing informs the aspiring author of the ins and outs of technique, ideals, and styles for the most effective writing. About Writing is very strongly recommended to all literature enthusiasts, readers, writers, and students.

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.

This is Delany at his most esoteric; he's writing about his existence as a member of a 2-room, roughly 20-person hippie commune in New York in the late 60's.

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

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

In other words, it's a bit typical of the writings about the 60s, except with the advantage of having been written by a phenomenal writer, who can write about the experience of being marginalized from a pretty authentic point of view (Delany is an African-American, gay man).

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

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.

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 is like ground glass crunching beneath your feet; you're aware of every step you take in this late '60s, East Village cul-de-sac. Indeed, the strength of this book is the fact that Delany shows us three different styles of communal living (Heavenly Breakfast being one) and while he evinces preferences, he settles you on each level so you can get the feel for yourself. Ever-present is Delany's gift to put you in the room with these people (Grendahl, Dave, Little Dave, Reema, Electric Baby among others) who bathe in a big enamel tub in the kitchen, squat to let nature takes its course in sight of each other, sleep at least four to a bed and "ball" next to one another. The problem with this book is that it's just too short. I could have spent weeks--rather than mere days--drifting through the Age of Aquarius with a struggling rock band (also named Heavenly Breakfast and the galvinizing force behind the commune). The characters are--as with most with most Delany characters--a mythical impossible millimeter from stepping off the page and offering you a toke of the joint they're passing around. For fans of Dhalgren, this is a MUST, exposing many of the real-life roots of that monolithic work. For anyone else, imagine a place that "combines the best points of a jail, a mental hospital, a brothel"... "without any of their disadvantages."

Better than the middle book, and a little longer. Kane has perfected his Martian matter transmitter, so can travel at will. Something he is pleased about.

Some primitive species has opened a biological weapon that the ancient alien super race has left behind. This is turning people into monomaniacal half-zombie types, and eventually killing them.

Many adventures happen to try and solve this, with an amusing twist at the end.

Much of it accompanied by his friend Hool Hadj.

Oh, and a few jokes thrown in, in passing through a certain area, some of the geographical features are S'sdla, Nosirrah and Golana, not to mention Modnaf.

Not that I would have ever used this technique to name places in a game, or anything! :)

Written under a pen-name, this grade-C adventure SF takes place on Mars. It feels like a by-the-numbers imitation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books-- though you may be amused by his references to other authors (their names are spelled backwards) in the first ten pages. Moorcock has written dozens of books worth reading-- this is at the bottom of the heap.

Originally published under the pen-name of Edward P. Bradbury as Barbarians of Mars. Now called Masters of the Pit.
"The green-death started in Cend-Amrid, turning that once-lovely city into a plague spot, source of a deadly infection that swept Mars and turned men into mindless automatons. And Michael Kane had to find the cure-or perish along with the rest of the adopted planet he loved!"

Delany once again has delivered something new and different with these three tales of different Sams.

The first story, Atlantis: Model 1924 deals with a teenage Sam coming to New York for the first time in 1924 and details his early experiences and impressions of this modern stand-in for Atlantis (note that Delany was born in 1942). Rife with metaphor and allegory, and told using some post-modern literary techniques including multiple story lines on the same page and marginalized notes, the defining point of this story is Sam's first trip across the Brooklyn Bridge, and the poet/writer he meets there (who is possibly an older version of Sam himself?). While not an easy story to read due to its structure, by the end of the story all the various story threads, notes, observations, and characters come together in a defining moment of epiphany.

The second story time shifts us to the early fifties, where a middle-school age Sam is introduced to the world of music and art in what was, for that time, a very progressive school. His portrait of what art really is, how its definition has changed, and its importance to himself and to the world is neatly balanced by this Sam's early introduction into the vagaries of sex. Some fine, if brief, character portraits round out this quiet story.

The last story deals with a Sam in his early twenties in Greece, and is probably the most factually based of the three stories, given that he has mentioned some of the incidents of this story in several of his other works. It is a very dark and depressing story, and details a homosexual rape and the necessity for one of Sam's lady friends to kill her dog. Some very rough material here that may not be to everyone's taste, but delivered with Delany's typical fine sense of language, pacing, and character.

All three tales have much to offer, each in completely different ways, and each presents a different 'side' of Sam. How much is autobiographical, how much is pure fiction is almost impossible to define, but the reader will finish this book with a better understanding of not just Delany but also the entire world and the social interactions that help define what it is to be human.

I read this book on the recommendation of Michael Cunningham (The Hours), who said, "If Samual Delany were writing in the same innovative, intelligent way and his books were not science fiction, he'd be know to every serious reader and not just a relatively small band of us."

Need I say, "I agree?"

An Ibooks reprint of an earlier collection. having never seen the earlier one, not sure if it was illustrated the same way, but there is a lot of drawing in here, and even one page montages throughout showing several of the illustrations in one circle.

Empire Star here it would seem was actually published as a book quite a long time ago when people still published very short books.

A combination of science fiction and fantasy here.

Distant Stars : Prismatica - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Corona - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Empire Star - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Omegahelm - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : Ruins - Samuel R. Delany
Distant Stars : We in Some Strange Power's Employ Move on a Rigorous Line [Lines of Power] - Samuel R. Delany

A bit of colour about the joint would be good.

3 out of 5


Telepaths can use a good band.

3.5 out of 5


Time to teach ourselves.

3.5 out of 5


Singing shiny password.

4 out of 5


Power symbols.

3.5 out of 5


Ordinary thief problem.

2.5 out of 5


Devil and demon energy overcomes angels.

4 out of 5

DISTANT STARS is a curious re-collection of Delany short stories. It's perhaps notable most for including the story "Omegahelm", which is unavailable elsewhere but interesting in that it is uses the same narrative setting as Delany's well-known novel STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND. Most of Delany's best-known and award-winning stories are here, alongside several previously-uncollected lesser efforts. The volume also includes some ambitious, if not always entirely successful, illustrations to accompany the tales. In any case, probably a must for Delany devotees, and it's a shame the collection is out of print.