Details

ISBN-10: 081956270X
ISBN-13: 9780819562708
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Publish Date: 11/29/1993
Dimensions: 8.47" L, 5.39" W, 0.67" H

Tales of Nevèrÿon (Return to Neveryon, Book 1)

Paperback

Price: $17.95

Overview

A novel of myth and literacy about a long-ago land on the brink of civilization. Vol 1

In his four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R. Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization. Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nevèrÿonvolumes in trade paperback.

The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon’s four volumes 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.

Read More
Reviews

"The tales of Nevèrÿon are postmodern sword-and-sorcery . . . Delany subverts the formulaic elements of sword-and-sorcery and around their empty husks constructs self-conscious meta-fictions about social and sexual behavior, the play of language and power, and -above all -the possibilities and limitations of narrative. Immensely sophisticated as literature . . . eminently readable and gorgeously entertaining."–The Washington Post Book World

"Complex and carefully crafted . . . his language is lovely, often approaching the poetic."–Publishers Weekly

"This is fantasy that challenges the intellect . . . semiotic sword and sorcery, a very high level of literary gamesmanship. It's as if Umberto Eco had written about Conan the Barbarian."–USA Today

"The tales of Nevèrÿon are postmodern sword-and-sorcery . . . Delany subverts the formulaic elements of sword-and-sorcery and around their empty husks constructs self-conscious meta-fictions about social and sexual behavior, the play of language and power, and - above all - the possibilities and limitations of narrative. Immensely sophisticated as literature . . . eminently readable and gorgeously entertaining."–The Washington Post Book World

"Delany continues to surprise and delight . . . [his] playfulness is the kind that involves you in the flow, forces you to see details in a larger context, yet never lets you forget that what you are reading is, after all, nothing but artifice, a series of signs."–The New York Times Book Review

More Reviews

Details

ISBN-10: 081956270X
ISBN-13: 9780819562708
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Publish Date: 11/29/1993
Dimensions: 8.47" L, 5.39" W, 0.67" H
Skip to content