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Samuel R. Delany

Les contes de Neveryon Mass Market Paperback

French edition

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Book 1 of 4: Return to Nevèrÿon

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Book 1 of 4

Return to Nevèrÿon
Language

French
ISBN-10

270960101X
ISBN-13

978-0586202708

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Product details

Language ‏ : ‎ French
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 270960101X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0586202708
Book 1 of 4 ‏ : ‎ Return to Nevèrÿon
�鶹�� Rank: #494 in African American Studies (Books)
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106 ratings

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Samuel R. Delany

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Samuel R. Delany’s science fiction and fantasy tales are available in Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories. His collection Atlantis: Three Tales and Phallos are experimental fiction. His novels include science fiction such as the Nebula-Award winning Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection, as well as Nova (now in a Library of America anthology) and Dhalgren. His four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon is sword-and-sorcery. Most recently, he has written the SF novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. His 2007 novel Dark Reflections won the Stonewall Book Award. Other novels include Equinox, Hogg, and The Mad Man. Delany was the subject of a 2007 documentary, The Polymath, by Fred Barney Taylor, and he has written a popular creative writing textbook, About Writing. He is the author of the widely taught Times Square Red / Times Square Blue, and his book-length autobiographical essay, The Motion of Light in Water, won a Hugo Award in 1989. All are available as both e-books and paperback editions. His website is: www.samueldelany.com.

Photo by Alex Lozupone (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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"kala-chan"
An interesting look at humanity.
Reviewed in Canada on February 9, 2003

"Tales from Neveryon" examines many facets of human existence, from gender roles to marriage (the slight hint of S&M mentioned by a previous reviewer) to the way the devlopment of the concept of money has changed us. When you read this book you get a chance to step outside of human culture. For the first time you see, objectively, the forces at work within society and within us. You see the way the past shapes the present, and the way your preconceptions shape the way you perceive the world.
This is an incredible book, well worth the time taken to read and understand its many complexities.

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Matthew Cheney
Enigmatic, lovely, and atypical
Reviewed in Canada on February 12, 2002
Samuel Delany's Tales of Neveryon is a book which accomplishes something few ever have: it takes all of the basic elements of cliched sword & sorcery fantasy stories and weaves them into a suggestive, thought-provoking, allusive, and even haunting series of tales.
None of these stories follows any sort of traditional plot structure -- some of them have only the barest hint of plot at all. And yet they are deeply compelling, for Delany has infused so many of the situations with intellectual substructures, simultaneously evoking a carefully-imagined fantasy world, well-developed characters, and profound philosophical speculations (and aggravations) touching on everything from economics to literary theory to political and social science. None of it is heavy-handed, though, and certainly not dogmatic -- if not for some slyly suggestive epigraphs at the beginning of each tale, the deeper implications of many of the stories would be easy to miss. The tales build on each other, and by the second half of the book, if you can juggle all of the echoes in your mind, the process of accumulation makes the experience of reading all the richer.
By the end, the book feels a bit incomplete, because it has raised so many questions and introduced so many journeys that the reader is likely to hit the last page and think, "Where's the rest?" The rest is in the other books in the Neveryon series, and so though Tales of Neveryon is not complete in itself, there is a certain pleasure in knowing that the marvelous experience of reading this first book does not have to end.

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"spyinthecab"
Excellent! Best of the Neveryon stories
Reviewed in Canada on December 11, 2001
This is the first Delaney I've read, and so far, it is also the best. Great characters, great settings, great stories. If there is anything lacking, is that the other Neveryon books aren't up to the same level. (They are also very good, but not THIS good.)
The other reveiwers have made some good points about why these stories are so good, but all I can say is read it yourself. It speaks for itself.

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R. Wallace
Poetic, if uneven
Reviewed in Canada on October 5, 2003
Delaney is a stylist; I'll give him that. His prose often
sounds like poetry. It's especially noticeable in novels like _Nova._ Unfortunately, he has a tendency to be almost
incomprehensible (try _The Einstein Intersection._) Of course, some of _this_ book, which consists of five interlocked stories, in almost incomprehensible. Delaney makes the mistake of actually thinking some of the most irrelevant French philosophers make sense--he uses their quotes to open every story. The quality is very uneven. In one story he spends pages on his theory of money, and only shows he doesn't understand what is it. Right on the heels of that one he discusses his version of [phallic] envy. The last story in the book slightly indulges Delaney's...fantasies. The first story is a pretty good introduction to a decadent society, and the politics of court life. Overall, it's a very good book, not really sword-and-sorcery, or fantasy, or science fiction. Mostly, it's just Delaney. It won't appeal to everyone.

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Christopher C.
Remarkable, if somewhat obtuse, look at civilization
Reviewed in Canada on November 12, 2000
RETURN TO NEVERYON is the first collection of Samuel R. Delaney's Neveryon short stories, set in an unspecified land in the misty past which has just come into civilization. The first four tales in this volume are more or less independent, and the fifth ties them all together.
Delaney uses the setting of a half-barbaric, half-civilized time to question and explore the institutions of modern man. Sexuality (often alternative), slavery, money (i.e. greed) and power are investigated with the result that civilization might not be the quantum leap away from barbarism that one would think. Delaney's characters, who are truly modern people, nonetheless are driven by the same primal urges that civilization is supposed to have supressed. Money is shown as a source of destruction of love between people, and matriarchy is unmasked as just as violent and cruel as pure patriarchy.
Delaney's ideas are remarkable and original, and his characters and setting are truly captivating. The one fault, however, lies in his writing. Delaney tends to drone for pages on certain themes which make him sound dry and academic, and which occasionally draw away from his superb scenery.
TALES OF NEVERYON is an okay read, and the concepts it presents are interesting, but the ho-hum writing style might destroy it for many readers.

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GeoX
Pretty good!
Reviewed in Canada on March 2, 2000
Very strange. It's not his greatest work, perhaps but Delany nonetheless is able to effectively subvert the fantasy genre for his own diabolical purposes. I'm really not sure what else to say--ya just gotta read it. I imagine some people will really loathe and despise it, and I have to admit, at times his various musings can become overly intrusive, but overall a read that I would characterize as "intriguing."
Oh, and by the way, not that anyone cares, but the September 30 '99 review of Dhalgren is mine--I've no idea why I wrote it anonymously.

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Eloquent Condemnation of Slavery
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2015
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There are elements of traditional fantasy in this book. The world of Neveryon Delaney builds is a complex, intruguing place that combines varieties of geography with a vast diversity of human conditions – from the capital city of Kolhari which changes before our eyes (and through the eyes of several of its inhabitants), all the way to the Ulvayan islands, themselves the home of at least two distinct tribes of people. And there are dragons too, though Delaney uses them very differently from traditional fantasy authors.

Yet, apart from the unfamiliar place, Delaney does something amazing. This collection of five novellas reads more like an exploration into alternatives (reflections?) of human history, or even a possible (if lost) part of actual history. It fictionalizes momentous events, such as the invention of writing, or the introduction of money in a barter economy and traces the intricate and small-scale changes of such events that begin at the personal level but that, over time, lead to radical social overhaul.

This is my kind of story. At one level, we follow each tale and gradually develop a feel for each of the characters in the story. At another level entirely, we are treated to reflections on human nature, the meaning of life, political intrigue of the most astute and professional kind, and revelations about the nature of love and desire. And quite separately from all that, Delaney’s language is measured and thoughtful, his sentences alternatively sparkling with wit, or meandering through a complex maze, to express thoughts with clarity and vividness that is a true pleasure to anyone who appreciates well-crafted language.

To me, this volume offers above all a reflection on slavery as a human condition. Slavery is ubiquitous in each of the tales and forms the narrative arch along which the lives of the characters develop. Each of the tales can be read separately and it would stand on its own. However, taken in the sequence presented, they form a progression that provides depth and allows us to see the growth (or degeneration) of some characters, to experience wonder and triumph and sorrow with them. Gorgik, enslaved as a child and, by mere chance, brought to the palace in Kolhari as the pleasure slave of the Vizerine, eventually gains his freedom. We learn that he becomes rich. We would be tempted to think that this would conclude his tale – a kind of “rags-to-riches,” “slavery-to-freedom” narrative. But Delaney surprises us by tracing a deeper pattern in the soul of the former slave – an unconscious one, perhaps, but a pattern following a beautiful logic. First, he meets his future lover, Small Sarg, whom he originally buys as a slave. In the shortest of the five tales – and the one perhaps most fraught with portents – master and slave become lovers, and Delaney offers a startling reflection on desire and love. When Sarg questions Gorgik on the necessity to keep and use the slave’s collar (even if Gorgik agrees that they can alternate wearing it), Gorgik replies, “There are people I have met in my travels who cannot eat food unless it has been held long over fire; and there are others, like me, who cannot love without some mark of possession.” Later, in a different tale, Gorgik will elaborate, “We are both free men. For the boy the collar is symbolic – of our mutual affection, our mutual protection. For myself – it is sexual – a necessary part in the pattern that allows both action and orgasm to manifest themselves within the single circle of desire.” This middle tale is also the place in which Delaney comes closest to offering an emotional evaluation of a slave’s condition. “I am already dead,” Sarg says to his Master by way of explanation of his behavior. Coming as it does from the mouth of a mere boy, this statement, equating slavery with a form of death is perhaps the most poignant emotional climax of the book.

But it does not end there. For Gorgik and Sarg begin a war on slavery. This is the story reserved for the final tale in the book. Aside from the fact that Delaney creates an awesome allegory in which a gay couple (think closet, oppression, a form of slavery to social dogma) leads a rebellion to free others from oppression – and there is a great beauty in that (and parallels to the actual history of the establishment of the first Athenian democracy) – Delaney offers more condemnations of slavery here, from a different perspective. In imploring slaves to be free once he had removed the guards and opened the doors, we can hear the urgency in Small Sarg’s voice, “I want you to understand that you’re free and I want you to move. Fools, fools, don’t you know that to stay slaves is to stay fools?”

This then, it a book that begins simply but gradually grows into a full-throated condemnation of slavery and oppression. It accomplishes this while building a complex world and giving us intriguing glimpses of other human lives and conditions. In the process, it also demonstrates how power diminishes and corrupts. Yes, in the expected tradition of fantasy, there is an epic struggle between good and evil. But evil is not personalized here as some demonic individual. Rather, it is diffused, pervasive … almost difficult to identify. Delaney here (remember that this reads like a possible history) creates an uncomfortable parallel with contemporary society where the evils of the system (racial injustice or rigid class barriers) are diffused and seem impersonal. But in this parallel, we also see the value of personal choice, of personal action. Yes, an individual can change history. Yes, even a diffused and impersonal evil can be defeated by love and determination. I like this optimistic vision. I like it a lot.

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Andy P
just read it
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2013
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I first read these books in the 1980s and leant them out- they never came back! Sci-fi? /pre-historical fantasy/ social commentary A writer who makes you think. Just read them- you'll either love them or hate them

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shelby burns
Verbose, but fun.
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2014
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These stories are great. Great world-building, great character development, and just plain enjoyable to read. Delany likes big words, and sometimes he likes big words that don't even exist. Sometimes he spends 3 paragraphs saying absolutely nothing, but for the most part the description an the funky words add a lot of character to the story. Just watch out when Gorgik gets all metacognitive, that's a sign that you're about to read a page of long words that add nothing to the plot. However, for the most part I would definitely recommend these stories to any fantasy fan.

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Anastasia
The most lyrically beautiful prose I've ever read.
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2006
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I read "Tales of Neveryon" on the airplane. I hate flying, I get nauseous, yet reading this book turned it into a delight. I don't remember another time when I savored the words so much (Storm Constantine comes close in "Wraeththu"). I usually like action & plot, scifi, space opera, and epic fantasy, and I don't like stories, so this was a surprise. I don't know how, or what it is about it, but it was simply pleasurable to read. Here's a random paragraph:

"What a glorious and useless thing to know, she thought, yet recognizing that every joy she ever felt before had mere been some fragment of the pattern sensed dim and distant, which now, in plurality, was too great for laughter - it hardly allowed for breath, much less awe! What she had sensed, she realized as the words she could not hold away any longer finally moved in, was that the world in which images occurred was opaque, complete, and closed, though what gave it its weight and meaning was that this was not true of the space of examples, samples, symbols, models, expressions, reasons, representations and the rest - yet that everything and anything could be an image of everything and anything - the true of the false, the imaginary of the real, the useful of the useless, the helpful of the hurtful - was what gave such strength to the particular types of images that went by all those other names; that it was the organized coherence of them all which made distinguishing them possible."

The sentences are long, the paragraphs can go on for several pages, but the language just flows...

Also, make sure to read the Appendix, it's a crucial part of the book. It talks about discovering ancient tablet and deciphering the language, uncovering the story that inspired the collection of these tales. (Edit: This completely passed me by at first, but the Appedix is also written by Delany and also entirely fiction.)

This book is what made me a Delany fan. I wasn't crazy about "Babel-17" or "Nova," it's amazing how different his writing styles are. I'm yet to make another attempt to conquer "Dhalgren." But I loved "The Einstein Intersection" - it has the same musical, magical, haunting quality to it as "Tales of Neveryon."

Just writing this review and quoting the book left me a little breathless, made me want to read it again, and get the rest of Neveryon books!

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Highly Imaginative and Very Tough to Read
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2019
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Nothing glamorous about this fantasy type writing. Great storytelling about the darker side of human nature. Appreciated the author's postmodern LGBT sensitivities and feminism but a lot of the main character's actions can often be hard to digest. The characters are often complicated mix of both good and evil simultaneously. It often makes them kind of disgusting, not very likeable people. This was my first read of a Samuel Delany book. I super respect his legacy. I also found myself desiring to hear more of the characters talking and acting for themselves. I found Delany's 3rd person omnipotent narrator a little wordy, dull, and longwinded often. Still giving this 5 stars and looking forward to reading the sequel of tales.

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