Return to Neveryon (Return to Neveryon) [Paperback]

Samuel R. Delany (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1994

In his four-volume series Return to Neveryeon, 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 Neveryeonvolumes in trade paperback.

The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Neveryeon'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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 Neveryeon 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."--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."-- , New York Times Book Review

"Instead of dishing out the usual, tired mix of improbable magic and bloody mayhem, Delany weaves an intricate meditation on the nature of freedom and slavery, on the beguiling differences between love and lust . . . the prose has been so polished by wit and intellect that it fairly gleams."--San Francisco Chronicle

Review

"The Neveryeon series is a major and unclassifiable achievement in contemporary American literature." (Fredric R. Jameson )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan; Return to Neveryeon, Book 4 edition (February 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819562785
• ISBN-13: 978-0819562784
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #586,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Republication of "The Bridge of Lost Desire", June 22, 2004

By 

Douglas W. Reiss (Memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Return to Neveryon (Return to Neveryon) (Paperback)

This work was first published by the title mentioned in the review title, in 1987 (November) by St. Martins Press/New York. I have verified this by viewing the content page of "Return to Neveryon". While this is perhaps an unimportant detail, the search was sparked by the review below, and of course, my desire to find any other Samuel R. Delany (SRD) books about Neveryon (disappointed).

However, the book is a satisfying conclusion to the four published texts in the series, perhaps beginning with "Triton", mentioned briefly in one of the appendices as having a significant role in the development of what Delany (in the guise of an alter-ego K. Leslie Steiner) calles "The Modular Calculus", a philosophical attempt to construct a measure of the degree of approach of a "model of reality" (that is, a book or series of books) to the "reality" itself. Thus, one may infer that the entire Neveryon series and the book Triton, (only mentioned in passing in the appendix to the third book of the series "Flight from Neveryon") is part of a philosophical musing by the author on the nature of society, civilization and the development and nature of the self, as demonstrated by various inhabitants of the "model" or fictional world he has created. Despite these deeper philosophical conjectures, the book is a fascinating romp through what is perhaps, and perhaps not, an alternate world. Enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings it all back home, March 17, 2003

By 

Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Return to Neveryon (Return to Neveryon) (Paperback)

Delany finishes his series of Neveryon novels but focusing on the character who not only kicked off the series but has provided most of the impetus for the events in the novels, either as a main character, through cameo roles, or through an offscreen yet tangible presence. Delany's stories in this volume are less self-consciously experimental (at least in structure) than the last volume and thus come across as more conventional. They really aren't, most of them explore topics in semniotics, a subject I really don't have that great a knowledge of and as usual probably missed most of the bigger points he's trying to make. But the stories make for interesting reads on their own. The first story (which is the longest) has Gorgik, at the end of his career, tell a story about himself to a barbarian boy who could care less. This one is probably the least exciting since it's basically all monologue, but it's still entertaining and delves a bit more into the nature of perception versus reality (at least that's how I read it). The second story is a lot of fun and barely even involves Gorgik, instead telling the tale of a petty criminal, moving back and forth along his life, creating a very complex charactization, and highlighting more aspects of Delany's very intricately created culture. The last story ends the series on a high note and is a slightly rewritten version of the first story from the first volume, showing Gorgik's formative years. It's not too different from the original (if at all) I thought some sections were tweaked slightly and some parts were expanded upon more, but overall it was great the first time and it's just as good the second time. One thing that's neat about the stories is how they inform each other, there aren't explicit connections between them but the connections are there (plus the chronology goes backward, adding another level of meaning) especially between the second and last stories (the one you'd least think would be connected) and it shows a level of thought and plotting and an attention to structure that you don't normally see in fantasy. All in all, a nice cap to a fun series, one of the best pure sword and sorcery series to come along in a while. What they lacked in blood and guts they made up in imagination and pure thought and for that reason they'll stand head and shoulders over other fantasy books that seek to continue the status quo and tell the same old stories.