Customer Reviews

They Fly at Ciron

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I began reading "They Fly at Ciron" expecting a social commentary, and I'd heard good things about Delany as a writer so was expecting something special; and the first few bits of the story were actually rather interesting. However, as I continued reading the story turned from interesting social commentary to something right out of an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. The story started to feel like an incomplete, immature rough draft, and was full of inconsistencies and holes. Delany mentions in the preface that "They Fly at Ciron" is a re-worked version of one of his earliest stories. It rather seems to me he should have worked on it a little bit more. There's the skeleton of a good story, but it doesn't quite seem finished yet. I gave up half-way through.

"They Fly at Ciron" is another suprising novel from a little known but excellent sci-fi writter. Even while's not my favourite Delany book, this story of a "ancient" civilization which meets a much more technologically-advanced one is a book i rediscover every once in a while. An excellent read.

In this Delaney novel a vicious, technologically superior invader crushes a village which knows nothing of murder, much less war.

Expanded from a 1961 short story, the utopian-style village is almost painfully dated. Nevertheless, this short novel is fun to read, primarily for its lively writing and the ingenuity of its technologically innocent characters - brawny Rahm, the clever wily garbage man Qualt and the singer Naa.

Their guerilla tactics of sabotage are enhanced by the aid of a flying sentient race that lives in the mountain tops and has a culture somewhere between vicious and benign.

The allegorical elements are simplistic but the action seldom falters.

A Myetran army advances and slaughters nearly everyone in its path. One of the officers, Kire, struggles to obey his conscience rather than his commander. At Ciron, where the local villagers are a peaceful lot, the Myetrans think they've gained the upper hand, but one of the Cironians named Rahm begins to fight back. By enlisting the aid of the Winged Ones, Rahm and a few of his fellow villagers defeat the army, and find themselves changed in the bargain. There are a lot of themes being addressed here, and not all are successfully elaborated. Delany hints at a lot of things (sexuality, politics, the nature of patriotism, etc), but ultimately glosses over some things in an effort to make the story streamlined. It's a good book overall, and well worth reading. After getting over the slow start, I was rather enthralled, especially by the low key sensuality throughout the story. I'd never really read anything by Delany before, and this book intrigued me enough to check out other books by him.

I did not enjoy this book at all. After reading it, I could care less about any of the chracters in it. I had to struggle to get to the end.