Samuel R Delany

A dragon herder embarks on a quest to bring his beloved back from the dead in this Nebula Award–winning science fiction adventure.
The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are “different” must deal with the dominant cultural...

Six essays from the critic and award-winning author exploring topics such as theater, LGBTQ+ scholarship, cyborgs, metaphors, and Star Wars.
“Reading is a many-layered process—like writing,” observes Samuel R. Delany, a Nebula and Hugo Award–winning author and a major commentator on American literature and culture. In this collection of six extended essays, Delany challenges what he calls “the hard-edged...

From the four-time Nebula Award–winning author, an indispensable work of science fiction criticism, revised and expanded.
Samuel R. Delany’s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw appeared originally in 1977, and is now long out of print and hard to find. The impact of its demonstration that science fiction was a special language, rather than just gadgets and green-skinned aliens, began reverberations still felt in science fiction criticism....

A revised and expanded edition of a classic work of criticism exploring how science fiction is not about the future but about the potential of the present.
In Starboard Wine, Samuel R. Delany explores the implications of his now-famous assertion that science fiction is not about the future. Rather, it uses the future as a means of talking about the present and its potentiality. By recognizing a text’s specific “difference,”...

In a universe where information flows freely, lack of knowledge can be cataclysmic With a burst of radiation to the brain, an angry young man is transformed into a dim-witted slave-suitable only for the most brutal work. But the tragedy of Rat Korga is the prologue to the story of Marq Dyeth, an "industrial diplomat," who travels from world to world in this exciting, sprawling future, solving problems that come with the spread of "General Information."...

A breakneck race through tomorrow's marvels In 3172, the universe is divided between three political units: the stars and worlds of Draco, with Earth as its power center; the Pleiades Federation, on whose capital world, New Ark, lives the incredibly wealthy Von Ray family, descended from well-heeled merchants whose ancestors made their fortune as pirates; and the Outer Colonies, where, in their underwater mines, tiny quantities of the fabulously valuable...

Three groundbreaking novels from the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Famer and SFWA Grand Master. Babel-17 : Rydra Wong is the most popular poet in the five settled galaxies, capturing the mood of mankind after two decades of war. Now, a new weapon has been unleashed against humanity. Random attacks strike without warning, tied together by broadcast strings of sound. In that gibberish, Rydra recognizes a...

Essays, lectures, and interviews from the iconic, award-winning author and critic.
Samuel R. Delany is an acclaimed writer of literary theory, queer literature, and fiction. His “prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters,” wrote novelist Jordy Rosenberg in the New York Times in 2019. This anthology of essays, lectures, and interviews addresses topics such as 9/11, race,...

In a war-riven world, why will saving humanity require . . . a poet? At twenty-six, Rydra Wong is the most popular poet in the five settled galaxies. Almost telepathically perceptive, she has written poems that capture the mood of mankind after two decades of savage war. Since the invasion, Earth has endured famine, plague, and cannibalism-but its greatest catastrophe will be Babel-17. Sabotage threatens to undermine the war effort, and the military...

On the edge of history, civilization emerges from chaos A boy of the bustling, colorful docks of port Kolhari, during a political coup, fifteen-year-old Gorgik, once his parents are killed, is taken a slave and transported to the government obsidian mines at the foot of the Faltha mountains. When, in the savagely primitive land of Nevèrÿon, finally he wins his freedom, Gorgik is ready to lead a rebellion against the rulers of this barely civilized...