Gay Science Fiction discussion

I have decided to read Samuel R. Delany's novels in toto and in publication order. To that end I started his 1st novel The Jewels of Aptor written when he was only 19. What a wordsmith at such a young age—a prodigy for sure!

"Chip" as his friends call him is a 69 y/o Gay author of 'Literary' Science Fiction.He's won four Nebula awards and two Hugo award . He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002.

He is currently professor of English and Creative Writing at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is Director of the Graduate Creative Writing Program.

His books are complex, many novels inter-related and require a lot of reader involvement. Most have Gay characters and gay threads. He has a tendency to revise novels, like Gaiman, so it is a good idea to research editions before deciding which to read.

There is a good wikipedia article on him and individual articles on most of his fiction.

I love Delany and his Dhalgren is an all time favorite, full of secrets yet to be discovered. Is anyone else a Delany fan?

He's still on my enormously long reading list waiting to get read. I was reading ABOUT him earlier though (researching #)(*@#% fantasy bookshelf definitions). They were saying that his more recent works were more and more academic, or maybe they meant philosophical. I'm reading Disciples of Goedric right now. That will take me a while.

I've only read his short stories which appeared in my late 80's/early 90's Analog magazines.

Super writings, nonetheless :)

I guess i'm bumping this 'cause i feel tha delany deserves a bit more discussion. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand remains one of my stranded island books, but i am saving Dhalgren for summer reading. Fascinating stuff he writes - layered as it is. Perhaps we can have a group discussion about one of his shorter works...Nova or Triton. Cshould write more but its difficult on nook :)

I just received his newest novel in the mail Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, an 804 page monster in trade PB. I really wanted a hardcover—perhaps when the revised edition comes out years hence ;-)

Now what do I do: continue reading in order or read this next? One of life's little conundrums. It is certainly Gay and explicit as a random page read showed. A read will be necessary to determine other genres.

I read and reviewed The Ballad of Beta-2 and have finished but not reviewed Empire Star yet. It did giver me some new ideas about Dhalgren.

I'm taking a break to read some Gay fiction that's been laying around for awhile.

Kernos wrote: "I just received his newest novel in the mail Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, an 804 page monster in trade PB. I really wanted a hardcover—perhaps when the revised edition..."

wow how can i also get trade TB in my mail for free?

Mine wasn't free, I pre-ordered it from Amazon last year.

Kernos wrote: "I just received his newest novel in the mail Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, an 804 page monster in trade PB. I really wanted a hardcover—perhaps when the revised edition comes out years..."

i had no idea about this one! i guess it just became available on B&N. I wanted to read Stars in my Pocket again then dive into Dhalgren, but 800 pages of his freshest work sounds very appealing.

I read Dhalgren when I was 13, which was probably too young. I know I missed a lot of stuff but I was looking for something akin to Dune; meaning big and thick, something to sink my teeth into so to speak. I keep intending to read it again, but it keeps getting pushed back. I really enjoyed it. I'm currently reading Lovecraft again in the order he wrote his stories, so maybe after I'm done there, I'll try reading Delany as you're doing.