This is one of the furthest-out-there science fiction books I have ever read. It presupposes fundamental shifts in human culture, especially gender relations. Hlepful hint: Delany uses "woman" and "she" to refer to male-identifying humans. "He" is only used when referring to a male-identifying human object of desire. Our cultural fascination with locating political perspectives on a left-right spectrum is satirized with a system that classifies them by color. The protagonist goes on an odyssey that, by means not entirely explained, threatens the order of several societies. I had the privilege of posing a question to Mr. Delany; he described the novel as a reflection of notions of difference in contemporary America, based I imagine on his identity as a gay Black male. If you want the same old thing, pass this by. If you want a cold-water bath in sci-fi, give it a read. ( )

This is such an interesting book. If you try and canter through it, chasing the plot, you'll ride straight by all of the interest it holds. Taking it that way, a feeling of the book being something ofan aimless ramble is understandable and could lead to frustration in those who enjoy this type of reading. It can feel like there is something missing that should be compelling one through the novel. But this really rewards taking one's time. It comes across as quite an indulgent work on Delaney's part, both stylistically and because he wants to give you the whistle-stop grand tour of this setting taking in as many ideas, places and cultures as possible, then, in turns he also wants to show us the minutiae of how his characters exist in it through their interaction with each other and all of the said devised cultural and physical realities. It really pays to indulge these parts of the book in kind, allowing yourself to build a place for your mind amongst the books six thousand or world's such that when the promised narrative beats are reached, they are all the more engrossing - the inevitable coming together of the mutual "perfect erotic objects" Marq Dyeth and Rat Korga, some distance into the book; the dragon hunt; the concluding chapter and epilogue. These are where Delaney's style feels strongest and are a joy to read. The other frustration with this novel that can't go unencumbered is that it was originally part one of two, but Delaney has confirmed that the second part will not be written. Whilst the book stands alone perfectly adequately, the last quarter really gives the impression of teetering on the verge of even greater things to come so it's a shame we'll never see it. ( )

The novel was as weird and good as I remembered. Knowing that the proposed sequel will never be written, I wasn't as disappointed this time around. Ironically, this edition includes an essay by Delany defending science fiction even though he pretty much stopped writing in the genre in the last 10 years. ( )

After enjoying Delany's Babel-17, I really wanted to like this novel. However, I think that it was partly sabotaged by timing: I started to read this so soon after reading his book About Writing that I couldn't help but critique this book... and using his own criteria for whether to keep reading a book, I found this one lacking. I might return to it later, when his literary criticisms aren't so fresh in my mind, but I can't separate the two right now. ~ DNF @11%

In general I do not trust reviews because the taste of the reviewer might be completely different to mine. But because this book had quite a lot of positive reviews and I wanted to read something Science Fiction I read it.

Complex for the sake of complexity. Boring, utter boring. 90% of the book is pretty much useless writing. There is no story, no progress, just nothing.

The prologue is very interesting and I thought, well that will be a good read, but I was utter wrong. Once the main story starts it is just one long ride downhill. There is a middle part that moves some aspect of a story and the end has a bit if interest, but in general this book is utter boring crap.

If there is one thing I will take away from this book it is that in the future sex is something you do between tasks you need to do. Like getting home quickly, there is always time for a shag.

At the end I just link to this review which describes this book very well: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/96780273?book_show_action=true&page=1 ( )