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tonegroan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
soapythebum's review against another edition
1.0
Not very good. I found the main character to be a Mary Sue and it was very dated.
thegingeralex's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
toboldlygoat's review against another edition
3.0
This was a playground of cool ideas, but I was frustrated by how little they mattered to the actual story. I love that the protagonist and spaceship captain of a 1966 novel was a bisexual Asian woman, but she was inhumanly perfect (famous poet, unparalleled linguist, genius strategist, Aikido blackbelt, telepathic, so beautiful everyone falls instantly in love with her, and so charismatic that she transforms the lives of everyone she meets) and experienced no character development, so it was hard to feel invested.
ipsograph's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Imaginative and quick linguistic thought experiment that is shockingly progressive for being written in 1966! onestly felt more in line w/ contemporary scifi. More of a short story which is unfortunate because I would've enjoyed a deeper dive into the concepts that are sketched out. A fun and refreshing, if brief, read.
lsparrow's review against another edition
4.0
All the things I love about sci fi- where I question myself, my and our culture's assumptions and leave with some questions not completely answered.
tricapra's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. This was my first Delany experience, and I was very pleasantly surprised. In some ways, this book didn't feel dated at all, despite its 1966 release date. I'm never particularly bothered by old or outdated tech in sci-fi concepts, because hey, that's gonna happen. There were a few humorous moments relating to this -- hamburgers and fries being considered High Cuisine that far in the future. Outrageously progressive for its time, the only eyebrow-raising terminology was Delany's use of "Oriental" to describe Asian folks, but at the same time it only came up a few times because he included so many Asian characters. In 1966. I love his vision of outrageous cosmetic surgery and animal features being commonplace and simple to do, and the social expectation of triad and quad-LGBT pairings instead of monogamous heterosexual pairings. The concept was lovely as well, a language that literally changes your perception of the world and even time, a poet assembling a crew to solve the mystery of it, and an amnesiac criminal who ties the two things together. Unfortunately, I found myself zoning out at times. The worldbuilding and character development felt incidental and more there to show the "neat" ideas Delany had come up with for this book, however it was only his second novel and was written when he was like... 20? So I'm sure he improves those aspects in his later works. I'll be checking out Dhalgren next.