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lillian_'s review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
piperita's review against another edition
4.0
Personal rating: 5 stars. In a grand scheme of objective things, I'm not sure if this is indeed a 5-star book, as there are some narrative issues (which I will expand upon) that are somewhat clumsy that do diminish the quality of this book objectively. But subjectively I think I was blown away by this enough to give it the extra star-and-a-tidbit that maybe it doesn't entirely deserve.
It is still very much everything Samuel R. Delany is known for - a narrative that focuses on a particular concept (in this case, Delany's undying fascination with linguistics and cultural anthropology) and uses the plot and the characters to unpack it. Joneny is a student of anthropology stuck on having to write a report on a number of cultures. In the manner of every hot-headed young student, he singles out one of them and attempts to persuade his professor that he should not have to waste his time on researching such an insignificant culture - which, he argues, has contributed nothing but simple poems about things that they never actually experienced. His professor, like every good anthropologist and mentor, challenges him to prove himself wrong.
From personal experience of working in research (both medical and anthropological), Joneny's indignation over having to unpack his own biases and self-centered perspectives is sadly rather representative of a common flaw that constantly resurfaces in the academic community (young and old). For this alone, this book is, in a way, timeless in its value. Assuming nothing and observing carefully, to resolve an intellectual mystery, is proper science; and a science fiction book is an excellent vessel for stories about the scientific mindset.
The characters in this book are actually quite strong; I could mostly believe their emotional journeys, other than the bits where the narrative ran over some development for the sake of brevity. For a book written in 1965 is also has a very delightful subversion of a common trope that plagued female characters in science fiction almost non-stop even to this day.
The downfalls of this book is Delany's desire to keep it short; in the foreword of the edition I read, he described this as the book that he had written while bogged down and burned out in the middle of a seemingly endless trilogy, so he distracted himself by writing this to "remind himself how to end things." I don't think the reminder was so much about plot structure as it was about typing out the page with a big ol' "The End" attached to it. The biggest emotional point in the story is resolved more with the author's assertion that it is resolved rather than actually seeing it resolved; it is only rescued by the fact that the entire arc is seen through the eyes of Joneny, for whom that stunted emotional point is also extremely meaningful and serves to end his emotional journey that we have seen developing since the beginning of the book. Some of the passages, either due to Delany's then-lack of experience, or again due to the desire to keep it short, cheekily reveal too much too quickly to speed the story along. It is very readable and believeable until you start thinking about why the character would reveal such a thing so early, and then the suspension of disbelief gets shattered. But if you just accept that the book is kept short for the sake of shortness it is still quite enjoyable.
After finishing reading this book, I went out and found an original copy (from 1965) to add to my collection. Suffice it to say, I highly recommend it.
It is still very much everything Samuel R. Delany is known for - a narrative that focuses on a particular concept (in this case, Delany's undying fascination with linguistics and cultural anthropology) and uses the plot and the characters to unpack it. Joneny is a student of anthropology stuck on having to write a report on a number of cultures. In the manner of every hot-headed young student, he singles out one of them and attempts to persuade his professor that he should not have to waste his time on researching such an insignificant culture - which, he argues, has contributed nothing but simple poems about things that they never actually experienced. His professor, like every good anthropologist and mentor, challenges him to prove himself wrong.
From personal experience of working in research (both medical and anthropological), Joneny's indignation over having to unpack his own biases and self-centered perspectives is sadly rather representative of a common flaw that constantly resurfaces in the academic community (young and old). For this alone, this book is, in a way, timeless in its value. Assuming nothing and observing carefully, to resolve an intellectual mystery, is proper science; and a science fiction book is an excellent vessel for stories about the scientific mindset.
The characters in this book are actually quite strong; I could mostly believe their emotional journeys, other than the bits where the narrative ran over some development for the sake of brevity. For a book written in 1965 is also has a very delightful subversion of a common trope that plagued female characters in science fiction almost non-stop even to this day.
Spoiler
In the mysterious-pregnancy-with-an-alien, the female character who gets pregnant is a respected and intelligent captain of the one of the ships; not only is she treated as an equal by the entity, she is given the choice of whether she wants the pregnancy or not, and her reasons for accepting it are not "all women secretly just want to have babies" but rather a considerably more masculine "I will have hundreds of descendants who fulfill my greatest desire - a human race built to survive among the stars". Oh also she gets the fetus transferred to a gestation tank because she doesn't want to actually carry the pregnancy to term. No big deal.The downfalls of this book is Delany's desire to keep it short; in the foreword of the edition I read, he described this as the book that he had written while bogged down and burned out in the middle of a seemingly endless trilogy, so he distracted himself by writing this to "remind himself how to end things." I don't think the reminder was so much about plot structure as it was about typing out the page with a big ol' "The End" attached to it. The biggest emotional point in the story is resolved more with the author's assertion that it is resolved rather than actually seeing it resolved; it is only rescued by the fact that the entire arc is seen through the eyes of Joneny, for whom that stunted emotional point is also extremely meaningful and serves to end his
After finishing reading this book, I went out and found an original copy (from 1965) to add to my collection. Suffice it to say, I highly recommend it.
cebolla's review against another edition
3.0
Samuel Delany would probably be one of my first choices of people to lock myself in a room with and drop a bunch of acid. Hogg and Dhalgren messed with my mind so hard that I wasn't able to think clearly for months afterwords. Times Square Red, Times Square Blue opened up new pathways in my mind. The Ballad of Beta 2 though, wasn't quite as life altering.
I like the premise of the book, I like the trip it took me on, and I like that it made my use my imagination--this book was quite obviously written by a genius. However, it seems to me like he tried to hard, like maybe he was trying to see how many novels he could write in a single month and just banged this one out.
To be fair, if almost anyone else in the world had written this book, I would have probably given it four stars, but I hold Chip to a higher standard.
I like the premise of the book, I like the trip it took me on, and I like that it made my use my imagination--this book was quite obviously written by a genius. However, it seems to me like he tried to hard, like maybe he was trying to see how many novels he could write in a single month and just banged this one out.
To be fair, if almost anyone else in the world had written this book, I would have probably given it four stars, but I hold Chip to a higher standard.
justiceofkalr's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really cool idea, and I really wish the book was longer and explored it more. 12 generation ships set out to take humanity to the stars, but relatively shortly after they leave humans develop a better mode of inter-stellar travel and arrive at the destination long before the generation ships arrive. So by the time the surviving generation ships arrive they've developed very differently and are pretty much quarantined and left to live their lives on their ships apart from the rest of humanity. An anthropology student goes to the ships to investigate a ballad about one of the generation ships and finds out what happened to the ships during their long voyage.
7hm's review
4.0
Short, but does a lot in its 100 odd pages. The conceit of how the historical record is saved doesn’t make a ton of sense but the idea of an anthropologist learning about the moment of first contact was good. And I love that even at the end he’s a little shit who can only focus on his original thesis idea and what the discovery means for that.
radiator_phillip's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
francis4ever's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
marenjk's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
What a unexpected, spooky little gem - I can see the politics and social movement of the 60s in this novel, and it's not a bad thing. It's a quick read with prose that draws you through, effectively illustrating the life of a post-mortem world with space epistolary.
It's short but the time I'm going to spend thinking about it will be very long.
It's short but the time I'm going to spend thinking about it will be very long.