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angorarabbit's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Drug use, Rape, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Racism, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Gun violence
Children as young as 7 are living in unsanitary, unsafe conditions with no parent or guardian. The dog does not die and is not injured.lizawall's review against another edition
5.0
Free your mind! Reading this made me really feel like I felt the feeling of 1968-1972. Just like, washed-out, disorienting, thrilling, exhausting. I felt turned on, confused, a little bit nervous but even more like I wanted a nap. What a ride!
grayjay's review against another edition
5.0
A young man with a faulty memory arrives in the city of Bellona. He rembers growing up on a reservation and he remembers being treated for depression, but he doesn't know his name and he has some confusion about his past.
Bellona is a city that's gone through some kind of disaster—maybe bombing, race riots, metadimensional space-time rift??—no radio or television comes in or out of the city, it is covered in thick smoke, there are still frequent fires, the population has gone from two million to about two thousand, and the rest of the country seems to have forgotten about it.
There are discussions about sex, gender, race, society, politics, religion, art, mental health, memory, consciousness, and more.
The novel is fairly episodic, "the Kid" meeting various characters, developing friendships, having adventures, and exploring the city. In the end, the novel circles round and become the beginning again, making you question all of the answers you think you've found.
There is quite a lot of sex in the book. Kid has many partners—men, women, teenagers, sometimes more than one at a time. A lot of the novel is about his relationships, how he navigates them, how he treats people. There is definitely some problematic emotional and sexual violence. There is a very graphic (consentual) gangbang scene. Also the sex with teenagers thing bothered me.
This and several other things make this a challenging book—it's a door stopper at 800 pages, and while main register is a fairly straightforward third person omniscient, it frequently dips and swerves into a surreal, modernist stream-of-conscience. There were sections I had to re-read to understand.
I think I landed on loving it, even for it's challenges. It's not often that I find a book so challenging also to be a page turner.
Bellona is a city that's gone through some kind of disaster—maybe bombing, race riots, metadimensional space-time rift??—no radio or television comes in or out of the city, it is covered in thick smoke, there are still frequent fires, the population has gone from two million to about two thousand, and the rest of the country seems to have forgotten about it.
There are discussions about sex, gender, race, society, politics, religion, art, mental health, memory, consciousness, and more.
The novel is fairly episodic, "the Kid" meeting various characters, developing friendships, having adventures, and exploring the city. In the end, the novel circles round and become the beginning again, making you question all of the answers you think you've found.
There is quite a lot of sex in the book. Kid has many partners—men, women, teenagers, sometimes more than one at a time. A lot of the novel is about his relationships, how he navigates them, how he treats people. There is definitely some problematic emotional and sexual violence. There is a very graphic (consentual) gangbang scene. Also the sex with teenagers thing bothered me.
This and several other things make this a challenging book—it's a door stopper at 800 pages, and while main register is a fairly straightforward third person omniscient, it frequently dips and swerves into a surreal, modernist stream-of-conscience. There were sections I had to re-read to understand.
I think I landed on loving it, even for it's challenges. It's not often that I find a book so challenging also to be a page turner.
s___'s review against another edition
5.0
Some parts felt a bit above my pay grade, but glad I stuck with it all the way through. Something feels odd about giving 5 stars to something I seemingly understood so little of, but that feels like a large part of what captivated me.
roboxa's review against another edition
1.0
Uff. Nope. I respect that Delany is considered one of the greats of science fiction, and I've read Delany before and liked it, but no. I gave up. It took me over a year to get not even 300 pages in. I hated the writing. I hated the style. It was both repetitive and meandering in all the wrong ways. It felt like stream of consciousness at times, but then wasn't in others.
I should of quit earlier on and kind of regret not admitting defeat about six months ago.
I should of quit earlier on and kind of regret not admitting defeat about six months ago.
katj3x's review against another edition
2.0
Given all the reviews and comparisons, I was surprised to find I didn't care for this — found the prose too strained, all threads too thin to keep me going.
brookejessopx's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
isoka's review against another edition
zero plot, and the main character has no personality.