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A review by aleffert
Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany
3.0
The best part of this book is Delany's amazing beard in the author photo at the end of the edition I read. Delany is one of my favorite authors. [b:Dhalgren|85867|Dhalgren|Samuel R. Delany|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320531180s/85867.jpg|873021] is one of the most amazing things ever written and [b:Babel-17|1199688|Babel-17|Samuel R. Delany|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1257546421s/1199688.jpg|13612561] and [b:Nova|85863|Nova|Samuel R. Delany|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320491578s/85863.jpg|953787] are brilliant and also a helluva good time.
So when I didn't like this book, I suspect this is as much a reflection on me as it is on the quality of the book itself. Delany, in addition to deconstructing a whole bunch of ideas about sociology, politics, and gender, is trying to flip a bunch of Science Fiction tropes on their head. There's a major war going on, but it's just background. The protagonist wants to be a traditional hero but the world is not set up for that kind of nonsense. The info-dumps lectures are about non-sensical logical theories, instead of the details of the society, which are instead snuck into the narrative. What this results in a sometimes tedious, semi-plotless book that is deliberately about an asshole.
Delany wants you to contrast it with [b:The Dispossessed|13651|The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle, #5)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353467455s/13651.jpg|2684122] which he has a wonderful essay about, taking apart its embedded assumptions about gender and sex. But coming away, all I could think of was, The Dispossessed was a much better read. I kind of feel like I shouldn't be evaluating things just on how enjoyable they are, but also about the ideas, and the structure, but it's hard to look deeper a book you didn't enjoy reading.
Of course it's a Delany book so the prose often crackles and there's more going on in his bad books than in most people's good ones. If you've read something else by him, it's definitely worth a look, but otherwise try Babel-17 or Nova.
So when I didn't like this book, I suspect this is as much a reflection on me as it is on the quality of the book itself. Delany, in addition to deconstructing a whole bunch of ideas about sociology, politics, and gender, is trying to flip a bunch of Science Fiction tropes on their head. There's a major war going on, but it's just background. The protagonist wants to be a traditional hero but the world is not set up for that kind of nonsense. The info-dumps lectures are about non-sensical logical theories, instead of the details of the society, which are instead snuck into the narrative. What this results in a sometimes tedious, semi-plotless book that is deliberately about an asshole.
Delany wants you to contrast it with [b:The Dispossessed|13651|The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle, #5)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353467455s/13651.jpg|2684122] which he has a wonderful essay about, taking apart its embedded assumptions about gender and sex. But coming away, all I could think of was, The Dispossessed was a much better read. I kind of feel like I shouldn't be evaluating things just on how enjoyable they are, but also about the ideas, and the structure, but it's hard to look deeper a book you didn't enjoy reading.
Of course it's a Delany book so the prose often crackles and there's more going on in his bad books than in most people's good ones. If you've read something else by him, it's definitely worth a look, but otherwise try Babel-17 or Nova.