Best Selling Books by Samuel R. Delany

Cultural Writing. Memoir. HEAVENLY BREAKFAST is Samuel R. Delaney''s wise and vivid essay on urban communes and cooperatives in the winter of ''Sixty-seven/''Sixty-eight. It examines their function, structure, permanence, and impermanence as precisely as a sociological study. Because its method is narrative and anecdotal, however, it reads like a passionate memoir--a marvelous document from an extraordinary time. Based on journals he kept at the time, these pages recount his encounters with other communes and experimental living arrangements-some gentle, some brutal; of encounters between those inside and those outside the countercultural life; of idealism and hopes pushing against a resistant reality.

When a peaceful nation of well-organized peasants is overrun by the army of an expanding industrialized neighbour, the people of Çiron must forge a pact with the strange and fearsome race of flying humans dwelling high above in the mountains.

"Delany has a grasp of the evolutionary nature of mythology, a subtle comic touch, and a lyric sense of the outsider making his unorthodox way in the world--or worlds--that give his work a dimension unusual..."

Essays about science fiction.

A theorist and cultural critic on race, sexuality, science fiction, and the art of writing.

Written by black, gay science-fiction writer, professor, and theorist Samuel R. Delany, and drawn by artist/martial arts instructor Mia Wolff, Bread & Wine is a graphic autobiography that flashes back to the unlikely story of how Delany befriend ed Dennis, and how they became an enduring couple―Delany, a professor at Philadelphia’s Temple University, Dennis, an intelligent man living on the streets. For casual readers and fans, Bread & Wine is a moving, sexually charged love story, with visuals informed by Wolff’s professional physical pursuits. Her black-and-white, pen-and-ink work not only expressionistically represents the characters’ “body language” and the bustling New York setting, but is also filled with impish art references and visual puns. The scholarly potential for the book, based on the poem “Bread and Wine” by the German lyric poet Friedrich Holderlin, not only encompasses queer, African-American, and graphic novel studies, but also exploration in the literary and paraliterary academic fields. This edition includes an introduction by Watchmen writer Alan Moore, commentary by the book’s protagonists, Delany and Dennis, and a new interview with Delany and Wolff.

Captives of the Flame by Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany is an acclaimed writer of literary theory, queer literature, and fiction. His works have fundamentally altered the terrain of science fiction (SF) through their formally consummate and materially grounded explorations of difference. This anthology of essays, talks, and interviews addresses topics such as sex and sexuality, race, power, literature and genre, as well as Herman Melville, John Ashbery, Willa Cather, Junot Diaz, and others. The second of two volumes, this book gathers more than twenty-five pieces on films, poetry, and science fiction. This diverse collection displays the power of a towering literary intelligence. It is a rich trove of essays, as well as a map to the mind of one of the great writers of our time.

Celebrate classic novels of the New Wave era of sci-fi with this second collectable science fiction anthology from Library of America. Presenting 4 underrated science fiction classics from a tumultuous time in American history—including works by iconic Black author Samuel R. Delany and feminist Joanna Russ. In R. A. Lafferty’s utterly idiosyncratic and uncategorizable Past Master (1968), Renaissance philosopher Thomas More is summoned to Golden Astrobe in the year 2535: Can he save the planet’s troubled utopia from its soulless technological perfection and ensure the survival of the faith? Joanna Russ introduces one of SF’s first and most engaging female adventurers in her taut and edgy debut novel Picnic on Paradise (1968): the tough, sardonic, unforgettable Alyx, an ancient Phoenician mercenary teleported into the future to serve as guide and bodyguard for a band of stranded space tourists. The first African American writer to make a name for himself in the genre, Samuel R. Delany was hailed as “the best science-fiction writer in the world” on the basis of Nova (1968), a white-hot, fast-paced, protocyberpunk interstellar adventure featuring a misfit crew on a high-stakes quest. Stumbling on a mysterious ancient text among his father’s belongings, the son of a master woodcarver uncovers the key to revolutionary change in Jack Vance’s Emphyrio (1969), a marvel of craftsmanship and visionary world-building set on remote, feudal, theocratic Halma.

In the fourth volume in the Why I Write series, the iconic Samuel Delany remembers fifty years of writing and shaping the world of speculative fiction "Delany''s prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters."--Jordy Rosenberg, New York Times "He dispenses wisdom about craft--including the demanding revision process his dyslexia requires--but most moving are the moments when he sheds light on connections he has made with other readers and writers. . . . Delany''s fans are in for a treat."--Publishers Weekly, starred review Language is the way humans deal with past, present, and future possibilities, as well as the subset called the probable. This is where Samuel Delany finds his justification for the writing life. Since the 1960s, occurrences such as Sputnik, school desegregation, and the advent of AIDS have given Delany, as a gay man, as a black man, access to certain truths and facts he could write about, and the language--sometimes fiction, sometimes nonfiction--in which to present them. "We write," Delany believes, "at the intersection of your experience and mine in a way, I hope, that allows recognition."

A father must come to terms with his son''s death in the war. In Venice an architecture student commits a crime of passion. A white southern airport loader tries to do a favor for a black northern child. The ordinary stuff of ordinary fiction--but with a difference! These tales take place twenty-five, fifty, a hundred-fifty years from now, when men and women have been given gills to labor under the sea. Huge repair stations patrol the cables carrying power to the ends of the earth. Telepathic and precocious children so passionately yearn to visit distant galaxies that they''ll kill to go. Brilliantly crafted, beautifully written, these are Samuel Delany''s award-winning stories, like no others before or since.

The balance of galactic power in the 31st century revolves around Illyrion, the most precious energy source in the universe. The varied and exotic crew who sign up with Captain Lorq van Ray know their mission is dangerous, and they soon learn that they are involved in a deadly race with the charismatic but vicious leader of an opposing space federation. But they have no idea of Lorq''s secret obsession: to gather Illyrion at source by flying through the very heart of an imploding star.

A four-volume “postmodern sword-and-sorcery” epic from a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author (The Washington Post Book World). Tales of Nevèrÿon: After his parents are killed during a political coup, Gorgik is taken into captivity and forced to work the government obsidian mines in Nevèrÿon’s Faltha Mountains. Years later, he is sold to serve one of the royal families, and eventually the army. When he is finally free, he leads a rebellion against Nevèrÿon’s rulers to end the tyranny of slavery. Neveryóna: Or, The Tale of Signs and Cities: One of the few in Nevèrÿon who can read and write, Pryn escapes her village on the back of a dragon. On her journey across the civil war–torn land, Pryn has a fateful encounter with Gorgik the Liberator, whom she finds herself fighting beside in his war against slavery. Flight from Nevèrÿon: A smuggler, witness, and worshipper of Gorgik the Liberator follows his idol’s bloody trail on a quest to meet him. But a disease has ravaged Nevèrÿon. Men, rich and poor, are dying. The illness seems to have first come from the Bridge of Lost Desire, a hangout for male and female prostitutes, and is spreading fast. With no hope of recovery or cure, it will change Nevèrÿon’s sexual and political landscape forever. Return to Nevèrÿon: Slavery is outlawed and the land is finally free. At a deserted castle in the countryside, as Gorgik the Liberator regales a young barbarian about his deeds, he prepares to return to the mines where his own slavery began for one final battle.

"Originally published as by Edward P. Bradbury [in 1965 with the title Barbarians of Mars]."

A comprehensive expansion of the theoretical writings of one of our most important cultural critics.

"For nearly thirty years, in his fiction and non-fiction, Samuel R. Delaney has explored to the roots various realms of discourse: sociteies, language, sexualities ... and the ever-shifting interpenetrations, transgressions, limitations, and dissolutions that play and replay between them. Now he turns his unflinching critical eye to the most mysterious realm of all: his own life, writing, and soul.":--Dust jacket flap.

Science fiction-roman.

18 short stories take us to the end of the world in this anthology of post-apocalyptic fiction featuring bestselling authors like Emily St. John Mandel, China Miéville, Samuel R. Delaney, Clive Barker, and more! In the moments when it all comes crashing down, what will we value the most, and how will we save it? Featuring new and exclusive post-apocalyptic short stories, as well as classics of the genre, editor Preston Grassmann takes us through the fall and beyond—to the things that are created after. This anthology includes stories by: • China Miéville • Emily St. John Mandel • Clive Barker • Carmen Maria Machado • Charlie Jane Anders • Samuel R. Delaney • Ramsey Campbell, • Lavie Tidhar • Kaaron Warrern • Anna Tambour • Nina Allan • Jeffrey Thomas • Paul Di Filippo • Ron Drummond • Nikhil Singh • John Skipp • Autumn Christian • Chris Kelso • Rumi Kaneko • Nick Mamatas • D.R.G. Sugawara Calling on the finest traditions of post-apocalyptic fiction, this anthology asks us what makes us human, and who we will be when we emerge out of the ruins?

Written by Dennis O''Neil, Samuel L. Delany, Bob Haney and Robert Kanigher Cover by Dick Giordano Art by Don Heck, Dick Giordano and Jim Aparo Diana teams up with detectives Johnny Double and Batman in in this final volume of Wonder Woman''s plainclothes adventures from the early 1970s. Collecting WONDER WOMAN #199-204 and THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #105 Advance-solicited; on sale February 18 - 176 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Hours of great reading await, with tales from some of the 20th century''s most renowned science fiction authors, Here are 25 science fiction stories (plus a bonus short-short): UNKNOWN THINGS, by Reginald Bretnor CAPTIVES OF THE FLAME, by Samuel R. Delany EXPEDITER, by Mack Reynolds ONE-SHOT, by James Blish SHIPWRECK IN THE SKY, by Eando Binder ZEN, by Jerome Bixby LANCELOT BIGGS COOKS A PIRATE, by Nelson Bond SENTIMENT, INC., by Poul Anderson THE ISSAHAR ARTIFACTS, by J. F. Bone THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP, by Ben Bova YEAR OF THE BIG THAW, by Marion Zimmer Bradley EARTHMEN BEARING GIFTS, by Fredric Brown HAPPY ENDING, by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds LIGHTER THAN YOU THINK, by Nelson Bond RIYA’S FOUNDLING, by Algis Budrys ACCIDENTAL DEATH, by Peter Baily AND ALL THE EARTH A GRAVE, by C. C. MacApp DEAD RINGER, by Lester del Rey THE CRYSTAL CRYPT, by Philip K. Dick THE JUPITER WEAPON, by Charles L. Fontenay THE MAN WHO HATED MARS, by Randall Garrett NAVY DAY, by Harry Harrison THE JUDAS VALLEY, by Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett NATIVE SON, by T. D. Hamm JUBILEE, by Richard A. Lupoff FINAL CALL, by John Gregory Betancourt And don''t forget to check out all the other volumes in the "Megapack" series! Search on "Megapack" in the ebook store to see the complete list...covering more science fiction volumes, plus adventure stories, military, fantasy, ghost stories, westerns, and much more!

If one street in America can claim to be the most infamous, it is surely Forty-second Street. Once known for its peep shows, street corner hustlers, and movie houses, Forty-second Street has been overwhelmed by the quest for safety - from safe sex and safe neighborhoods to safe cities and safe relationships. Now defined by corporate theme stores and large, neon-lit cafes, Forty-second Street has, in effect, become a family tourist attraction for visitors from Berlin, Tokyo, Westchester County, and the New Jersey suburbs.

Bread & Wine is Samuel R. Delany''s autobiographical graphic novel about how he met a homeless man, Dennis, who became his partner.

"Samuel R. Delany is not only one of the most profound and courageous writers at work today; he is a writer of seemingly limitless range." --Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE HOURS "A deeply affecting chronicle of a lifelong partnership, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is by turns generous, unsparing and bursting with life (and sex) in all its difficult, rousing, prismatic splendor. A truly staggering achievement, this moving novel underscores why Delany remains essential reading and why American letters would be the poorer without him." --Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao In 2007, days before his seventeenth birthday, Eric Jeffers meets nineteen-year-old Morgan Haskell, as well as half-a-dozen other gay men who live and work in Diamond Harbor. The boys become a couple, and for the next twenty years, labor as garbage men along the coast, sharing their lives and their lovers, learning to negotiate a committed open relationship. For a decade, they manage a rural movie theater that shows pornographic films and encourages gay activity among the audience. Finally, they become handymen for a burgeoning lesbian art colony on nearby Gilead Island, as the world moves twenty years, forty years, sixty years into a future that is fascinating, glorious, and--sometimes--terrifying. Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is a near-future science fiction novel published in two volumes. "Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders is . . . one of the best novels by anyone that I have read in quite a long time. Indeed, I would go so far as to say (as I already put it on Twitter) that it is the best English-language novel that I know of, of the 21st century so far [2012]." --Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University "An imposing and immersive novel punched me in the face, and kissed me, and filled my lungs this year. It is a deeply pornographic and sympathetic experience that disturbs (expect a barrage of all sorts of non-normative sex and a total re-evaluation of narrative structure), gratifies (expect an in-depth journey with a cast of characters that you will come to know and love in such a way you thought impossible in contemporary fiction), and enlightens . . . The importance of this book CANNOT be overstated. It is the best LGBT book that was published this year [2012], as well as the best book, period." --Lonely Christopher, author of Death and Disaster Series

This 1979 American Book Award nominee contains five interlocked stories that tell of the slave Gorgik in a long-ago land, and a masked swordswoman narrates an astonishing feminist creation myth.