Tales Of Nevèrÿon
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''Tales of Nevèrÿon'' is a collection of five
sword and sorcery Sword and sorcery (S&S), or heroic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of Romance (love), romance, Magic (fantasy), magic, and the supernatural are also ...
stories by
Samuel R. Delany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...
published in 1978. It is the first of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series and contains the stories "The Tale of Gorgik," "The Tale of Old Venn," "The Tale of Small Sarg," "The Tale of Potters and Dragons," and "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers."


Contents

The following table of contents is from the most recent
Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...
edition: * "Return . . . a preface by K. Leslie Steiner" * "The Tale of Gorgik" * "The Tale of Old Venn" * "The Tale of Small Sarg" * "The Tale of Potters and Dragons" * "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers" * "Appendix: Some Informal Remarks Toward the Modular Calculus, Part Three by S. L. Kermit" The 3rd printing of the Wesleyan edition of ''Tales of Nevèrÿon'' is currently the most accurate and corrects some errors from previous editions that might actually have confused some particularly careful readers of Delany's series.


The Tale of Gorgik

In his youth Gorgik is one of the “brown, respectable” people of Kolhari, the major port of Nevèrÿon. When he is sixteen, because of a radical takeover of the government, Gorgik is captured and taken as a slave to work in an obsidian mine—not all the slaves are blond, blue-eyed barbarians. But the ones who are darker-skinned generally fare better than those who are not. Soon Gorgik is a mine foreman. When he is twenty-one, Gorgik is purchased by the Vizerine Myrgot as her lover and is taken to live in the castle of the Child Empress Ynelgo, back in Kolhari, where he gets his first taste of the advantages (and disadvantages) of life among royalty. Eventually the Vizerine frees him and secures him a commission in the army. Finally, however, Gorgik becomes an outlaw, for a while even working as a guard for a slave pen. But he is so disgusted by what he sees there that he goes back to being an outlaw, working to free all the slaves of Nevèrÿon, no matter their color. To this end, he makes use of some of the friendships he made while living at the court.


Themes and criticism

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959), sometimes known under the pseudonym Designer X, is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wargames, role-playing ...
reviewed ''Tales of Neveryon'' in '' Ares Magazine'' #1. Costikyan commented that "In ''Tales of Neveryon'' elanyshows not only that he has not completely succumbed to the modern penchant for meaningless pretension, but that he is still capable of writing a dynamite story." Bernard W. Bell points out that ''Tales of Nevèrÿon'' is thematically concerned with "the reversal of conventional hierarchical, oppositional relationships." Larry McCaffery states that Delany "thoroughly expands, deepens, questions, and undercuts the premises of he sword-and-sorcerygenre".


Awards

In 1980, ''Tales of Nevèrÿon'' was both a Locus Award nominee and a finalist for the National Book Award for Science Fiction.


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Bell, Bernard W. ''The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern Literary Branches.''
University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
, 2004. . * McCaffery, Larry. ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers.'' University of Illinois Press, 1991. .


Further reading

* Tucker, Jeffery A. ''A Sense of Wonder: Samuel R. Delany, Race, Identity and Difference'', chapter 3: "The Empire of Signs: Slavery, Semiotics, and Sexuality in the ''Return to Nevèrÿon'' Series". Wesleyan University Press, 2004.


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tales of Neveryon 1979 fantasy novels 1979 short story collections American novellas Bantam Books books Fantasy short story collections Short stories set in prehistory LGBTQ speculative fiction novels Short story collections by Samuel Delany 1979 American novels