I can't say very much about this book, other than it was not very good. I hate to say that about an author's work, but the truth is that "They Fly At Ciron" is probably not one of his better works.
For those of you who don't know, Samuel Delany is a renowned African-American sci-fi writer, who may be best known for his work "Dhalgren", a story about a young boy finding his sexuality in an alien forest. I have a copy of Dhalgren and I am about to read it at the time of writing this epinion. I have skimmed "Dhalgren", and it appears to be very interesting and intriguing, and every review I have ever read about Delany's work gives him nothing but praise.
However, "They Fly at Ciron" doesn't live up to the expectations. For one, it is obvious that this book was written early in his career: it is very sophomoric and totally unoriginal, save the interesting sexual tidbits about the games the Winged Ones play with Groundlings (people who walk on the ground). The imagery and attention to detail that Delaney poured into the work cannot make up for the 2 dimensional characters and the flat plotline. I read a review of the book that states that it is a re-write of something he created when he was 19, which is exactly how the book reads; one gets the impression that the author tried to dress up something that already had trouble standing on its own two feet.
Delaney, my brother, I am with you, I feel you, but I am just not feeling you in this book. However, I am going to take a look at "Dhalgren", which has been recommended to me by black, white, red, yellow, male and female sci-fi die-hards both on and off line.
The best way to describe this book is a mixture of Flash Gordon, The Hobbitt, and post adolescent masturbatory fantasies. And for the record, the only reason why this book is getting 2 stars instead of one is because of one of the erotic follow-ups that he puts in the prologue, where a groundling has a foursome with three hot winged-women in mid-air.
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