Tales of Nevèrÿon (Return to Nevèrÿon, #1)

Delany is one of my favourite authors: Dhalgren is one of the best sci-fi novels I've read, and his autobiography The Motion of Light in Water is quite compelling. Some of the books he's written are pulp trash, though, so it's a bit hard to find the right ones. The Return to Neveryona series is one of the right ones, I think, a nice multifaceted set of tales about the machinations of people in a lords and warriors setting. The biggest interest in this novel is Delany's social commentary. He's set the novel in a time when lots of trappings of modern civilization are being developed: weaving, money, the end of slavery, writing. This gives him a chance to comment interestingly on those topics. The stuff on slavery and sexuality I thought was a bit dull (although when the book was written, it may not have been), but the stuff on the use of money is really interesting, has affected my thinking about adding money to online communities (like MUDs or the Web). I think Tales of Neveryon is stronger, because it is so multifaceted. Neveryona takes on a much more traditional narrative structure, one that I didn't find particularly compelling. I think Delany has a hard time writing women.