Author: Samuel R. Delany
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Rating: WARTY!
This is the last ebook I shall review this year and what a sad way to end! This novel is an object lesson in why you should never ever ever ever ever ever ever trust a publisher's book blurb! Or William Gibson. It was because of the blurb - a city that reshapes itself - and Gibson's recommendation that I decided to give this a look, but I wasted my time. I forced myself through about 25% of this, and even so had to skip page after page of some of the most flatulent and tedious drivel I've ever encountered, and that was more than I could stomach of this insanely pretentious trash. And where it's not pretentious, it seems to smack of racism to me. But maybe that's just me. The main character, who shall remain nameless, has nowhere to go and no means to get there. That's it. That's the best you can hope for from this.
This novel is one of, if not the foremost of the dismal messes it's been my misfortune to read. It's vague, pointless, wandering (where it's not blundering), clueless, endless reams of unattributed conversation, interspersed with massive unbroken speeches, interspersed with random, brain-dead sex with the nearest warm body. There's no plot. There's no story, and no hope for it. It's a dissipated, cluelessly meandering, pointless, meaningless wad of drivel that has the cube root of nothing to say and evidently needs SEVEN HUNDRED PAGES to say even that little. Save yourself the money and go listen to some kid who is at the point in life right before they begin to talk, and listen to the babble. It's the same as you'll get in this novel, but not only is the kid-babble free, it's far more entertaining than this can ever hope to be. I'm serious: go watch this You Tube video and see if it isn't ten times the entertainment Delaney can offer you with his sad excuse for a story - and it's essentially the same thing Delaney is charging you for.
