This is a very good novel. It is more of a character study of someone who is an unreliable narrator of their own life convincing themself they are one way when people around them perceive them very differently. Triton is billed as an interplanetary war but really this is the background that enables Delaney to construct a particular kind of utopia to contrast it somewhat with Earth. But more than that it enables Delaney to consider how someone can be so dissatisfied with their life despite living in a utopia. How many of us are like that in the developed world who have all of their creature comforts yet are still dissatisfied with their lives? There are two appendices at the end of the story which provide a sort of commentary or context. In the first Delaney problematizes science fiction and makes the case that cataloguing a novel as such should not box it in as dealing only with science or technology. It is more obtuse than that but that is what I got from the first appendix. The 2nd appendix, I am really not sure about in that it comments on one of millions of people that died as a casualty in the interplanetary war.

But then, I think there was much more in this novel that went over my head. I wouldn’t be surprised if after thinking about it some more I come back to this review and increase its rating from 3.5 to 4 or 4.5 stars. It was interesting and thought provoking. ( )

For some reason I found this completely unreadable. I know Delany can write, because I've read his stuff in the past. It's like he just threw it out the window. ( )

This was probably the Delany bk that most intersected my own life. As I recall, the novel begins w/ a street performance group entering the "u-l" wch I think meant "un-lawful" zone or some such. I've done many a guerrilla 'performance', I've walked down the streets of Baltimore dressed in totally bizarre clothes completely high at 3AM KNOWING that it was always open season on people who looked different, that I cd be killed at any moment, that there was no such thing as police protection for people like me, & knowing that the only thing likely to keep me alive was my alertness, my articulateness, my quick wit, my very audacity, my extremely necessary psychosis. Like the time 2 thugs flanked me & sd "You owe me $5" to wch I replied "No, I distinctly remember that you owe ME $5." Back & forth, them fucking w/ me, me giving it right back, defiant. Finally a 3rd friend of theirs appeared & heard the interchange & told them to leave me alone & they left. In order to defend myself physically I wd've had to've gone completely psycho - something I was prepared to do - & it wdn't've been pretty - but I preferred talking my way out of it. A dangerous game to play. But I wasn't going to hide in a car, in a protected neighborhood - even if I cd've afforded to - wch I cdn't. & Delany's characters were just like I was. This was the 1st novel where I ever saw MYSELF depicted. & one of the very, very few. ( )

Not as good as Dhalgren, but maintained my impression of Delaney as an author working beyond his pigeon-holed genre. In each of his books I've read he seems more concerned with the relationship between reality and art than with the technicalities of "hard sci-fi." Not that he doesn't fully embrace the genre--this book is most definitely science fiction with its share of technical flamboyance--but I feel that is only his platform to attack greater issues.

I'm not sure what I think about his representation of the differences between the sexes in this book. The description of the book is maybe one of the most misleading I've ever seen. Sure, the action takes place amidst a war, but the majority of the book was about love and art, and the final quarter is solely about postmodern gender differences. The description is an excellent example of the publishing industry forcing authors into their marketable subtypes--sci-fi nerds would not be as likely to pick this up if the description were more accurate. I'm interested to hear the opinion of a female reader, unfortunately I don't know many who would pick up anything vaguely resembling science fiction... ( )

Not as good as Dhalgren, but maintained my impression of Delaney as an author working beyond his pigeon-holed genre. In each of his books I've read he seems more concerned with the relationship between reality and art than with the technicalities of "hard sci-fi." Not that he doesn't fully embrace the genre--this book is most definitely science fiction with its share of technical flamboyance--but I feel that is only his platform to attack greater issues.

I'm not sure what I think about his representation of the differences between the sexes in this book. The description of the book is maybe one of the most misleading I've ever seen. Sure, the action takes place amidst a war, but the majority of the book was about love and art, and the final quarter is solely about postmodern gender differences. The description is an excellent example of the publishing industry forcing authors into their marketable subtypes--sci-fi nerds would not be as likely to pick this up if the description were more accurate. I'm interested to hear the opinion of a female reader, unfortunately I don't know many who would pick up anything vaguely resembling science fiction... ( )