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Loading... Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones [short story] (1969)by Samuel R. Delany
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This is probably my favorite Delany piece, a novella about the unlikely connections between a drug dealer and a Singer (the super-stars of this future). The characters are intensely interesting, and the world, sketched-in only from remarks of the viewpoint character, is at once familiar and utterly strange. no reviews | add a review
Is contained inThe Hugo Winners: Volume Two (1962-1970) by Isaac Asimov (indirect) The Hugo Winners: Volumes One and Two by Isaac Asimov (indirect) Awards
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I don't always get on with Delany's writing, and this is a good example of a story that I admire but don't especially like. The protagonist is a professional criminal in a near-future society who goes by many different aliases, all of which have the initials H.C.E. (this is a lift from Finnegan's Wake, apparently). Two of the other characters share a name, Hawk the Singer and Arty the Hawk, a mafia don. The story is pinned by two encounters with security agent Maud Hinkle (though who knows if that is really her name). The semi-precious stones of the title are code-words among the criminal underworld, changed every month.
There is a particularly gorgeous party scene near the beginning, and later on some juicy incidental detail and innuendo about what may be really going on; it's not too difficult to read a lot of aspects of the story as reflecting the underground gay scene in the pre-Stonewall period. Delany's writing style sparkles but also has hidden depths; however, I don't see a lot of substance here - no plot, really, and little character development. Clearly he caught the Zeitgeist of the sf scene, given the story's award-winning success against strong competition. ( )