Captives of the Flame: Another Samuel Delany Review!

I won't lie, the exclamation point on the end of the title is only because I'm incredibly excited to review another one of Samuel R. Delany's books. It doesn't actually translate into real life, my face, or my voice right now, due to hormonal and life imbalances that have left me full of rage and anger, except when I'm reading, writing, or possibly drawing. But you're not here to read about my personal woes, you're here to find out about this story.

I bought this book via Amazon.com, although it was apparently translated to its digital state by Project Gutenberg, so I'm unsure whether it's available for free. I think I paid .99 cents for it, so it was definitely another steal.

This book is the first in a trilogy of stories known as "The Fall of the Towers". I've only read this first story thus far. Apparently this story was originally rewritten in a different form when it became the first book of the trilogy.

The story takes place in the same world as The Jewels of Aptor, however, the two cities that are the settings of this story do not know they are in the same world. Apparently, references linking the stories all to the same world were later omitted, so I think it might still take place in the same world, just in different time frames.

The story has a host of protagonists working together yet again, this time in an attempt to thwart a war that their civilization is threatening against an unknown enemy in a twin city.

Like the last work I read of Delany, it's incredibly visceral, so much so that you really have to pay attention when reading, especially the opening pages, so that you have a perfect idea of what the character is experiencing. But once you get a view, and you have your full attention on the book, you have no problem sailing through pages like nobody's business, because it's that interesting.

It is once again science fiction, and it has a lot of philosophical questions about war, and society, and even humanity.

I feel like this review is going to be more brief than the previous one because it's only the first part of a trilogy, therefore I only have the first third of the story. But never fear, I am actively seeking out the next parts of the story so that I can read further in. Because it's one of a trilogy, the main adventure of the story reaches a conclusion, but there are larger questions that are left for the later works.

I do have a few downsides about my digital copy. It has a plain black and green cover, very much like the free books that one downloads from the Kindle store, and not the beautiful original cover artwork like Jewels of Aptor had. Then, because the book was put in to press by Project Gutenberg, at the end I thought I had five or six more pages to go, but it was merely the project gutenberg conclusion, and all of the legal information therein. But other than that, I really don't have any complaints. I just realized that I didn't necessarily have to pay for the book, it's available for free via Project Gutenberg here, along with Jewels of Aptor. That makes me a bit angry that I paid, but fuck it, Samuel R Delany deserves my muneyz, so it wasn't a waste. The only thing I'm somewhat upset about is the fact that the free version has the original cover art available, and I didn't get a chance to get it.

Other than that, the book is awesome, and I recommend it to folks like myself that aren't big on science fiction, but love a good detailed story and something that will hold your interest until the last page.

The Jewels of Aptor Review

I had been told for a few months to check out the work of Samuel Delany, but I hadn't gotten around to it; I had read an interview with him, and I had seen a documentary clip, but I still had not actually read any of his fiction. Now, I can officially say that I've read his work, and that I am a fan.

I bought The Jewels of Aptor for my Kindle, because it was the only book of his that was in my measly price range. It looked interesting, I loved the cover, and I dove right in. From the beginning of the book, my attention was held. I loved the names of the characters, and the journey they were to go on.

I'm not really one to read science fiction, but this definitely has me more interested in the  genre. The basic plot of the story is that our three, later four, protagonists (for the story is really about all of them) on a mission to retrieve the last of a trio of very powerful jewels from an evil island in a dystopian future. I'm not going to pretend that I'm good at figuring out meaning in stories, but one could argue that the entire story is an allegory for the gray area that is good and evil, religion and power. Even I, who can't find the theme of a story, found themes in this one, well worked themes that made even my hardened brows raise.

Unlike most of the books I read, there was no real reason to have to look words up. I think someone with an advanced middle school education could read this without issues. The words that I didn't know were words that the author had created for the story. There were some scientific things that I didn't understand, but the protagonists didn't understand either, so I didn't feel bad. The thing I find craziest about the book is that it is Samuel Delany's first published story.

He wrote this amazing book when he was twenty. 20. I definitely need to up my game.

This is a book that I would recommend to someone who might not usually pick up a science fiction story. It's not something that spends billions of words on the science, it's only used when it serves the plot. One of the things I really enjoyed about the book, is that it didn't leave a bunch of open questions at the end, it wove in all of the plot lines, but ended in a way that makes me wonder what happened when the pages stopped, because the world was that interesting.

At $2.99, this book is an absolute steal, and I definitely think more people should read it.