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City of a Thousand Suns
(The Fall of the Towers #3)
by
In a city halfway across the galaxy an alien intelligence was addressing the strangest delegation since time began: "We have called you here to help us. Our universe has been invaded by the Lord of the Flames. He has been gathering information on many worlds for a full-scale attack. He is now preparing his final effort to make the planet Earth his initial beachhead..." On
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I think my favorite part of this book is the cover. While there is a plot, its mostly just a box in which to put some (IMO) dated philosphy in... the main plot doesn't really go very far, and ends in a sudden and unsatisfying way.
While Delany does turn a few cool phrases, and there's one particular exchange between Jon (the main character) and an old solider that was really profound, most of it was alot of hot air. Granted, this is apparently the 3rd of three books, but the lack of having read t ...more
While Delany does turn a few cool phrases, and there's one particular exchange between Jon (the main character) and an old solider that was really profound, most of it was alot of hot air. Granted, this is apparently the 3rd of three books, but the lack of having read t ...more
These early Delany novels are excellent. City is third of a three-parter and the peak of a satisfying saga. His character focus and attention to telling details in any given scene transcend genre. I often forgot I was reading stories of a far-flung future Earth. The author's linguistic-philosophic concerns are here in their nascency -these books were written in the early 60's- lending poetry to sections that might fall prey to being merely plot progression in a different writer's voice. Samuel D
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I vaguely remember not especially liking the ending when I first read this book in 2004, but I couldn't recall why. Now I do. It's not so much the introduction of poetry or the pointlessness of the so-called war (that's the point, isn't it?). Instead, it's how devastating it is in its process.
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This final novel of Samuel R. Delany's trilogy about mankind facing a potential enemy from another galaxy is better than the previous two novels. Delany grew enormously as a writer over the course of this series, producing prose that is frequently poetic. The Lord of the Flames is a truly fascinating alien being. His book, however, becomes unfocused and loses dramatic tension as he becomes more interested in concluding his big statements on the nature of Man without attending adequately to the n
...more
“A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the pain and yowls at the weapons that lacerate him; the great poet explores the inflamed lips of ruined flesh with ice-covered fingers, glittering and precise; but ultimately their poem is the echoing, dual voice reporting the damage” – Vol Nonik
“They were very lucid, very clear—and put wild and dispersed matter into a verberating order that came very close to me” ( ...more
This book was fantastically written. I have once again done that thing where I read a book from a series without realizing there were others I should have read first. My only issue with the book was that it wasn't so clear about what was going on in the overal plot sometimes (like I wasn't quite sure what the council from the other galaxy had to do with the whole story.) I suspect though that this is because I missed the first two books, which probably provided an explanation. That being said, m
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1/10. Media de los 11 libros leídos del autor: 3/10
Hasta 11 libros llegué a leerme de Delany...Eran los tiempos en que de chaval no tienes un duro y lees todo lo que cae en tus manos de CF...y de restos de ediciones. Y ya veis que el resultado fue bastante deplorable, pero si juntas mi ilusión desmedida -en esa época- por el género + no tener un duro + comprar todo lo que pillaba de CF a precio de saldo, pues dio para tragarme muchos tostones que hoy no leería ni de coña.
Con esta nota dudo de qu ...more
Hasta 11 libros llegué a leerme de Delany...Eran los tiempos en que de chaval no tienes un duro y lees todo lo que cae en tus manos de CF...y de restos de ediciones. Y ya veis que el resultado fue bastante deplorable, pero si juntas mi ilusión desmedida -en esa época- por el género + no tener un duro + comprar todo lo que pillaba de CF a precio de saldo, pues dio para tragarme muchos tostones que hoy no leería ni de coña.
Con esta nota dudo de qu ...more
“You are trapped in that bright moment where you learned your doom.”
*
“Free to build or destroy they, too, approached the City of a Thousand Suns, to be struck by blue smoke, dispersed by sudden lightning, dropped from a web of silver fire...the red of polished carbuncle...the green of beetles’ wings...”
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“Free to build or destroy they, too, approached the City of a Thousand Suns, to be struck by blue smoke, dispersed by sudden lightning, dropped from a web of silver fire...the red of polished carbuncle...the green of beetles’ wings...”
Read the three in this series, kept hoping it would get better more interesting. But no, just as hard and disjointed as the first two. I do not like this type of writing. Will not read anymore of his books.
The meaning of life according to Samuel Delany: to strive to become an “ideal reader” for the works of a mathematician, a poet, and a sociologist/historian and to come together with others as much as possible in order to better cope with the aloneness inside of us. Not bad...
This final novel of Samuel R. Delany's trilogy about mankind facing a potential enemy from another galaxy is better than the previous two novels. Delany grew enormously as a writer over the course of this series, producing prose that is frequently poetic. The Lord of the Flames is a truly fascinating alien being. His book, however, becomes unfocused and loses dramatic tension as he becomes more interested in concluding his big statements on the nature of Man without attending adequately to the n
...more
Samuel Delany City of a Thousand Suns
Initially, I found the concepts in City of a Thousand Suns difficult to grasp. However, once that obstacle was over, I became thoroughly enthralled in the story telling. Delany is a genius of imagery. ...more
Initially, I found the concepts in City of a Thousand Suns difficult to grasp. However, once that obstacle was over, I became thoroughly enthralled in the story telling. Delany is a genius of imagery. ...more
I found this story very entertaining, and I loved Delany's simple yet elegant writing style. I read it in one sitting because it just kept pulling me through to the end. I highly recommend it.
https://elysathebiblioblogger.wordpre... ...more
https://elysathebiblioblogger.wordpre... ...more
Nov 28, 2009
Erik Graff
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Recommends it for:
Delany fans
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sf
I didn't get much out of this, but then I hadn't known of or read the preceding volumes--the publishers not making a point of this.
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Samuel Ray Delany, also known as "Chip," is an award-winning American science fiction author. He was born to a prominent black family on April 1, 1942, and raised in Harlem. His mother, Margaret Carey Boyd Delany, was a library clerk in the New York Public Library system. His father, Samuel Ray Delany, Senior, ran a successful Harlem undertaking establishment, Levy & Delany Funeral Home, on 7th Av
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