Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand / Edition 20

by Samuel R. Delany, Carl Freedman

Overview

The story of a truly galactic civilization with over 6,000 inhabited worlds.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time.

The novel's topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other's perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue," and the other is—you!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819567147
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2004
Edition description:	20th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.07(d)

About the Author

SAMUEL R. DELANY is a novelist and critic who currently teaches English and creative writing at Temple University. He has won both Hugo and Nebula awards.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Carl Freedman

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"If H. G. Wells was the Shakespeare of science fiction, Samuel R. Delany is its James Joyce. Marginalized by both fate and choice, he has inscribed those margins on the consciousness of readers of science fiction, fantasy, and literary theory."—David N. Samuelson, Professor of English, California State University, Longbeach

David N. Samuelson

"If H. G. Wells was the Shakespeare of science fiction, Samuel R. Delany is its James Joyce. Marginalized by both fate and choice, he has inscribed those margins on the consciousness of readers of science fiction, fantasy, and literary theory."
— David N. Samuelson, Professor of English, California State University, Longbeach

Editorial Reviews

"Sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase, Delany invites the reader to collaborate in the process of creation. The reader who accepts this invitation has an extraordinarily satisfying experience in store."—Gerald Jonas, The New York Times Book Review

"A densely textured, intricately worked out novelistic structure which delights and astonishes even as it forces a confrontation with a wide range of thought-provoking issues. Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand . . . confirms that [Delany] is American SF's most consistently brilliant and inventive writer."—Steve McCaffery, Fantasy Review

"Sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase, Delany invites the reader to collaborate in the process of creation. The reader who accepts this invitation has an extraordinarily satisfying experience in store."—Gerald Jonas, The New York Times Book Review

"Stars in My Pocket has been one of my favorite books and, in particular, the book that, more decisively than any other, has defined for me just what science fiction is capable of and why it is worth bothering about."—Carl Freedman, The Foreword

"If H. G. Wells was the Shakespeare of science fiction, Samuel R. Delany is its James Joyce. Marginalized by both fate and choice, he has inscribed those margins on the consciousness of readers of science fiction, fantasy, and literary theory."—David N. Samuelson, Professor of English, California State UniversityLongbeach

"If H. G. Wells was the Shakespeare of science fiction, Samuel R. Delany is its James Joyce. Marginalized by both fate and choice, he has inscribed those margins on the consciousness of readers of science fiction, fantasy, and literary theory."—David N. Samuelson, Professor of English, California State University, Longbeach

From the Publisher