"The tales of Nevèrÿon are postmodern sword-and-sorcery. Does this contaminate his mission - or intensify it? Presumably elaborated from an ancient text of unknown geographical origin, the stories are sunk in translators' and commentators' introductions and appendices, forming a richly comic frame. Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude. Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery. The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or even on the Mediterranean. Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nevèrÿonvolumes in trade paperback. Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization. In his four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R. A novel of myth and literacy about a long-ago land on the brink of civilization.
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