Nevery�na, or: the tale of signs and cities--some informal remarks towards the modular calculus, part four - Samuel R. Delany

A novel of myth and literacy about a long-ago land on the brink of civilization.

Vol 2 In his four-volume series Return to Nev�rÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R.

Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization.

Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nev�rÿonvolumes in trade paperback.

The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nev�rÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or even on the Mediterranean.

Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery.

Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude.

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.