Missives from the 6th Floor

I hadn't read any Delany prior to this - so I really went in not knowing what to expect. The first half of the book, I basically liked. It had a fairly well trodden structure, and the characters weren't terribly compelling or well rounded, but it was entertaining.

And then it took this turn into the Tarot, and I sorta failed to follow.

I can't say I disliked it, really, it just didn't do much for me.

The bad guy was so bad he made Darth Vader look positively neuanced, and the characterization of his sister was painfully flat. There were some interesting ideas in the book (the sensory sarynx, for instance, and the ubiquity of sockets), but it just didn't really hold together.

And he ended the book just as the story could have gotten interesting.

So a solid "meh,"

It could be timing, though... I remember, the first time I saw some of the classic Bogart films (Casablanca, Maltese Falcon) having to consciously stop and realize that this wasn't cliche, it was the origin of the cliche. In this case, I don't know if Delany was treading new ground when Nova was published (1968).

From the early email thread there are some with stronger (negative) opinions, so the lunch conversation could be interesting...