The bridge of lost desire
Samuel R. Delany, Ned Dameron (Illustrator)
The last volume of the eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's 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
Print Book, English, ©1987
Arbor House, New York, ©1987