SOURCE: “Black, Gay, Pomo, Cyberpunk,” in The Nation, October 28, 1996, pp. 60-2.

In the following review, McLemee provides an overview of Delany's life and literary career and offers a positive evaluation of Longer Views.

Samuel Delany published his first novel in 1962, at the age of 20, which sounds like an early start, though not for a prodigy. As a teenager, Delany studied quantum physics at the Bronx High School of Science. He composed music, read omnivorously and wrote half a dozen novels. The manuscripts came back from editors with nice letters worrying that his prose was overly “literary” but assuring him he showed promise—the last thing any brilliant kid wants to hear. Then, at 19, Delany wrote a short science-fiction novel, and it was in print, and paid for, not long after his next birthday. So he wrote a second novel, then a third. And these, too, were published in...