Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site topaz.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!topaz!dennis%cod@Nosc
From: dennis%cod@Nosc
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND
Message-ID: <2470@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 2-Jul-85 11:52:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2470
Posted: Tue Jul  2 11:52:25 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Jul-85 06:08:49 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 26

From: Dennis Cottel 

I have just finished reading STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND by
Samuel R. Delaney (Bantam Books, 1984).  This is the first of Delaney's
work that I have read since I plowed through DHALGREN some years ago
(the only book I have ever trashed when I was through).  Fortunately,
this copy of STARS came from my local library--I was spared the feeling
of wasting the purchase price.

This message doesn't require a spoiler warning because there is nothing
to spoil.  After a promising prolog about mind-altering humans to
condition them for slavery, the story (using the word loosely) wanders
apparently aimlessly, describing a strange society consisting of a
mixture of humans and vaguely reptilian aliens.  Finally, it was over.
To be fair, an Author's Note at the beginning states that the book is
the first of a diptych, so I suppose you could hope that everything
will made clear in the second part.  I won't be reading the other half.

Now, I suppose some of you will like this book (after all, *someone*
liked DHALGREN according to its cover blurbs :-).  There is
occasionally an interesting idea scattered through the pages.  But if
you are looking for plot, believable characters, and a satisfying story
when you read, skip this.

	Dennis Cottel  Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA  92152
	(619) 225-2406     dennis@nosc.ARPA      sdcsvax!noscvax!dennis