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Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
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dry
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Publisher's Summary
The story of a truly galactic civilization with more than 6,000 inhabited worlds.
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science-fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues - technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism - have only become more pressing with the passage of time.
The novel's topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other's perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue", and the other is - you!
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What listeners say about Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- G. Benett
- 04-14-20
Masterwork of postmodern fiction
This, my introduction to Delaney, is a mind-expanding, category-shattering novel rich in characters both familar and unfathomably Other. As prescient as William Gibson's cyberpunk (both the Web and a kind of universal Wikipedia are present) and as ethnographically subtle as Ursula Le Guin's Hainish books, with sophisticated flavors from queer theory and Sapir-Whorf throughout, "Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" is both ingenious sci-fi narrative and an experiment in literary cultural criticism.
Two formal comments. One, the reading is excellent but bassy, such that it works better in a room than a car. Driving, I had to continually adjust the volume or repeat passages. Two, this is a work so inventive that many of the words and some of the ideas (such as contrapuntal speech by multiple tongues) are better seen than heard. I picked up a used copy of the text and found it added greatly to my sense of the book.
A wonderful, sophisticated read, highly recommended.
7 people found this helpful
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- Ac
- 02-23-22
amazing book that isn't for everyone
beautifully written. beautifully narrated. notably incomplete. intended to be the first half of a diptych, it is not very plot intensive. while the book stands fine on its own, by the end of the novel, one feels that the story has only just begun. i would recommend this novel to everyone with an open mind and a loving heart
2 people found this helpful
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- Carl
- 11-06-21
Meh
Meh. I stopped after a few hours. Slow burn that could not get to the point.
1 person found this helpful
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- Fiston
- 09-04-21
TWA
This one went right over my head. I’d ove to return it because I will never be able to finish it. Kudos to all of you it makes sense to, entertainment shouldn’t make me work so hard. I’ll Re read “Dune” for some real fun or even “The Road”. Where are you Cormack when we need you.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-29-21
I love this author but not this book
One must write ones own view of the world, expressing your views of the ideal and your frustrations with the actual.Of course acceptance of variation is correct . Mightn't these have been stated more simply.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Jarod
- 06-27-19
3 hours in and still no plot.
I gave up - it was to the point where I couldn't tell if I'd been listening to the same chapter over and over. I could not make myself focus on listening to this book.
6 people found this helpful
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- Robert Morris
- 05-19-21
Push a little harder and Delany might see daylight
Good lord, what pompous drivel.
I'm sure Delany is proud of this because by God does he make sure you know it.
Meandering doesn't describe this, even the most wayward river eventually goes somewhere.
As the title points out, I think he got a bit too carried away sniffing his own gaseous excretions and slipped. The desparate manner in which he scrabbles upwards through his own vast caverns does make one pity him, I only hope he reaches the sunlight again soon.
Pretty good voice actor though