can reccomend Dhalgren as a first read of his. I mean it's one of my favorite books of all time. I've written songs about it and shit, but there's noway I'd pass it on to someone just asking for a good SciFi book. Especially if I have Delany's whole bibliography at my disposal. And then you go and reccomend Hogg and Mad Man, those aren't even considered SciFi.

The thing about Delany, from the perspective of the casual Sci Fi reader, is you have to build up to his takes on sex. For most Sci Fi readers sex isn't an integral part of their expectations, and so the raw graphic nature of Delany's approach can be quite the turn off and even offend if not prepared, You gotta build up to that by establishing how strong Delany is at the fundamentals of the genre, so that it can be appreciated why he adds that layer and what it helps to reveal about the worlds he paints.

In this regard I'd say it's far more appropriate to start with something like Babel-17, Nova or Triton work. One of my underrated favorites of his is Stars in My Pocket, but even without the graphic sex, it takes an appreciation of Delany worlds to really get into it.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."