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The Fall of the Towers #2
The Towers of Toron
Cover Artists: Greg and Tim Hildebrandt
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
5 people are currently reading
205 people want to read
About the author
Samuel R. Delany
306 books2,252 followersSamuel Ray Delany, also known as "Chip," is an award-winning American science fiction author. He was born to a prominent black family on April 1, 1942, and raised in Harlem. His mother, Margaret Carey Boyd Delany, was a library clerk in the New York Public Library system. His father, Samuel Ray Delany, Senior, ran a successful Harlem undertaking establishment, Levy & Delany Funeral Home, on 7th Avenue, between 1938 and his death in 1960. The family lived in the top two floors of the three-story private house between five- and six-story Harlem apartment buildings. Delany's aunts were Sadie and Bessie Delany; Delany used some of their adventures as the basis for the adventures of his characters Elsie and Corry in the opening novella Atlantis: Model 1924 in his book of largely autobiographical stories Atlantis: Three Tales.
Delany attended the Dalton School and the Bronx High School of Science, during which he was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program. Delany and poet Marilyn Hacker met in high school, and were married in 1961. Their marriage lasted nineteen years. They had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany (b. 1974), who spent a decade working in theater in New York City.
Delany was a published science fiction author by the age of 20. He published nine well-regarded science fiction novels between 1962 and 1968, as well as several prize-winning short stories (collected in Driftglass [1971] and more recently in Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories [2002]). His eleventh and most popular novel, Dhalgren, was published in 1975. His main literary project through the late 1970s and 1980s was the Return to Nevèrÿon series, the overall title of the four volumes and also the title of the fourth and final book.
Delany has published several autobiographical/semi-autobiographical accounts of his life as a black, gay, and highly dyslexic writer, including his Hugo award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water.
Since 1988, Delany has been a professor at several universities. This includes eleven years as a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half as an English professor at the University at Buffalo. He then moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001, where he has been teaching since. He has had several visiting guest professorships before and during these same years. He has also published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays. In one of his non-fiction books, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), he draws on personal experience to examine the relationship between the effort to redevelop Times Square and the public sex lives of working-class men, gay and straight, in New York City.
In 2007, Delany was the subject of a documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. The film debuted on April 25 at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.
Delany attended the Dalton School and the Bronx High School of Science, during which he was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program. Delany and poet Marilyn Hacker met in high school, and were married in 1961. Their marriage lasted nineteen years. They had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany (b. 1974), who spent a decade working in theater in New York City.
Delany was a published science fiction author by the age of 20. He published nine well-regarded science fiction novels between 1962 and 1968, as well as several prize-winning short stories (collected in Driftglass [1971] and more recently in Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories [2002]). His eleventh and most popular novel, Dhalgren, was published in 1975. His main literary project through the late 1970s and 1980s was the Return to Nevèrÿon series, the overall title of the four volumes and also the title of the fourth and final book.
Delany has published several autobiographical/semi-autobiographical accounts of his life as a black, gay, and highly dyslexic writer, including his Hugo award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water.
Since 1988, Delany has been a professor at several universities. This includes eleven years as a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half as an English professor at the University at Buffalo. He then moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001, where he has been teaching since. He has had several visiting guest professorships before and during these same years. He has also published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays. In one of his non-fiction books, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), he draws on personal experience to examine the relationship between the effort to redevelop Times Square and the public sex lives of working-class men, gay and straight, in New York City.
In 2007, Delany was the subject of a documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. The film debuted on April 25 at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 12, 2021
The Towers of Toron is the second book in Delany's The Fall of the Towers Trilogy (no relation to JRRT!) that appeared early in his career. It has more of a psychedelic feel than the first book, Out of the Dead City, and features a rather large cast of characters with oddly shifting viewpoints. Delany, who was to become one of the leaders of New Wave sf, was testing the waters with this one. I'd say that it's necessary to have read the first book to appreciate this one, and that one would want to get a hold of City of a Thousand Suns, the third book, to get a sense of closure. It's a dreamlike post-catastrophe story with intrigue and mystery, very much in the style and tradition of A.E. van Vogt and/or Jack Vance. It's good literary sf with a flavor of old-style Planet Stories romance and adventure.
February 12, 2019
4/10. Media de los 11 libros leídos del autor: 3/10
Hasta 11 libros llegué a leerme de Delany...Eran los tiempos en que de chaval no tienes un duro y lees todo lo que cae en tus manos de CF...y de restos de ediciones.
Hasta 11 libros llegué a leerme de Delany...Eran los tiempos en que de chaval no tienes un duro y lees todo lo que cae en tus manos de CF...y de restos de ediciones.
February 26, 2020
Like the previous book in Samuel Delany's "Fall of the Towers" trilogy, this is a book that's ahead of its time and shows an amazing level of ambition that it ends up falling short of.
I felt "The Towers of Toron" an improvement upon "Out of the Dead City" in some ways however: Unlike that one, I was genuinely wowed by many moments in the story here especially some almost psychedelic imagery that would become commonplace in New Wave science fiction later in the 1960s. There are many important scenes here where I can imagine exactly what they would look like in a comic book or film adapted from this book. The worldbuilding continues to impress me, Delany here showing even more of a flair for combining science-fiction and heroic fantasy tropes in unusual and unexpected ways that'd later show up in books like "The Einstein Intersection". For example, he gets more mileage out of the "sufficiently advanced aliens to function like incomprehensible deities" that the post-apocalyptic feudal Earth gets caught in a war between two of than he did in the previous book in the series.
I still have the same issue with "The Towers of Toron" as with the first book in the trilogy, though: The plot is too ambitious for its own good with constant switching between different viewpoint characters, where Delany here has trouble with making them all interesting, or keeping the different storylines relevant to each other. Especially in a novel as short as this one. (just 180 pages!)
The plot twist this one ends with is quite something to be seen and believed, I recommend that if you wish to read the "Fall of the Towers" series you better steer clear of spoilers.
I felt "The Towers of Toron" an improvement upon "Out of the Dead City" in some ways however: Unlike that one, I was genuinely wowed by many moments in the story here especially some almost psychedelic imagery that would become commonplace in New Wave science fiction later in the 1960s. There are many important scenes here where I can imagine exactly what they would look like in a comic book or film adapted from this book. The worldbuilding continues to impress me, Delany here showing even more of a flair for combining science-fiction and heroic fantasy tropes in unusual and unexpected ways that'd later show up in books like "The Einstein Intersection". For example, he gets more mileage out of the "sufficiently advanced aliens to function like incomprehensible deities" that the post-apocalyptic feudal Earth gets caught in a war between two of than he did in the previous book in the series.
I still have the same issue with "The Towers of Toron" as with the first book in the trilogy, though: The plot is too ambitious for its own good with constant switching between different viewpoint characters, where Delany here has trouble with making them all interesting, or keeping the different storylines relevant to each other. Especially in a novel as short as this one. (just 180 pages!)
The plot twist this one ends with is quite something to be seen and believed, I recommend that if you wish to read the "Fall of the Towers" series you better steer clear of spoilers.
July 9, 2020
Hard to get into, with all the flowery descriptions, over-complicated long sentences, and numerous characters introduced in the first few chapters. It does finally settle on one protagonist for a chapter or two--then switches to another for a chapter or two--then another -- far too many story lines to get into for a 140 page short novel with weird passages that might be dreams or flashbacks or something. It did get better near the end, not enough to totally redeem it though.
December 19, 2019
A step up from the previous book in the series. A lot of strong world building taking place here and I appreciate the continued use of non-white characters casually and without stereotyping.
December 4, 2014
‘Beyond The Invisible Barrier
“We have received warning. The Lord of The Flames is loose on earth once more.”
Once before the Lord of The Flames has been driven halfway across the universe. His return would mean a new era of chaos and conflict for the populace of Earth.
The Lord of The Flames was a strange adversary – a force of evil devoid of physical substance. He sought warmth in unpredictable places: creeping into the soul of a worm or the stem of a flower or into the mind of a man.
Unless his hiding place could be discovered, the Lord of The Flames could crumble the world once more to ashes. But finding him was not a simple matter. Evil is everywhere and the thing from space only lurked in one being at a time.’
Blurb from the 1964 Ace Doubles edition F-261
An early work from Delaney, demonstrates his poetic flare and individual voice. Set on a future Earth and within an oddly feudal society it is the sequel to 'Captives of The Flame' in which a group of people battled The Lord of The Flames and drove him off across the Universe. The Lord of The Flames is an amoral extraterrestrial entity who habitually hides within humans and conducts experiments. The humans have been helped by a tri-partite entity who is also an enemy of the Lord of The Flames. There is of course, an immediate connection to be made with the Holy Trinity and Lucifer, although there is little other religious reference in this particular novel.
Due to radiation left over from an ancient atomic war, there are various human mutations such as the Neanderthals, a dim-witted and clumsy race, and the Forest Guards, a race of taller humanoids who appear to exhibit different mental processes and some of whom are telepathic. One can’t help wondering if Delaney meant to translate the concept of dwarfs and elves to an SF setting.
The plot is oddly van Vogt-ish. The LOTF has returned and the Prime Minister has been murdered. The king died of natural causes some time later. The Crown Prince has been living among the Forest Guards and is sent for at once. Meanwhile, the ones aware of the LOTF’s presence try to flush him out.
Toron is currently at war with an enemy beyond the barrier they have not yet seen.
One of the protagonists, Tel, is conscripted and sent off to the war to fight alongside a Forest Guard and some Neanderthals. His sister, Alter, tracks down John’s sister Clea, a genius disabled by depression and the loss of her dead lover. Alter somehow raises her spirits and persuades her to join a circus as an accountant (after having already been offered a job as a dancer herself.)
Clea, it appears, did some work for the government and has hidden a secret away in her own head, hidden away even from herself. It is a secret about the war, a secret that could change everything.
“We have received warning. The Lord of The Flames is loose on earth once more.”
Once before the Lord of The Flames has been driven halfway across the universe. His return would mean a new era of chaos and conflict for the populace of Earth.
The Lord of The Flames was a strange adversary – a force of evil devoid of physical substance. He sought warmth in unpredictable places: creeping into the soul of a worm or the stem of a flower or into the mind of a man.
Unless his hiding place could be discovered, the Lord of The Flames could crumble the world once more to ashes. But finding him was not a simple matter. Evil is everywhere and the thing from space only lurked in one being at a time.’
Blurb from the 1964 Ace Doubles edition F-261
An early work from Delaney, demonstrates his poetic flare and individual voice. Set on a future Earth and within an oddly feudal society it is the sequel to 'Captives of The Flame' in which a group of people battled The Lord of The Flames and drove him off across the Universe. The Lord of The Flames is an amoral extraterrestrial entity who habitually hides within humans and conducts experiments. The humans have been helped by a tri-partite entity who is also an enemy of the Lord of The Flames. There is of course, an immediate connection to be made with the Holy Trinity and Lucifer, although there is little other religious reference in this particular novel.
Due to radiation left over from an ancient atomic war, there are various human mutations such as the Neanderthals, a dim-witted and clumsy race, and the Forest Guards, a race of taller humanoids who appear to exhibit different mental processes and some of whom are telepathic. One can’t help wondering if Delaney meant to translate the concept of dwarfs and elves to an SF setting.
The plot is oddly van Vogt-ish. The LOTF has returned and the Prime Minister has been murdered. The king died of natural causes some time later. The Crown Prince has been living among the Forest Guards and is sent for at once. Meanwhile, the ones aware of the LOTF’s presence try to flush him out.
Toron is currently at war with an enemy beyond the barrier they have not yet seen.
One of the protagonists, Tel, is conscripted and sent off to the war to fight alongside a Forest Guard and some Neanderthals. His sister, Alter, tracks down John’s sister Clea, a genius disabled by depression and the loss of her dead lover. Alter somehow raises her spirits and persuades her to join a circus as an accountant (after having already been offered a job as a dancer herself.)
Clea, it appears, did some work for the government and has hidden a secret away in her own head, hidden away even from herself. It is a secret about the war, a secret that could change everything.
April 13, 2019
A philosophically chewy turn in the final act and a memorable charcoal-eating ball of feathers. Felt like Delaney got disinterested in the arcs of several characters. As I'm reading through the early novels, founds this the slightest work so far; still a fun burst of imagination. City of a Thousand Suns here we come.
Read
September 29, 2020As Early Delany goes I find this series to be a bit of a slog, but still worth the read. I love the treatment of the war and the variety of characters is compelling.
November 22, 2023
Me gustó mucho pues me lo topé de casualidad ayer y lo terminé hoy, la construcción del mundo y el entorno como si fuera un sueño es lo que me hace gozar la ciencia ficción de esa época, lo siento incompleto aunque sé que es porque forma parte de una saga más grande, pero al menos ver una organización de telépatas desde una perspectiva imperial en lo que van los recorridos de reestructuraciones me gustaron mucho.
December 13, 2022
El libro, como lo que suele escribir Delany, es puro caos, no siendo esto algo negativo. Nada queda explicado, te suelta en mitad de un mundo que aún no terminas de entender y te las apañas como puedes. En ese aspecto, muy bien. En cuanto a la traducción es absurdamente insoportable. La persona que ha traducido esta novela tiene (o tenía) el nivel de inglés con el que salió del instituto.
December 19, 2018
Poor Tel and his little flep-flup. This is still my favorite of the three novels in this series.
April 30, 2025
4.5/5 — really great read, full of beautiful imagery and strange mystery; in typical Delany style not all the threads quite weave together but in a way I really enjoyed
July 26, 2021
Why? The setup for an entire war was alright, but then, it just wasn't a thing. It was really a disappointment.
April 29, 2017
Delaney's allegory about war and the economy drags a bit, but you can see flashes of brilliance that would flower with subsequent works. By the third book in the trilogy, you can tell that Delaney has really honed his chops.
Pairs well with
- Martin Luther King's April 4, 1967 speech given at Riverside Church, entitled "Beyond Vietnam:
A Time to Break the Silence" which can be found in A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students
- President Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation - January 17, 1961
- Drift: the unmooring of American military power
Pairs well with
- Martin Luther King's April 4, 1967 speech given at Riverside Church, entitled "Beyond Vietnam:
A Time to Break the Silence" which can be found in A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King, Jr., for Students
- President Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation - January 17, 1961
- Drift: the unmooring of American military power
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews