Stories for Chip

Starred review from July 20, 2015
The 33 outstanding contributions to this volume honor Samuel R. “Chip” Delany, one of science fiction’s great virtuoso talents, and his work from the past 50 years. Chesya Burke’s delicate fantasy “For Sale: Fantasy Coffins (Ababuo Need Not Apply),” Alex Jennings’s superhero extravaganza “Heart of Brass,” and Haralambi Markov’s horrific “Holding Hands with Monsters” tackle issues of ethnic and sexual identity, themes that course through Delany’s fiction, while essays by Isiah Lavender III and Walidah Imarisha explicitly evoke “Racism and Science Fiction,” Delany’s landmark essay on the significance of science fiction to black culture. Junot Díaz cites Delany’s masterpiece Dhalgren in his poignant coming-of-age tale “Nilda,” and Delany himself appears as a character in Eileen Gunn’s amusing “Michael Swanwick and Samuel R. Delany at the Joyce Kilmer Service Area, March 2005.” Selections by Ellen Kushner, Kit Reed, Geoff Ryman, Nalo Hopkinson and Nisi Shawl, and the late Thomas M. Disch run the gamut from light fantasy to hard science fiction, and their sheer diversity is a testament to how Delany’s fertile imagination has inspired his colleagues.