Neveryóna
Neveryona or: The Tale of Signs and Cities.  Some Informal Remarks Towards the Modular Calculus, Part Four  (Return to Neveryon, Vol 2)  
Pryn, who can write in the largely pre-literate land, flees her mountain village on the back of a dragon, searches for Neveryona, a fabulous lost civilization, encounters a host of intriguing characters along the way, and aids Gorgik's slave revolt.
Contents:
    Neveryona or: The Tale of Signs and Cities • [Neveryon 2 • novel]
Appendix A: The Culhar' Correspondence • shortstory by Samuel R. Delany
Appendix B: Acknowledgments (Neveryona) • essay by Samuel R. Delany

"Return to Neveryon" is a series of eleven “sword and sorcery” stories--a science fiction/fantasy series depicting an empire beyond the borders of history where human destinies entwine in a strange design. It is an intricate web of adventure, intrigue and desire and a literary puzzle where meaning, parable and paradox collide.  The eleven tales that make up Return to Neveryon are set before the dawn of history, in a location that might be Africa or Asia.  Many of the stories have different protagonists and, indeed, different sets of foreground characters. But all take a greater or lesser part in recounting an overall story running through the whole series, the history of a man called Gorgik the Liberator.  Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery. Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude. Does this contaminate his mission -- or intensify it?  Originally published in four volumes during the years 1979-1987, those volumes are: "Return to Neveryon": Vol 1) Tales of Neveryon;  **Vol 2) Neveryona, or: The Tale of Signs and Cities**;  Vol 3) Flight from Neveryon;  Vol 4) Return to Neveryon (aka The Bridge of Lost Desire).
American Science fiction, American Fantasy fiction, Fiction, science fiction, general, fantasy, sword and sorcery
Samuel R. Delany