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INTRODUCTION by Samuel R. Delany Star Well is a wise, delightful, and well-turned book; and it is something I have never seen in science fiction before. It is the first of a series of novels that examines the proposition that the world is composed of small communities of mutual interest. When the pith of that statement is bared as astutely as it is in this novel, it does not matter which "small community" you belong to:
Star Well hits.
I write this as the second volume of the adventures of Anthony Villiers nears completion. Looking for an analogue to this roman fleuve in the mainstream, I come up with A Dance to the Music of Time, perhaps Men of Good Will, definitely NOT Jalna. Twenty-eight-year-old Mr. Panshin's credentials for the undertaking are impressive. He is the author of one fine and solidly classical sf novel, Rite of Passage; he was the recipient of a "Hugo" award from the World Science Fiction Convention in 1967 for his critical writing over the previous year; he recently published the first full-length study of Robert Heinlein, Heinlein in Dimension; his short stories have appeared in Analog, If, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Galaxy.
What follows is a gallery of gamblers, duels and double-crosses, a minuet of manners and manners mangled; the machinery of the universe is speculated upon; inspector generals arrive to inspect it. And Anthony Villiers, gentleman par excellence, dashes through it all, buckling a swash or two, bungling a couple of others.
Mr. Villiers?
If you consider it impolite to strike up an acquaintance with someone you have notbeen formally introduced to, well--consider the introduction made.
New York, April 1968
