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2.0 out of 5 stars
unknown places, April 19 2004
This being a book with two novels in one cover, so the review sould be about both of them.
Babel-17: Consider this-interstellar war is going on, we have a major problem that only one can solve, incidentally that one is the best poet in the whole universe and one of the best interstallar captains that can tranverse "universes" of different thoughts (racial segregation), so of course she is the only logical solution that fits the parameters we want. She then forms the space crew and they have a lot of fun in the galaxy. To spice things up some more-put a slitle incomprehensible linguistic bable (which makes even less sense if you're linguist) and we have Babel-17. Figure it on you're own do you want to read this or not
Empire Star: Well I didn't really grasp this one. As a novel it simply misses the intended function of novel, neither is fun, neither educates (just to keep in mind those two, most widely respected functions of a novel). But as a parable you could find some sunlight in it. Rather confusing actually and I'm not sure what to reccomend you about this book-read it and see for yourself. (Rating of two stars is for the sake of Babel-17, which got Nebula somehow, and I really do not know who (and in which condition he where) gave it to it)
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Smart SF, Feb 14 2003
After reading Dhalgren, this novel is just like summer beach reading. Not that it's easy, but for the most part the effort is worth it. One of the few SF books to deal with the relatively esoteric topic of language and how it defines us (which really seems to be a natural SF topic, being that they deal with aliens and stuff so much), something it sort of shares with Ian Watson's The Embedding. Delany however won a deserved Nebula for this book (actually he tied with Flowers for Algernon, also a fine book, but as different from this as can be), which probably wasn't at all what readers were expecting in 1966 when this was published. But who cares what the readers want, as long as it's good? And this is. As I mentioned before it's a mediation on how language defines us, both to ourselves and in relation to other people, all cloaked in a Space Opera type story. The Invaders (who are never really seen, weirdly enough, but I think they're human) are attacking the Alliance and are using a mysterious weapon called Babel-17. What is it? Nobody is really sure so the military recruits famous poet Rydra Wong to figure out what's going on. She has little idea either but has come closer than most people. What follows is layer upon layer of story as Ms Wong examines her own life as she tries to unravel the mystery of Babel-17, examining both the roots of language and doing her best not to get killed. Rydra is a rarity in SF, a three dimensional woman who stands on her own as a strong character who doesn't come across as an emotional maelstrom or an ice-cold witch. She's one of the most enjoyable and well-rounded characters to come down the pipeline in SF and there are very few characters since who can match up to her. Delany's story just a bit wacky toward the end and he makes up more than a few SF twists to explain the ending but the story holds together really well and it has brains and a soul underneath all the deep thinking. It's also very short, so all the people scared off by Dhalgren can come over here and see what the man can do in small doses. Then they can move on to the big stuff.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Muels Multiplex Mentality, Jan 29 2003
This recent pairing of Samuel R. Delany's early classics is a wonderful piece of publication, as the two novellas together make yet a third window on the combined story. Babel 17, The longer of the two, is a narrative of mayhem, murder, mystery, madness, and metaphor. Though shorter (sort of), Empire Star gets in its LUMPs (Linguistic Ubiquitous Multiplex Computers) as well. Delany, anagramatically AKA Muels Aranlyde, writes sagely about the joy of linguistics (in a Whorf-ian sense), the anguish and sadness of slavery, the questing journey, non-standard sexual proclivities, and a whole new slant on death being no excuse to stop working. (Although both treks are aesthetically closer to Road Warrior than Star Wars, George Lucas does seem to have picked up a couple of ideas here, including the famous alien bar scene.) There is one disclaimer: The topologies of Delany's writing are not for everyone. I first discovered his works while I was in college, and found them opaque and self-absorbed. But I would have pored over them earlier, and much later have come to enjoy them all the more, in spite of the flaws. Intensely self-referential long before fractals, chaos theory, and literary necessity made the technique fashionable, this is the thinking person' science fiction at its finest.
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