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Babel-17/Empire Star

Vintage

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Average customer rating: 4 stars

Excellent thought-provoking sketches

These are incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking stories, but they're not pure entertainment. While they are not quite as abstruse as something like Philip Dick, they do require some work on the part of the reader in order to be appreciated fully. Readers who want a pure fun sci-fi adventure will likely find these somewhat disappointing, as will those who prefer a thoroughly fleshed out and minutely detailed universe. That isn't the purpose of these stories. These are short sketches, intended to investigate ideas about perception and existence. Taken for what they are, they are wonderful gems, both of them.

Not Free SF Reader

Linguistic heroine saves the day.

One of those books where the author comes up with something a bit strange and different, especially as far as the crewing of Rydra's ship goes.

A brilliant young woman's help is needed to deal with communicate with aliens, otherwise much bloodshed.

Along with this she has to deal with military politics into the bargain.

A very cool book.

4.5 out of 5

A Sci-fi Linguistic Trip!

This is not easy-reading sci-fi with gun battles and action sequences. It has all that, but the story is an amazing journey through a wild, corse world created by Delany. I found it hard to keep up with each new perspective and character he created because they were so varied and creative. The heart of the story and its true genius is language. The story gets so wrapped up in language though that without a linguistics background, the reader is going to have problems reading this and following along. But if you do, you'll love it and the possibilities. If you don't, you still have one heck of a world to explore.

This story is almost a marketing device for the power and possibility of language. After reading this, you'll at least think about things a little bit differently or want to actually take a few courses on Linguistics. You'll love the world of Delany too. The story is challenging but well worth it.

Too short

I liked B17 well enough I guess, it was just too short. I don't feel like I got to know the characters well enough; they remained shallow caricatures. The protagonist is one of your prototypical sf 'superbeings,' like Ender, Paul Muad'dib, etc. who is miraculously able to foil every obstacle set before her. I don't mind this device, except in this extremely compressed book. Somehow, her daring and implausible heroics are made all the more cheesy for lack of details and explanation. The plot certainly moves along at a brisk pace after she assembles the crew, but the speed comes at the expense of a truly immersive experience which is, for me at least, necessary to maintain that suspension of disbelief that scifi writers, especially, ought to be concerned with.

The good things: Delany writes very well, much better than a lot of the wooden prose that describes a lot of the genre (Niven, etc.). It reads almost like poetry, which is nice. The ideas about language and identity are interesting and thought-provoking. I wish he had made this more of an epic, where we get to know the characters more intimately.

Oh well, I liked it, and I suppose the fact thjat I wished it was longer only indicates what a good book it was. I'm planning on reading more Delany, that's for sure.

Oh, by the way, the included novella is wonderful. Loved it.

6 stars out of 5

This is THE work of genius. As far as I am concerned, there is no other masterpiece that surpasses the ingenuity of this book.
How could the author have possibly written this in the 60s? His vision of the multi-lingual future of the humanity and its effect on the human (and machine) behaviours is almost psychic. I would not have understood any of this, had I read it in the 60s.
The book is full of surprises, vivid and memorable episodes, and intricate and profound word plays, which will start to show double, triple, and quadruple meanings as you read on.
Do not get distracted while you read this one, because one little sentence maldigested here and there might spoil your fun later.
Truly intelligent piece of work that has a remarkably liberating and empowering effect on you. Highly recommended.