Babel-17/Empire Star

Empire Star is the novella of this collection, written the same time as Babel-17. When I read this collection I did not know of the links between them, so when I was roughly halfway through “Babel-17“ & two characters started to excitedly discuss an adventure novel that they had read in their youth called “Empire Star“ I was glad to have read it in the order that I did. Calling it an adventure story is a bit of a stretch, as we encounter (CONT)

vivastory a narrator called Jewel, that is literally a jewel. Jewel has a multiplex consciousness, As Jewel states in the opening ““I'll tell a good deal of the story from the point of view called, in literary circles, the omniscient observer.“ Then there's Lump (linguistic ubiquitous multiplex). A computer, who shares April 1 as a bday with Delany, & is fond of pulling practical jokes with literary references. There's a devil-kitten who (CONT) (edited) 2w

vivastory keeps growing. Clocking in a little over 90 pages this is one that is hard to describe but I found myself really engaged with & enjoying, not despite of but perhaps because of the strange ideas that Delany engages in a playful manner despite some very serious topics. 2w

40 likes2 comments

vivastory

Babel-17/Empire Star | Samuel R Delany

Overall, babel-17 ended up as a bit of a mixed bag. I loved the first half of the novel with the contemplations on linguistics, the ideas & the dark world. However, I found the second half to be a bit uneven. There were some truly great passages in the second half, including a few pages where Delany experiments with formatting over a few pages that I found to be useful for one particular scene.

vivastory I found the ultimate mystery of Babel-17 itself both interesting & wish the philosophical implications had been explored a bit more. Some fantastic ideas here, but a little undercooked. Still glad I read Delany. 2w

49 likes1 comment

vivastory

Babel-17/Empire Star | Samuel R Delany

Having started babel-17 this morning & now halfway through, I need to post a few thoughts. This is my first time reading Delany. Rhydra a poet & linguist with wide renown is approached at the beginning by a general to help solve what he thinks is a code. There have been a recent series of sabotage attacks at various important sites & during the attacks there was a radio frequency with what they assumed was a code. Rhydra informs them that it(CON)

vivastory is not only a code, but it is a language that IS information itself. There is discussion here of how the same concept is expressed much more succinctly by certain words than others, but there isn't really an ideal language for using it. Apparently babel-17 is the ideal language. So Rhydra gathers together a space crew to gather more info on babel-17. The info on when Delany was describing her crew was both fascinating & dark as well. 2w

vivastory This is def. ideas-driven SF, along the lines of Le Guin & PK Dick. The frequent discussions of linguistics makes me think of Ted Chiang & Cixin Liu. However the dark & strange worldbuilding adds a whole new element to it. (edited) 2w

Ruthiella Great review! I definitely want to try Delany again after DNFing (and scrubbing my brain from)

Dhalgren

See All 6 Comments

AlaMich I own this and need to get to it. I am a linguistics nerd and this sounded right up my alley. 2w

vivastory @Ruthiella I do want to try Dhalgren some point in the future but will probably tackle several others by him first. There were several points during Babel-17 where I had to reread them to get the science fully lol 2w

vivastory @AlaMich For me the linguistics was by far the most interesting aspect 2w

55 likes1 stack add6 comments

uwak

Babel-17/Empire Star | Samuel R Delany

so-so

I ended up bailing on Babel-17 since the book was going over my head almost immediately but wanted to at least finish Empire Star for my book club. this is another case of "I totally respect the subject of the writing and think parts are legit neat but overall it's not something up my alley". I'm a bit sad since I enjoyed Delany's Einstein Intersection a while back.

4 likes