![]() ![]() Delany has a knack for imagining and telegraphing complex societies that are very different from our own without drowning us in exposition. Though a short book, it took me a week to read because, as always, Delany’s science fiction exemplifies the way in which this genre can be used to explore complex ideas. Perhaps more importantly for Delany’s themes, Rydra meets an enigmatic man whose incomprehension of I and you provides that final piece to her Babel-17 puzzle. ![]() In this process, she and her crew face terrible danger. ![]() ![]() Rydra decides she needs to take out a starship and crew and investigate the site of an upcoming attack by the Invaders, one that will help her understand the nature of Babel-17 once and for all. She has mastered so many languages that the military approaches her to decipher an Invader code called Babel-17. We are also at war with unspecified aliens called the Invaders. When a friend asked me if I had enjoyed it, I replied, “I respect it.” That’s perhaps the best way to sum up a lot of my feelings about Delany’s science fiction.īabel-17 takes place in a future where humanity has spread out across the stars. Delany, Babel-17 proved at various times frustrating, inscrutable, exceptional, and interesting. As with most of my experiences reading Samuel R. I recently rediscovered this book hiding in a crate in my home library, waiting several years to be read. ![]()
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