Rated "Good" in our old book database. ( )

Put together like the old Ace double-headers you get both the novel and the novella (mentioned in the novel!). Self-reference is everywhere and Delaney is a remarkably complex writer. I'm still not sure exactly what it was all about but it reminded me of Dick without all the psychotic baggage. It's remarkable that Delaney could toss off Empire Star in just five days. I've read some of Moorcock's rush jobs and they just don't even come close.

I'll have to breakdown and read [b:Dhalgren|85867|Dhalgren|Samuel R. Delany|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320531180s/85867.jpg|873021] I guess since it is supposed to be his magnum opus but I'm not looking forward to the Joycean density that is probably involved given that these here are considered his more "accessible" works.

I'm not sure why someone like Pynchon is considered literature while Delaney is just considered sf. So many people cheat themselves of great literature by shunning all genre fiction. ( )

Just finished Empire Star, the novella published with Babel-17.

By itself, I would give it 4 stars. Excellent, thoughtful read dealing with an interesting caste system and the complexities of Time.

Delany's control of prose is masterful, although I didn't realize it right away--Although, considering this piece, that only makes it more obvious. I am glad this was the first of his works I finished. Now, I only want to read more.

On to Babel-17.

Occasional places where I was surprised the language got a little clunky. But a great read. Language as the center and a poet as the main character. I wish Delany would have gone farther with the character's art, but I think he deals with this in other work.

( )

I was very happy to experience adventure through the mind of a cool intergalactic linguist, especially a female one, as I was long turned off from the macho boys' club of sci fi. Out of the few Delany stories I've read, this one was the most engaging to me, but that might be biased by my personal linguistic interests and love of self reference. The protagonist of Babel-17 being the author of Empire Star put me from engaging in one level of the story's universe to being fully tied up in it. Reading the story of the exolinguist in Ted Chiang's "[b:Stories of Your Life and Others|223380|Stories of Your Life and Others|Ted Chiang|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356138316s/223380.jpg|216334]" around the same time really suplimented my engagement as well. But mostly the motivating force of Babel-17 being learning the origins of a beautiful and complete language system was the real hooking-point for my word-nerd self.

Conditions supported my enjoyment, but surely if I read these stories at any other time I would have gotten a lot of out of them. For instance, the metaphoric explanation of the difference between simplex, complex, and multiplex consciousness had a profound effect on my experience; a concise way to internalize the models of multidimensional thought.

The characters in some of Delany's earlier stories seemed more like talking archetypes than fully developed personalities, though not in these stories. I remember them all having fully independent beings. All also hallmarks of Delany's obviously richly experienced life. Proof of his own adventuring shows through in the embedding of great wisdom in unlikely places...

Woman, telepath, tries to track down source of special language; which contains grammar which causes violent psychoses