Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
New York Ace 1974. (1974), Paperback
Description
Babel-17, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy's deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack.
Media reviews
If Babel 17 were published now as a new book, I think it would strike us an great work that was doing wonderful things and expanding the boundaries of science fiction. I think we’d nominate it for awards and talk a lot about it. It’s almost as old as I am, and I really think it would still be
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an exciting significant book if it were new now. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member spiphany
This was on a list of linguistics in science fiction and, hence, automatically of interest to me. Delany takes the linguistic theory known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and weaves a fascinating story about communication, loneliness, relationships--and of course Babel-17, the alien language which
Besides these two theories, both of which are taken to extremes in the Babel-17, Delany plays with language in numerous other ways throughout the book. I gather he makes numerous errors in some of the linguistic details, particularly in the area of phonology; all the same, he displays a much greater familiarity with how language works than many writers. There is a wonderful episode where an attack on an invader ship is described in terms of patients in a mental hospital, and another where Rydra attempts to explain 'I' and 'you' to a man who has no conception of either.
As a writer, Delany's strength is in characterization and description, and he tends to have a bit of difficulty with creating a satisfactory plot. Here he manages to balance plot and philosophy quite well (certainly better than in some of his other works), and the story advances quite naturally, although I found some of the conclusions he draws slightly hard to credit.
I enjoyed the book a great deal. However, some of my pleasure in it was spoiled by reading Walter Earl Meyers' fairly harsh critique of it in his study "Aliens and Linguists", which is where I got most of the linguistic details from for this review. His criticism of the book's inaccuracies are undoubtably justified from the perspective of a linguist, but as a poet and a philosopher Delany's writing rings true.
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poet Rydra Wong sets out to decode. Very briefly, Sapir-Whorf is the idea that language affects how we think: "If there's no word for it, how do you think about it?" There's also a clear influence from Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics, which arose after the Second World War and emphasizes the principle that the more precise and exact a language is, the clearer the meaning.Besides these two theories, both of which are taken to extremes in the Babel-17, Delany plays with language in numerous other ways throughout the book. I gather he makes numerous errors in some of the linguistic details, particularly in the area of phonology; all the same, he displays a much greater familiarity with how language works than many writers. There is a wonderful episode where an attack on an invader ship is described in terms of patients in a mental hospital, and another where Rydra attempts to explain 'I' and 'you' to a man who has no conception of either.
As a writer, Delany's strength is in characterization and description, and he tends to have a bit of difficulty with creating a satisfactory plot. Here he manages to balance plot and philosophy quite well (certainly better than in some of his other works), and the story advances quite naturally, although I found some of the conclusions he draws slightly hard to credit.
I enjoyed the book a great deal. However, some of my pleasure in it was spoiled by reading Walter Earl Meyers' fairly harsh critique of it in his study "Aliens and Linguists", which is where I got most of the linguistic details from for this review. His criticism of the book's inaccuracies are undoubtably justified from the perspective of a linguist, but as a poet and a philosopher Delany's writing rings true.
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LibraryThing member duhrer
Although "Babel-17" is set in a future with starships, reanimated consciousnesses, extreme body modifications, advanced weapons, and interstellar conflict with alien cultures, it is not so much a story about any of these things as it is a story about language and understanding.
Rydra Wong, the main
It's a short book, and has a nice focus to it. Delany gives a lot of detail about the characters and their communication to give the book a nice depth, but goes light enough on the details about the technology and environments that the reader's imagination can fill in the details. With very few exceptions, the low level of tecnnical detail helps avoid dating the book, which stands the test of time quite well.
Very enjoyable and a quick read, highly recommended.
Rydra Wong, the main
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character, is a genius at understanding spoken languages. She can also read attitudes and at times entire trains of thought from body language. She is enlisted to decipher a new language (Babel-17), and her journey to understand the language and the mindset it implies takes her far in both space and understanding.It's a short book, and has a nice focus to it. Delany gives a lot of detail about the characters and their communication to give the book a nice depth, but goes light enough on the details about the technology and environments that the reader's imagination can fill in the details. With very few exceptions, the low level of tecnnical detail helps avoid dating the book, which stands the test of time quite well.
Very enjoyable and a quick read, highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member Lindoula
As a linguist, it's hard for me to buy into Babel-17 as a plot device, simply because the strong form of linguistic determinism (AKA Sapir–Whorf hypothesis) it depends on has been soundly debunked for decades. Still, it's an interesting concept for fiction, and Delany's world-building is vivid
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without being exhaustively described. Also, bonus points for actually using phonetic features and manners of articulation accurately, for the most part. Show Less
LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reaction to reading this novel in 1998. Spoilers follow.
While I’ve read a few short stories by Delany before, none really impressed (though I think he has a knack with titles); however, I liked this novel.
My initial question, right at the opening of chapter one, is how much Delany influenced
The central theme of this novel is communication. One version of this is Rydra Wong’s telepathy, rationalized somewhat cleverly, as a modulation of the very weak radio signals (I have no idea of this is true or not) given off by the human body and picked up by the miles and miles of nerves serving as antennas. It is a talent few have. Another form of communication (explored earlier in Frank Herbert’s Dune and, I believe, A.E. van Vogt) is the precise reading of people’s intents and emotions via body language. Rydra Wong, the novel’s hero, is a charismatic character sufficiently multi-talented – a poet, black belt in akido, starship captain, and very talented linguist – and charismatic for a space opera. (Everybody who meets her loves her, and I suppose the idea of an Oriental woman as a book’s hero was somewhat novel for 1966.) Her work as a writer leads to passages that are, I suspect, Delany exposing his own philosophy on writing: to not be mystical and very realistic in details, to mature it is necessary to not imitate or respond to others, to say what others can say for themselves.
The idea of communication is also in the close triples that transport people sometimes form, unions of sex, business, and profession, intimate bonds. I liked the parts where Rydra, unaware of her telepathic abilities, knows the thoughts of others (part of this is due to her reading of body language) and can express them though not always her own. This struggle for communication is set up right at the beginning with General Forester wondering at the quiet inhabitants of a port city who have suffered periods of embargo and resulting riots and cannibalism but now they seem ordinary. There is a gulf between the subculture and quasi-families of Transport crews (with the younger members literally kids patented by surrogate fathers and mothers).
The book’s core and most obvious variation on the theme of communication (and reason for its fame and acclaim) is its linguistic speculation. Delany tackles the classic linguistic question on whether language shapes or reflects our thoughts, that is can we think a thought for which we don’t have a word. Delany takes the view that we can not. There is a short, but interesting, passage about how the language of aliens shapes their behavior to the extent that some alien races are seldom seen. The alien Ciribians have a language so precise they can describe a vast “solar-energy conversion plant” precisely enough in nine words to allow its complete reconstruction.
The main invention of Delany’s, and it’s as plausible and interesting as many of the speculations of hard sf, is Babel-17, a language designed for battle and sabotage; where one word stands for entire categories of thing which somehow facilitates a very fast analysis of battle patterns of offense, defense, and enemy intent; whose lack of a singular personal pronoun facilitates unwitting sleeper agents (how these latter two things are effected exactly is never explained but then it’s too much to expect of Delany or any writer to explain how a new language affects thinking, processes. Babel-17 is a language more analytic than English and also capable of generating more logical paradoxes. How this is true with a language of such seeming imprecision is not explained.) and sabotage. Delany grafts these linguistic speculations on an essentially a space opera plot. (I understand his early finesse with space opera garnered his reputation.) Space travel (never really explained but half-rationalized with some nice poetic language) is reminiscent of the ocean with talk of currents. Unwitting sleeper agents, genetically engineered saboteurs and assassins, some nifty weapons in the mansion of Baron ver Darco, and a space war. Granted, the subornation of the TW-55 was expected as was the revelation that Butcher spoke Babel-17 and (I liked the modification of Babel-17 into the more useful, less bellicose Babel-18) would turn out to be connected with the sabotage incidents, but I still found the novel fairly exciting.
While I’ve read a few short stories by Delany before, none really impressed (though I think he has a knack with titles); however, I liked this novel.
My initial question, right at the opening of chapter one, is how much Delany influenced
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William Gibson and the other cyberpunks (I don’t recall him listed as an influence). Like the famous opening of Gibson’s Neuromancer, this novel opens with a port city and technological/industrial metaphors describing the color of the sky. Delany’s spacemen are a flamboyant subculture given to extensive body modifications just like Gibson’s cyber cowboys. The central theme of this novel is communication. One version of this is Rydra Wong’s telepathy, rationalized somewhat cleverly, as a modulation of the very weak radio signals (I have no idea of this is true or not) given off by the human body and picked up by the miles and miles of nerves serving as antennas. It is a talent few have. Another form of communication (explored earlier in Frank Herbert’s Dune and, I believe, A.E. van Vogt) is the precise reading of people’s intents and emotions via body language. Rydra Wong, the novel’s hero, is a charismatic character sufficiently multi-talented – a poet, black belt in akido, starship captain, and very talented linguist – and charismatic for a space opera. (Everybody who meets her loves her, and I suppose the idea of an Oriental woman as a book’s hero was somewhat novel for 1966.) Her work as a writer leads to passages that are, I suspect, Delany exposing his own philosophy on writing: to not be mystical and very realistic in details, to mature it is necessary to not imitate or respond to others, to say what others can say for themselves.
The idea of communication is also in the close triples that transport people sometimes form, unions of sex, business, and profession, intimate bonds. I liked the parts where Rydra, unaware of her telepathic abilities, knows the thoughts of others (part of this is due to her reading of body language) and can express them though not always her own. This struggle for communication is set up right at the beginning with General Forester wondering at the quiet inhabitants of a port city who have suffered periods of embargo and resulting riots and cannibalism but now they seem ordinary. There is a gulf between the subculture and quasi-families of Transport crews (with the younger members literally kids patented by surrogate fathers and mothers).
The book’s core and most obvious variation on the theme of communication (and reason for its fame and acclaim) is its linguistic speculation. Delany tackles the classic linguistic question on whether language shapes or reflects our thoughts, that is can we think a thought for which we don’t have a word. Delany takes the view that we can not. There is a short, but interesting, passage about how the language of aliens shapes their behavior to the extent that some alien races are seldom seen. The alien Ciribians have a language so precise they can describe a vast “solar-energy conversion plant” precisely enough in nine words to allow its complete reconstruction.
The main invention of Delany’s, and it’s as plausible and interesting as many of the speculations of hard sf, is Babel-17, a language designed for battle and sabotage; where one word stands for entire categories of thing which somehow facilitates a very fast analysis of battle patterns of offense, defense, and enemy intent; whose lack of a singular personal pronoun facilitates unwitting sleeper agents (how these latter two things are effected exactly is never explained but then it’s too much to expect of Delany or any writer to explain how a new language affects thinking, processes. Babel-17 is a language more analytic than English and also capable of generating more logical paradoxes. How this is true with a language of such seeming imprecision is not explained.) and sabotage. Delany grafts these linguistic speculations on an essentially a space opera plot. (I understand his early finesse with space opera garnered his reputation.) Space travel (never really explained but half-rationalized with some nice poetic language) is reminiscent of the ocean with talk of currents. Unwitting sleeper agents, genetically engineered saboteurs and assassins, some nifty weapons in the mansion of Baron ver Darco, and a space war. Granted, the subornation of the TW-55 was expected as was the revelation that Butcher spoke Babel-17 and (I liked the modification of Babel-17 into the more useful, less bellicose Babel-18) would turn out to be connected with the sabotage incidents, but I still found the novel fairly exciting.
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LibraryThing member DabOfDarkness
Rydra Wong, an ex-military cryptographer, a poet, and a linguist, has been approached by the military once again to help decipher the Babel-17 code used by the alien invaders in their many attacks. Rydra realizes that Babel-17 is not a code, but a language. After obtaining some of the original
I read the paperback version of this book some years ago as part of Little Red Reviewer’s yearly Vintage Science Fiction event. It was great then and I enjoyed it even more the second time through. There is a lot going on in this little book that was first published in the 1960s. First, our main hero is Rydra, a woman. Second, the cast of characters are quite varied – several have body modifications such as tattoos, spurs, enhanced bones, etc. Third, one of the core themes of the book is that language can influence thought patterns and behaviors of the speaker. I once studied a variety of languages, so I really enjoyed this aspect to the story.
Rydra is first introduced as a beautiful poet and, back in my first reading years ago, I thought this would be like so many beautiful damsel in distress SF stories that came out of the 1960s. Pretty quickly, we come to realize that Rydra is so much more that a poetic pretty face. For much of the book, she’s the one calling the shots and keeping her crew safe. I also liked her backstory that we learn mostly through her psychiatrist turned mentor and confidant. Rydra wasn’t always good at expressing herself.
Brass was my second favorite character. I picture him as a big lion that can leap about on all fours or walk on two legs, depending on what he wants to do. He’s a friendly brawler. He recently lost a loved one. It’s takes three to fly a ship and those three have to be in sync with each other and quite often the three are a loving triple. Rydra finds Brass and his partner a third at the morgue. Yep. There are dead flying zombies in this book, though the word ‘zombie’ is never used. In fact, Rydra’s search for a crew was quite amusing. She needs a port authority to approve the psych indices of her crew, so she hauls his reluctant butt around the port bars so he can approve on the spot and they can get in the air. He learns quite a bit that night and goes from looking down on such people to admiring several and continuing to visit the bars and watch the fights.
There’s this whole espionage feel to the quest. Babel-17 is an insidious language and slippery to describe, let alone translate. Rydra intuitively knows some of this but as she pieces more and more of it together, and as ‘accidents’ stat happening with her ship, she becomes more aware of just how important Babel-17 is to the attackers. Later in the story, we meet an escaped convict, the Butcher, and he becomes an important part of the story. Without spoiling anything, I just want to include that little snippet here to point out that the book has this continuing way of making the reader look at the second layer to each character. Rydra is more than a poet. Brass is more than a wrestler. The Butcher is more than a convict. These fascinating characters make for an excellent story.
Towards the end, the story leaves the comfort space of science fiction and gets a little fantasy genre on us. The first time I read this story, I didn’t understand all of what happened here but I understood enough to feel the story had a solid ending. The second time through, I get it a bit more but there’s still a few cloudy areas. I say this is probably the only weak spot to the story, but if you were to ask me after a third reading, I might disagree with myself. At any rate, the story does have a clear and solid ending that makes sense, even if the minute specifics of how we got there are a little muddled. It’s definitely a worthy read.
I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost from the publisher (via Audiobook Jukebox) in exchange for an honest review.
The Narration: Stefan Rudnicki did a great job with this book. Some parts of it are a bit tricky to vocalize; for instance, the character Brass can’t shape the letter P, so Rudnicki had to leave any Ps out of Brass’s ‘accent’. He did this smoothly and I can only imagine that he had to practice a bit. He brought each character to life and managed all the accents described in the book, including the foreign (made up?) languages.
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recordings, she has an intuitive guess as to where the next attack will occur. With the military’s blessing, she dusts off her captain’s wings and assembles a very colorful crew to head out to meet the threat and hopefully get to the root of the Babel-17 attacks.I read the paperback version of this book some years ago as part of Little Red Reviewer’s yearly Vintage Science Fiction event. It was great then and I enjoyed it even more the second time through. There is a lot going on in this little book that was first published in the 1960s. First, our main hero is Rydra, a woman. Second, the cast of characters are quite varied – several have body modifications such as tattoos, spurs, enhanced bones, etc. Third, one of the core themes of the book is that language can influence thought patterns and behaviors of the speaker. I once studied a variety of languages, so I really enjoyed this aspect to the story.
Rydra is first introduced as a beautiful poet and, back in my first reading years ago, I thought this would be like so many beautiful damsel in distress SF stories that came out of the 1960s. Pretty quickly, we come to realize that Rydra is so much more that a poetic pretty face. For much of the book, she’s the one calling the shots and keeping her crew safe. I also liked her backstory that we learn mostly through her psychiatrist turned mentor and confidant. Rydra wasn’t always good at expressing herself.
Brass was my second favorite character. I picture him as a big lion that can leap about on all fours or walk on two legs, depending on what he wants to do. He’s a friendly brawler. He recently lost a loved one. It’s takes three to fly a ship and those three have to be in sync with each other and quite often the three are a loving triple. Rydra finds Brass and his partner a third at the morgue. Yep. There are dead flying zombies in this book, though the word ‘zombie’ is never used. In fact, Rydra’s search for a crew was quite amusing. She needs a port authority to approve the psych indices of her crew, so she hauls his reluctant butt around the port bars so he can approve on the spot and they can get in the air. He learns quite a bit that night and goes from looking down on such people to admiring several and continuing to visit the bars and watch the fights.
There’s this whole espionage feel to the quest. Babel-17 is an insidious language and slippery to describe, let alone translate. Rydra intuitively knows some of this but as she pieces more and more of it together, and as ‘accidents’ stat happening with her ship, she becomes more aware of just how important Babel-17 is to the attackers. Later in the story, we meet an escaped convict, the Butcher, and he becomes an important part of the story. Without spoiling anything, I just want to include that little snippet here to point out that the book has this continuing way of making the reader look at the second layer to each character. Rydra is more than a poet. Brass is more than a wrestler. The Butcher is more than a convict. These fascinating characters make for an excellent story.
Towards the end, the story leaves the comfort space of science fiction and gets a little fantasy genre on us. The first time I read this story, I didn’t understand all of what happened here but I understood enough to feel the story had a solid ending. The second time through, I get it a bit more but there’s still a few cloudy areas. I say this is probably the only weak spot to the story, but if you were to ask me after a third reading, I might disagree with myself. At any rate, the story does have a clear and solid ending that makes sense, even if the minute specifics of how we got there are a little muddled. It’s definitely a worthy read.
I received a copy of this audiobook at no cost from the publisher (via Audiobook Jukebox) in exchange for an honest review.
The Narration: Stefan Rudnicki did a great job with this book. Some parts of it are a bit tricky to vocalize; for instance, the character Brass can’t shape the letter P, so Rudnicki had to leave any Ps out of Brass’s ‘accent’. He did this smoothly and I can only imagine that he had to practice a bit. He brought each character to life and managed all the accents described in the book, including the foreign (made up?) languages.
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LibraryThing member Move_and_Merge
Delany almost certainly read Alfred Korzybski--several concepts in this novel come straight from general semantics.
The prose is poetic, even elegiac at times. I definitely recommend this--very impressive, when one considers its context in the history of SF.
The prose is poetic, even elegiac at times. I definitely recommend this--very impressive, when one considers its context in the history of SF.
LibraryThing member Tikimoof
Okay, this book really needed to be put in context for me to like it more, because I didn't grow up reading Delany and I knew nothing about him. Samuel R. Delany is a gay black man, and this book was published in 1966.
So that helps with how Rydra Wong is always described as the most beautiful
It also helps with the description of Babel-17 at the end, because it's...kind of really dated.
But some of my issues with the book were my own personal discomfort with intimate settings. Rydra is exceptionally good at reading body language, so characters' movements and tics are described in more detail than normal. I've been struggling with how to describe it - more tell than show? Or it might actually be more show than tell because we see exactly what makes the body language indicate a certain mood. It automatically makes me kind of recoil when I read because it feels too visceral. But it's a deliberate choice of Delany's, which I have to respect.
So that helps with how Rydra Wong is always described as the most beautiful
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desirable woman ever, because man oh man does it make me angry for a woman to be talking linguistics only to have the man fawning over how beautiful she is and not really taking in what she's saying. Which I guess might be accurate? I don't know, but the author is the one taking liberties to create this society so they don't have to put it in there.It also helps with the description of Babel-17 at the end, because it's...kind of really dated.
But some of my issues with the book were my own personal discomfort with intimate settings. Rydra is exceptionally good at reading body language, so characters' movements and tics are described in more detail than normal. I've been struggling with how to describe it - more tell than show? Or it might actually be more show than tell because we see exactly what makes the body language indicate a certain mood. It automatically makes me kind of recoil when I read because it feels too visceral. But it's a deliberate choice of Delany's, which I have to respect.
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LibraryThing member ToddSherman
“And on the worlds of five galaxies, now, people delve your imagery and meaning for the answers to the riddles of greatness, love, and isolation.”
“Drop a gem in thick oil. The brilliance yellows slowly, ambers, goes red at last, dies. That was the leap into hyperstatic space.”
—Babel-17 by
More of a mixed bag than I was expecting. The myth of the Tower of Babel was just as mixed, linguistically. And maybe that was the point of the book. Lots of ideas condensed in a short amount of space (one-hundred and seventy-three pages in my Ace edition)—which I normally prefer for genre fiction. However, I think this would’ve benefited from, not so much exposition, but the breadth that that normally demands to give this novel more staying power. Sci-Fi is one of three mainstays I’ll default to if I don’t have a book loaded in the chamber. (Yes, books are bullets. You’ve never had a novel blow out half your brain? May I suggest “1984”?) And I really dig the “golden age” variety. But one problem that surfaces fairly regularly with that era is the predilection for, or addiction to, inventing devices and painstakingly explaining how they work—all to the detriment (or at least the suspension of) the narrative. And nothing will make Sci-Fi seem more outdated than missing the prediction on future technology; at best, it’s quaint. So, this book, too, is quaint. Nice passages of literary invention wedged between hurried action and expository dialogue. Oh, well, you can’t have it all. Not always. And I’ve read better by Delany. “The Einstein Intersection” was brilliant, as I’m sure “Dhalgren” will be when I finally get to that.
And mixed bags. What’re up with them? Can’t we get that shit sorted properly before we put it all in the goddamn bag? Come on, writers. It’s the least we could do. Actually, that would be in not writing at all . . . and I prefer packing my shit in boxes anyway. So, yeah, a mixed box but with some kind of order that doesn’t waste its space and not make it a bitch to unpack. Like the best of books. This isn’t one of them—despite the “Best SF Novel of the Year—Nebula Award” starburst on the front. Maybe it was a lean year. Maybe in 1966 self-inflating chairs were absolutely unthinkably fucking cool. My review, however, remains . . . well, mixed.
“Drop a gem in thick oil. The brilliance yellows slowly, ambers, goes red at last, dies. That was the leap into hyperstatic space.”
—Babel-17 by
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Samuel R. DelanyMore of a mixed bag than I was expecting. The myth of the Tower of Babel was just as mixed, linguistically. And maybe that was the point of the book. Lots of ideas condensed in a short amount of space (one-hundred and seventy-three pages in my Ace edition)—which I normally prefer for genre fiction. However, I think this would’ve benefited from, not so much exposition, but the breadth that that normally demands to give this novel more staying power. Sci-Fi is one of three mainstays I’ll default to if I don’t have a book loaded in the chamber. (Yes, books are bullets. You’ve never had a novel blow out half your brain? May I suggest “1984”?) And I really dig the “golden age” variety. But one problem that surfaces fairly regularly with that era is the predilection for, or addiction to, inventing devices and painstakingly explaining how they work—all to the detriment (or at least the suspension of) the narrative. And nothing will make Sci-Fi seem more outdated than missing the prediction on future technology; at best, it’s quaint. So, this book, too, is quaint. Nice passages of literary invention wedged between hurried action and expository dialogue. Oh, well, you can’t have it all. Not always. And I’ve read better by Delany. “The Einstein Intersection” was brilliant, as I’m sure “Dhalgren” will be when I finally get to that.
And mixed bags. What’re up with them? Can’t we get that shit sorted properly before we put it all in the goddamn bag? Come on, writers. It’s the least we could do. Actually, that would be in not writing at all . . . and I prefer packing my shit in boxes anyway. So, yeah, a mixed box but with some kind of order that doesn’t waste its space and not make it a bitch to unpack. Like the best of books. This isn’t one of them—despite the “Best SF Novel of the Year—Nebula Award” starburst on the front. Maybe it was a lean year. Maybe in 1966 self-inflating chairs were absolutely unthinkably fucking cool. My review, however, remains . . . well, mixed.
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LibraryThing member Zare
Idea of language used as a weapon is very fascinating. Main character is a linguist and a poet, simply put a prodigy when it comes to communication on any level. Now she is sent to investigate a mysterious form of communication - universal language, codenamed Babel-17 by the military - used by
Author's style is, mildly put :), unique. First few chapters (when the main character is on a search for the ship crew) feel like something from drug-induced dreams :) chimera-like creatures (basically humans that underwent some sort of cosmetic surgery), environment, their roles on ship .... all of it feels very weird :)
Also author likes to show the true power of language. Since English is not my mother tongue it took me some time to go through these parts of the story - I guess these are some magnificent language exercises but unfortunately they didn't have such an effect on me (again I guess because English is not my mother tongue). Instead, I had a feeling of story starting fast, then moving through some slow-motion parts (aforementioned language related philosophy) and then speeding up again before another "break".
Interesting book, very imaginative and certainly has an interesting subject. But to truly enjoy it reader must know English language very very well.
Recommended for SF fans.
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mysterious invading forces that are slowly crawling into space controlled by humans.Author's style is, mildly put :), unique. First few chapters (when the main character is on a search for the ship crew) feel like something from drug-induced dreams :) chimera-like creatures (basically humans that underwent some sort of cosmetic surgery), environment, their roles on ship .... all of it feels very weird :)
Also author likes to show the true power of language. Since English is not my mother tongue it took me some time to go through these parts of the story - I guess these are some magnificent language exercises but unfortunately they didn't have such an effect on me (again I guess because English is not my mother tongue). Instead, I had a feeling of story starting fast, then moving through some slow-motion parts (aforementioned language related philosophy) and then speeding up again before another "break".
Interesting book, very imaginative and certainly has an interesting subject. But to truly enjoy it reader must know English language very very well.
Recommended for SF fans.
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LibraryThing member bunwat
I think I liked the ideas a lot more than the prose or the plot. There is a lot of really great stuff in here, gene altered starship pilots who look like griffins or tigers or dragons, assassins and spies being built in a lab, a capable and interesting heroine building a starship crew and taking
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them out into adventures on the edge of known space. Lots of fun. The structure of the novel is off for me though, particularly the pacing which is kind of all over the place. Still, you can definitely see why Delany is a highly respected author. Show Less
LibraryThing member crosbyp
Delany expresses himself in creative and poetic prose, but there is still a pulpy, somewhat old-fashioned tone to this book. The characters are interesting for what they do, and not what they are. The ending was a complete miss.
Not quite in the class as Wolfe or Banks. However, I am willing to try
Not quite in the class as Wolfe or Banks. However, I am willing to try
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more of his works, especially Dhalgren and Nova. Show Less
LibraryThing member fredjryder1946
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
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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. - Michael Battaglia Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
In the far future, the galactic empire is at war with the Invaders, and the military turns to beautiful, accomplished, slightly telepathic poet Rydra Wong to help with a new code the Invaders have developed to aid their sabotage efforts; however, the code is actually an artificial language,
This was a fun, short read, but I think a little dated now. It is remarkable for having a female lead character who is not treated like window dressing, something sadly lacking in other classic science fiction from the same time period. The big idea regarding the power of language to manipulate thought and experience is pretty interesting, although I wish it had been more fleshed out. I also found most of the characters other than Rydra to be fairly underdeveloped, and there seemed a lot of jumping from action scene to action without taking the time to fill out the transitions, making the story slightly dissatisfying. For its time, it's a fun action-adventure story that hits all the right notes, but modern sci-fi readers demand more.
Read for the SFFCat in 2015.
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Babel-17, with frightening properties.This was a fun, short read, but I think a little dated now. It is remarkable for having a female lead character who is not treated like window dressing, something sadly lacking in other classic science fiction from the same time period. The big idea regarding the power of language to manipulate thought and experience is pretty interesting, although I wish it had been more fleshed out. I also found most of the characters other than Rydra to be fairly underdeveloped, and there seemed a lot of jumping from action scene to action without taking the time to fill out the transitions, making the story slightly dissatisfying. For its time, it's a fun action-adventure story that hits all the right notes, but modern sci-fi readers demand more.
Read for the SFFCat in 2015.
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LibraryThing member ivan.frade
Simply great science-fiction that reminded me why do I like the genre.
In a far future, language becomes a weapon and humanity defenses end up in the hands of a poet. This future universe is nicely hinted in details everywhere, setting a rich and interesting background without losing track of the
Awesome reading.
In a far future, language becomes a weapon and humanity defenses end up in the hands of a poet. This future universe is nicely hinted in details everywhere, setting a rich and interesting background without losing track of the
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real story.Awesome reading.
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LibraryThing member kevinashley
A tale which is ultimately about how language shapes our thoughts. That's not by any means a new concept in literary fiction or in sociolinguistics, but SF allows it to be explored in way that stretches its boundaries and makes the reader wonder just how true it is.
The plot begins as a poet and
The plot begins as a poet and
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ex-codebreaker is brought in to decode a mysterious noise-like transmission related to war-like incidents. It proves to be a language so different it alters how you think. Well-written and plotted although with a vaguely disappointing end, it also makes many points about different types of relationships and social values. Delany handles all the concepts he's dealing with deftly and engagingly. A good read when I encountered it in the early 2000s; it must have been stunning at the time it appeared almost 40 years earlier. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This book takes a premise from linguistics - language shapes thought - and takes it to it's extreme. Rydra Wong is a poet and linguistic savant who has been asked to translate encoded messages that accompany the Invaders' attacks on the Alliance. She discovers that the language is highly efficient
It's a very interesting premise, and Delany handles it very well. This is one of those sci-fi books where there's lots of space travel and battle and strange creatures, so I didn't always understand everything that was happening, but it was a fun, quick read, and I really enjoyed the exploration of the power of language.
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and highly analytic, and thinking in Babel-17 gives her superhuman powers of perception and analysis.It's a very interesting premise, and Delany handles it very well. This is one of those sci-fi books where there's lots of space travel and battle and strange creatures, so I didn't always understand everything that was happening, but it was a fun, quick read, and I really enjoyed the exploration of the power of language.
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LibraryThing member daviddonnelly
Hard to believe it was written when author was 24. Groundbreaking ideas and well told to go with it.
LibraryThing member ragwaine
He lost me a bunch of times, writing needs to be more clear. Focuses on things others don't. Very original, cool plot.
LibraryThing member dgrayson
An interesting book that made me think about how the words we use define the world we live in.
LibraryThing member elmyra
Greatly enjoyed it, loved the characters, and there are some very interesting thoughts on the relationship between thought and language.
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
The most striking aspect of Babel-17 was not the stylistic fireworks - I came to the book expecting no less from Delany - nor the colourful and vibrant 'underground' life of the various pilots, drifters, pilots and poets that populate the peripheries of the society Delany creates, but quiet simply,
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just how 'modern' the feel of the novel of is, both in its ideas and execution. Most space opera from the 60s feels hopelessly antiquated, but not Babel-17. A fine read. Show Less
LibraryThing member apatt
Samuel R. Delany was on a short list of famous sf authors I have never read, the list includes Cordwainer Smith, Henry Kuttner, C. J. Cherryh, Stephen Baxter and Neal Asher. I will try to get to all of them next year, any recommendations concerning these authors would be welcome.
Babel-17 is a very
The weaponized language is the eponymous Babel-17 which is being used to sabotage the war efforts of The Alliance, the side of the war the story is narrated from; whether this is the "right" side is not really dwelled upon in the book. The protagonist is genius poet turned starship captain Rydra Wong, she puts a crew of some very odd people together to find the secrets of Babel-17 in order to put an end to the seemingly unstoppable sabotages. Members of her crew are all genetically modified and some are actually dead but serving as a kind of high tech ghosts. The dialogue concerning a language without the concept of I and Me is one of the highlights of the book. The denouement at the in the last chapter is fascinating, though the actual ending is a little abrupt.
While I found the ideas and concepts very interesting and thought provoking I also found the pacing to be a little uneven, a couple of chapters simply dragged, in a short novel like this I expected a tighter narrative. The character of Rydra Wong is well developed, she is complex and believable, though I don't find her particularly appealing. Given the short length of the book the other characters are at least adequately developed, but again I did not feel any emotional investment in them.
I would recommend this book to sf readers looking for a short and thought provoking read. Don't expect edge of the seat entertainment, but plenty of food for thought.
Babel-17 is a very
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short novel (too long to be a novella may be) about the power of language, a culture called The Invaders creates a language which can be used to control thoughts and actions through the structure and content of the language itself, more like brain washing than mind control or hypnosis. The concept is based on the "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" which (if I understand it correctly) posits that ideas can not be thought of without words to facilitate them. The theory has since been disproved so I wouldn't give too much credence to it. Excellent basis for an sf novel certainly. The weaponized language is the eponymous Babel-17 which is being used to sabotage the war efforts of The Alliance, the side of the war the story is narrated from; whether this is the "right" side is not really dwelled upon in the book. The protagonist is genius poet turned starship captain Rydra Wong, she puts a crew of some very odd people together to find the secrets of Babel-17 in order to put an end to the seemingly unstoppable sabotages. Members of her crew are all genetically modified and some are actually dead but serving as a kind of high tech ghosts. The dialogue concerning a language without the concept of I and Me is one of the highlights of the book. The denouement at the in the last chapter is fascinating, though the actual ending is a little abrupt.
While I found the ideas and concepts very interesting and thought provoking I also found the pacing to be a little uneven, a couple of chapters simply dragged, in a short novel like this I expected a tighter narrative. The character of Rydra Wong is well developed, she is complex and believable, though I don't find her particularly appealing. Given the short length of the book the other characters are at least adequately developed, but again I did not feel any emotional investment in them.
I would recommend this book to sf readers looking for a short and thought provoking read. Don't expect edge of the seat entertainment, but plenty of food for thought.
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LibraryThing member Charon07
A science fiction classic from 1966, and one that is, sadly, still somewhat ahead of the times. Not in terms of the technology (there are still phone booths!), nor the linguistic theory (Sapir-Whorf linguistic determinism having since fallen by the wayside), but in terms of its social and sexual
Communication is a key theme. An intergalactic war is going on between the Alliance and the Invaders. Key Alliance military targets are being sabotaged, and when they are, a strange transmissions are detected that the military believes to be a code but that Rydra recognizes as a language. How Rydra goes about translating that language is the core of the plot, but there are many fascinating side trips. Rydra’s recruiting her spaceship crew to take her to the scene of what she’s determined will be the next target of sabotage takes up a good part of the early chapters, and this is where Delany’s flaunts the sociocultural details that color his universe: from the stiff, bureacratic Customs officer who is introduced to the wrong side of town, to the bars and wrestling rings where potential pilots with exotic body modifications fight, to the Morgue where a dead navigator is brought back to be the third member of the required polyamorous triple of navigators; these chapters were my favorite part of the book.
I haven’t read enough Delany, and I’m inspired to take on Dhalgren at long last.
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diversity. Delany paints a world lush with strange and interesting details that aren’t directly required for the story—body modification, polyamory, ethnic diversity, many of which are still considered outlandish by some people today. Rydra Wong, poet and linguist extraordinaire, is the character who pulls all the disparate elements together, even as she builds bridges among people of different classes, ideologies, and languages.Communication is a key theme. An intergalactic war is going on between the Alliance and the Invaders. Key Alliance military targets are being sabotaged, and when they are, a strange transmissions are detected that the military believes to be a code but that Rydra recognizes as a language. How Rydra goes about translating that language is the core of the plot, but there are many fascinating side trips. Rydra’s recruiting her spaceship crew to take her to the scene of what she’s determined will be the next target of sabotage takes up a good part of the early chapters, and this is where Delany’s flaunts the sociocultural details that color his universe: from the stiff, bureacratic Customs officer who is introduced to the wrong side of town, to the bars and wrestling rings where potential pilots with exotic body modifications fight, to the Morgue where a dead navigator is brought back to be the third member of the required polyamorous triple of navigators; these chapters were my favorite part of the book.
I haven’t read enough Delany, and I’m inspired to take on Dhalgren at long last.
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LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
The best Delany I read, and very tight and compelling. I really enjoyed the idea that the very language that you speak could put you on the wrong side in a war. Have reread.
LibraryThing member ikeman100
Good book. Nebula winner.
I'm not a real Delany fan. I have read a couple his books before and decided I didn't care to much for his style of SF.
This one is similar to, but much better then, his usual stories. I wanted to get back to it to see what happened next. I would have given it 5 stars but
I will try more of his books.
I'm not a real Delany fan. I have read a couple his books before and decided I didn't care to much for his style of SF.
This one is similar to, but much better then, his usual stories. I wanted to get back to it to see what happened next. I would have given it 5 stars but
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the ending was disappointing compared to the book as a whole. I will try more of his books.
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Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1967)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1966)
Otherwise Award (Shortlist)
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Nominat — 2024)
Locus All-Time Best (36 — 1975)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1966
Physical description
208 p.; 17.7 cm
ISBN
0441045944 / 9780441045945
Local notes
Omslag: Davis Meltzer
Omslaget viser et ansigt og koncentriske cirkler med kurvede radier oveni et billede af en raket
Omslag: Ikke angivet, men der er en signatur Meltzer
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Babel17
Omslaget viser et ansigt og koncentriske cirkler med kurvede radier oveni et billede af en raket
Omslag: Ikke angivet, men der er en signatur Meltzer
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Babel17
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Pages
208
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |