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Author of the bestselling Dhalgren and winner of four Nebulas and one Hugo, Samuel R. Delany is one of the most acclaimed writers of speculative fiction.
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. For the first time, Babel-17 is published as the author intended with the short novel Empire Star, the tale of Comet Jo, a simple-minded teen thrust into a complex galaxy when he's entrusted to carry a vital message to a distant world. Spellbinding and smart, both novels are testimony to Delany's vast and singular talent.
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. For the first time, Babel-17 is published as the author intended with the short novel Empire Star, the tale of Comet Jo, a simple-minded teen thrust into a complex galaxy when he's entrusted to carry a vital message to a distant world. Spellbinding and smart, both novels are testimony to Delany's vast and singular talent.
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Review:
In 1967, Samuel R. Delany was young, gay, black and possibly the hippest person on the planet. He was to write more perfect books than Babel-17, but it is perhaps the most delightful, clever and sensual of his works. Its set pieces--an extended wander through space-dock bars as poetess and code-breaker Rydra Wong assembles a crew for desperate adventures; a high society dinner that turns into mayhem; Rydra's subversion/seduction of the sinister Butcher, who cannot say, or think, I, me or mine--are glorious in their arrogant sense that no-one has ever been this smart before. Rydra is one of those protagonists whom the author loves because he identifies with her, whom we love because we are overwhelmed by his infatuation. And the plot? Invaders from another part of human space are using as code a language which cannot be broken, and Rydra must save the day. As a meditation on language and thought, this is as sharp as its decor. Most important, though, is the complex, polymorphous sexiness of the whole thing--its sense of surgical chimerahood, life after death, and clone assassins as just unbearably hot and really really cool. --Roz Kaveney
Review:
The most interesting writer of science fiction writing in English today. The New York Times Book Review
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"The most interesting writer of science fiction writing in English today."-The New York Times Book Review
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"The most interesting writer of science fiction writing in English today."-The New York Times Book Review
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- PublisherGollancz
- Publication date1987
- ISBN 10 0575041234
- ISBN 13 9780575041233
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages168
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Babel-17
Published by
Victor Gollancz
(1987)
ISBN 10: 0575041234
ISBN 13: 9780575041233
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Book Description Paperback: 7¾" x 5". Condition: Very Good: Light signs of wear. Cover Art: Nicholas Rodgers (illustrator). 1987 Edition. © 1966: A stand-alone novel by Samuel R Delany. 1st printing of 1987 edition. Gollancz Classic SF #17:- Synopsis: They called it Babel-17, this mind-twisting, multi-dimensional language - and it frightened Rydra Wong. For Babel-17 was not just a system of words, Babel-17 was a whole new way of thinking. Lightning-swift and horrifyingly effective, it was the Invader's subtlest weapon, clawing constantly at the Alliance's Imperial outposts. Only Captain Wong could comprehend it , but could even she, the Alliance's most brilliant poet, hope to control the corrupting power of its words?:- Review(s): "Dazzlingly flamboyant yet strangely moving, 'Babel-17' is Samuel Delany at his most inventive and exhilarating" / "Samuel R Delany is the best science fiction writer in the world" - Algis Budrys / "Flares with discords and undertones" - J G Ballard, Guardian / "Bizarre and imaginative" - Sunday Times / "Genius is perhaps the only fitting comment to be made on Samuel R Delany" - Eastern Daily Press / "Hits you like a magnesium flare at midnight" - Tribune:- (original cost £3.95). Seller Inventory # 22.131.00002
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. All orders are dispatched the following working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we have over 500,000 books in stock. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied. Seller Inventory # mon0005588830
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