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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Great writing and story although it ended a little too quickly and neatly. However, that didn’t diminish the joy of the story for me. Wonderful to see strong female character in scifi from the 1960s, showing once again the falseness of the claim that sexist scifi novels were just a product of their times.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fantastic science fiction. Hitting so many different ideas
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Definitely of its time. Has a lot of great ideas and solid prose, but character work is lacking a bit.
Sadly I did not love this!
I am having a hard time figuring out why this didn’t work for me. I felt drawn to the concept - languages are cool! Space is cool! But for some reason this was a miss for me. I found the plot kind of confusing and all over the place, and the main character is certainly entering Mary Sue territory at times. Thankfully this was a short read, but just didn’t really do much for me unfortunately
I am having a hard time figuring out why this didn’t work for me. I felt drawn to the concept - languages are cool! Space is cool! But for some reason this was a miss for me. I found the plot kind of confusing and all over the place, and the main character is certainly entering Mary Sue territory at times. Thankfully this was a short read, but just didn’t really do much for me unfortunately
Well, that was wholly unique! This is not so much a story as a poet-linguist's exploration of the significance of language.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-The language. I mean, that's really all there is. Every way we communicate (and I mean every way) is mentioned and symbolized. He then messes with all of it so that you have time to think about what it would be like if one of the ways we express ourselves was different.
-The different writing styles. Each section is broken up with a new experiment in writing to demonstrate what we're doing in this part. I didn't love all of them, but I appreciated the talent it takes to do it.
-The fantastical. Oh man! So many cool ideas and visuals!
-The messages. Mental health, sex positivity, "strong female protagonists," people of color...this book was really "ahead of its time," most of the time.
Things that weren't as strong:
-Dialogue. Sometimes I felt like I was missing a lot of context. Possibly because I am so far removed from the time (and less familiar with psychotropics than many of the era lol) and possibly because of the subject matter.
-Plot. It was just shoed in to talk about concepts. Don't look too deep. Just enjoy the ride.
If you're a language nerd or can get lost in cool ideas, just relax, this one's short, rather witty, and unlike anything else I've ever read before. If you bounce hard off stories with no, well, story, just relax, this one's short, rather witty, and unlike anything I've read before. ;-)
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
some misogyny and body horror/experimentation. Fat shaming. Loss of a loved one. Psychosis.Things to love:
-The language. I mean, that's really all there is. Every way we communicate (and I mean every way) is mentioned and symbolized. He then messes with all of it so that you have time to think about what it would be like if one of the ways we express ourselves was different.
-The different writing styles. Each section is broken up with a new experiment in writing to demonstrate what we're doing in this part. I didn't love all of them, but I appreciated the talent it takes to do it.
-The fantastical. Oh man! So many cool ideas and visuals!
-The messages. Mental health, sex positivity, "strong female protagonists," people of color...this book was really "ahead of its time," most of the time.
Things that weren't as strong:
-Dialogue. Sometimes I felt like I was missing a lot of context. Possibly because I am so far removed from the time (and less familiar with psychotropics than many of the era lol) and possibly because of the subject matter.
-Plot. It was just shoed in to talk about concepts. Don't look too deep. Just enjoy the ride.
If you're a language nerd or can get lost in cool ideas, just relax, this one's short, rather witty, and unlike anything else I've ever read before. If you bounce hard off stories with no, well, story, just relax, this one's short, rather witty, and unlike anything I've read before. ;-)
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great concepts and beautiful prose at times, but I found the writing too confusing to really enjoyit, made me feel like I was too stupid to read this book.
Este libro está lleno de conceptos muy interesantes, pero no le doy más de 3 estrellas porque el desarrollo de la historia me ha resultado un poco confuso. Muchas idas y venidas de personajes que no termino de pillar.
Como programador informático, la idea de Babel-17 me parece fascinante, pero con algunos errores de fondo. Me ha dejado a medias ver cómo algunos aspectos de lenguaje los explora tan bien (el "yo", lo absoluto y relativo, la capacidad de manipulación...), pero la parte técnica y de ciencia ficción dura la pasa tan de puntillas.
Aún así, es una lectura más que recomendable y hay que tener en cuenta lo innovadora que fue en su momento.
Como programador informático, la idea de Babel-17 me parece fascinante, pero con algunos errores de fondo. Me ha dejado a medias ver cómo algunos aspectos de lenguaje los explora tan bien (el "yo", lo absoluto y relativo, la capacidad de manipulación...), pero la parte técnica y de ciencia ficción dura la pasa tan de puntillas.
Aún así, es una lectura más que recomendable y hay que tener en cuenta lo innovadora que fue en su momento.