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A review by libron26
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
3.0
This was a weird book that definitely showed its age in not always a good way. It was clever in parts and sort of reminded me of a better episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is very much a '60s book in the feel of things. It's kind of hard to describe in words really. A better classic sci-fi work such as Dune had some of that too but less so which in my book makes it better. Delany was experimental in the prose of this novel which was one of the more interesting things about it. Perspectives change and the reader can feel lost at times trying to figure out what is going on. It was challenging in a somewhat interesting way that made me bump up my rating from two to three stars.
Language is a big theme of the novel and Delany does a good job playing with language throughout which brings a higher literary quality to the work than if it was just straight prose science fiction. Some concepts such as "discorporate" entities which are ghosts which is weird. Not something you'd think to be in a sci-fi novel. Cool to think about though. Same with telepathy which was big back in the day but has disappeared from much of contemporary sci-fi since we think of it as pseudo-science.
This was a strange read and recommended for its strangeness.
Language is a big theme of the novel and Delany does a good job playing with language throughout which brings a higher literary quality to the work than if it was just straight prose science fiction. Some concepts such as "discorporate" entities which are ghosts which is weird. Not something you'd think to be in a sci-fi novel. Cool to think about though. Same with telepathy which was big back in the day but has disappeared from much of contemporary sci-fi since we think of it as pseudo-science.
This was a strange read and recommended for its strangeness.