Babel-17

Samuel R. Delany

1966

The Galaxy is at war.

The Alliance faces the Invaders and it seems that things are at a stalemate when Alliance space is swept by a series of sabotage attempts, hitting critical targets. Alliance intelligence does not really have any idea what is going on or how to stop the sabotage but they do have one possible clue - just before and during the sabotage there is a burst of communications. Just fragments apparently and when Alliance Cryptography has a look at it they find themselves stumped.

In order to break the people behind these disasters, General Forrester seeks out the foremost poet in both Alliance and Invader space Rydra Wong who is also a hot cryptographer. It did not take her long to realise that Babel-17 was not just a code but a full blown hyperdescriptive language.

In order for her to learn more about Babel-17 she gets the General's permission to take a ship and crew so she can trace the sabotage through the Galaxy.

But in the depths of space another aspect of Babel-17 became clear almost leading to disaster for Ryda's crew and herself.

Finally, though, Ryda and her colleagues manage to survive their troubles to triumph spectacularly.

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This book rides the interface between the Classical SF of starships and big battles and the New Wave of perceptual change, and rides it excellently. Delany is an author that I have previously ignored but I have to admit that I was mistaken to do so!

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