158 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 1976 by Gregg Press.

ISBN:
978-0-8398-2328-5
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4 stars (2 reviews)

During an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as a weapon. Learning it turns one into an unwilling traitor as it alters perception and thought. This is discovered by the starship captain Rydra Wong. She is recruited to discover how the enemy are infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites.

21 editions

reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (The Gregg Press science fiction series)

None

4 stars

Babel-17 is an interesting novel that knows how connect the seemingly distant worlds of linguistics, logic and programming languages - with an appreciated dose of space invaders, spies and fights.

This piece of fiction won the Nebula prize in the 1967, in a tie with Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon"

I could deeply appreciate its concepts as I'm currently also learning about these same topics, and the book also made me think of "Arrival" and others Ted Chieng's stories - yet the universe created by Delany is sometimes hard to picture, probably because of the extent use of peculiar words which globally hindered my experience as a non native reader.

Subjects

  • Language and languages -- Fiction
  • Women linguists -- Fiction
  • Women poets -- Fiction