re:mote voices

Title: Babel-17
Author: Samuel R. Delany
Publisher:Gollancz

We are at war. Us against them. The Alliance against the Invaders. A series of sabotage events have taken place against key Alliance locations. Each time there has been a burst of conversation. A dialogue that seems to be encrypted. The authorities have named this new system Babel-17. But their best people have been unable to make any progress.

Rydra Wong is this generation's voice, a poet, equally loved by Alliance and Invaders. But Wong is even more special than that. Before she was a poet she became a Captain, she was an expert cryptologist, she is so good at reading people that it would seem she was practically telepathic.

So it would seem that the authorities only hope of making any progress on Babel-17 is to ask for Rydra's help. Rydra is extremely unconventional though. While she does indeed make more progress than the professionals, instead of handing the results over, she puts together a crew of her own and takes off for the location of where she expects the next attack to take place. Can she make a difference, someone thinks so, since a couple of attempts are made on her life.

Babel-17 was originally published in 1966 and was the first of a series of novels that went on to win author Samuel R. Delany a number of awards. Other than a short story, this was the first material by Delany that I had read, another entry in the SF Masterworks series which I have been randomly working my way through. Delany's prose flows well, and his discussion of language brings his writing to life as much as the colourful cast of characters he puts together here. For a novel that is 40 years old this was a fun and energetic read, even if it times it does feel a little odd and psychedelic by today's standards.