Babel-17

by Samuel R. Delany

Paperback, 158 pages

Published Jan. 1, 1977 by Sphere.

ISBN:: 978-0-7221-2914-2

(64 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.

20 editions

David Colborne reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

BEGIN PROC review = LIST thoughts;

3 stars

Given the nature of programming languages in the late '60s, it's understandable why a writer might believe learning one could drive you insane.

Babel-17 was written almost sixty years ago and, in many places, it shows. The future has intergalactic space travel alongside punch cards, payphones and paper files. There are references to now-dated programming languages, such as Algol and Fortran. Rydra Wong — an East Asian female protagonist written during a time when sci-fi protagonists were usually white and male — is a Mary Sue who knows everything and charms everyone, but look, so was Heinlein's Lazarus Long.

Underneath the uneven pacing of the action and the inescapable sense that the heroine is the only one who could possibly know what's going on, however, is an interesting question: Can learning a new language shift your perspective of the universe? Could learning a specific language radically shift your sense of …

Given the nature of programming languages in the late '60s, it's understandable why a writer might believe learning one could drive you insane.

Babel-17 is full of interesting questions and ideas — or, at least, questions and ideas that were interesting and radical when it was published in 1966. To its credit, it doesn't waste hundreds of pages and hours of the reader's time to raise them.

Matthew Merkovich reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

Was glad when it was over.

2 stars

There are some writers whose style prevents me from immersion in the story, Samuel R. Delany is just such an author. Clearly he's a man with a great imagination, but his prose style is confounding to me. Just his dialogue scenes are enough to shut down my imagination. Three characters will be chatting, and none of their lines will have any attribution. That's great every once in a while, but that is this author's M.O. See also The Einstein Intersection.

gregorgross reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

Dive into language

4 stars

This book is about language: there is a war going on and there seem to be radio messages that seem to attack certain humans and technology installations. Rydra Wong gets to investigate, and we follow her on a wild ride. Rydra is a poet and a starship captain and she needs to be good at both to untangle this problem.

I liked the alliterations throughout the book. I liked what I learned about language and plots and storytelling.

radio-appears reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

Part pulp, part high-brow

No rating

A confusing mix when it comes to tone, this story reads mostly as a pulpy space opera, except for those moments where it launches into complicated discussions of linguistics and grammar.

Rydra Wong is a poet with such a great knack for learning languages that it borders on telepathy (body language is a language too, after all), and she uses her talent to decode the messages of the Invaders who, as the name suggests, are at war with her society.

A confusing mix when it comes to tone, this story reads mostly as a pulpy space opera, except for those moments where it launches into complicated discussions of linguistics and grammar.

I'm not a linguist, but I believe that the scientific theories on which the premise of this book is based have been debunked , which didn't help my suspension of disbelief. Personally, I was much more interested in another idea Delany introduced: discorporate people. Basically, in the future we prove that ghosts do exist, we just haven't yet developed the technology needed to perceive them. Without technological intervention we simply forget our interactions with the discorporate as soon as they happen, leaving us with nothing but the lingering feeling of being haunted. His vision of a future in which the dead are integrated into society is fascinating, and I would have preferred a book that focused on that idea.

Allen Shull reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany

Good linguistic SF

4 stars

Very easy to see why this won the Nebula. Really good look at linguistics (not TOO hampered by Sapir-Whorf or limited understanding of computer languages), with inventive ideas and plot—only really hampered by the pat ending.

Although I’ve read it before, my appreciation has been amplified after reading Mitchison’s Memoirs of a Spacewoman: perfect communication REQUIRES telepathy, and telepathy enables communication to be perfected. Interesting that so much in the 60s-70s really focuses on telepathy, but the novum gets dropped so abruptly in the 80s.

indutny reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (Ace book 04591)

Linguistic Sci-Fi

5 stars

Some fiction centers around plot, and while Babel-17's plot is truly captivating, the thoughts and ideas intermingled with it are what kept me reading the book and affected my thought process. Which is precisely one of the important themes of the book: how much does the language affect who we are? Could we imagine a language that when spoken or thought would change the way one perceives the world? As if this alone wouldn't be exciting, Delany bases off his work on Plato's Dialogues - making firm connection to philosophy.

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

Review of 'Babel-17' on 'GoodReads'

2 stars

Two stars because... It's difficult to read older sci-fi. But I really did love this story. I just thought the delivery and style made for a kind of painful reading. The sci-fi concepts and the overall plot were really still awesome, even today.

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

Review of 'Babel-17' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Hadn't read any Delany in a while, because I found Dhalgren overwhelming. This was intelligent and creative and challenging without being too much- a good fun read. Suspect I'll go back and hit more of the Delany catalog soon.