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Nova Samuel R Delany 9780553100310 Books

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Nova Samuel R Delany 9780553100310 Books

Nova by Samuel R Delany is a 1960's classic sci-fi tale with all the usual components typical for this time period, but also containing so much more. Nova is a future where Earth has moved out into the neighborhood and settled multiple worlds to the extent that Earth is now in economic competition with a rival power each with their own spheres of influence and playing each other off the less regimented "outer colonies." Against this backdrop are childhood friends that gradually become economic adversaries as the competition between these distinct societies intensifies. With a master plan to hasten the collapse of the economic stranglehold by Earth, a wealthy scion assemblies a ragtag crew to obtain vast quantities of a substance that is the equivalent of oil. He is pursued by his adversary who not only wants to stop him, but to kill him as well.

Delany employs many typical sci-fi elements including interstellar travel and supernovas as well as little touches such as a musical instrument that plays sights and smells as well as sounds in addition to designer recreational drugs. Embedded within the sci-fi story is a tale of childhood friendship that goes awry due to social and philosophical differences that leads one man to a noble cause and another to a monomaniacal obsession with preservation of a way of life that is slowly becoming unsustainable. Interestingly, Delany employs a fledgling author to offer commentary throughout and provide historical underpinnings to the current state of affairs.


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Nova Samuel R Delany 9780553100310 Books Reviews

Firstly, this is probably my favourite book ever. Its one of the first I read as a youngster and was the first that I really connected with. The writing is outstanding. I've re-read my original paperback every 2 or 3 years over the past 35 and its now on its last legs so I was very pleased to finally see the kindle version offered (I've been waiting for this since I first purchased a kindle a few years ago).

Other's here have reviewed the storyline so I won't repeat - just remember this book was written over 40 years ago (but still holds out well against almost all more modern works).

Unfortunately, the kindle transfer is very poor - I assume its an OCR transfer that has obviously not been proof-read. Numerous words are incorrect and punctuation errors appear on most pages. This really impacts the flow of the text and seriously reduces the overall readability of the work. Its a real shame and needs to be fixed - existing fans, as well as a new generation of readers, deserve better.
I was asked to read this book, so I did. With great frustration. I waded through many weirdly written bits of description. It felt like the author wrote things out of order... but I think he just loves words so much that he let the prose stand in the way of the story. I had to reread so many paragraphs.

It's obvious the author is a highly intelligent man who was at a stage in his life when he wrote it (20s?) where he was struggling with two parts of himself. His intellect told him what was proper and guided his behavior, but he wondered if he was missing out in life by not indulging in more sensual things.

He very rightly sensed that he had more living to do before he would have a more deeply meaningful story to tell. Not that this story isn't meaningful It would be meaningful for anyone struggling with the same themes. Someone intelligent who thinks deeply about the world while, perhaps, looking down on "simple" people who don't think deeply and instead primarily walk through the world just... experiencing.

His struggle is the struggle of a gifted person who thinks too much, really. As a person who has always been accused of "thinking too much", I long ago learned that I can't live in my head and that there are more meaningful things to be discovered if I leave the pristine "ivory tower / katin's lunar surface" of my mind. It's more real out here.

I think the author figured this out, too, as his work trended more sensual-leaning as he got older, or so I've read. (I have not read his other books.)

The book also frustrated me because I wanted it to have a deeper plot and characters I could relate to. This was an idea book full of fancy prose and important male characters, which was fine, but not for me. I need to feel a lot more for the characters for a book to move me.

The book is really about Katin and Mouse. Cat and Mouse, a non-stop play between two things tugging at the author. I haven't really figured out what the captain and villain meant, though. They seemed like an epic plot covering to tell the real story of Katin and Mouse.

I underlined this at the end, because the author figured it out. He did. He figured out the theme of the book, but it was okay, because it still is clearly a meaningful story for many, so it's great it was published.

"Right now, I'm just a bright guy with a lot to say and nothing to say about it." ~Katin

So the author went out and lived life more, as all people in their 20s must do, and I am betting he found a whole lot more to say about life once he lived it.
<<Although he was barely twenty-five when he wrote it [1968], Nova was Samuel Delany’s eighth novel in a short space of time.
.....
Algis Budrys was moved to describe Delany as ‘the best science fiction writer in the world’. It is hardly too extravagant to say that he burst upon the American sf scene like an exploding star. In effect, Delany was the American New Wave. Readers may not have foreseen it at the time, but Nova proved to be his summation....
One has to return to Nova to appreciate the young Delany at his peak— all flash and filigree, a master of movement and excitement.... The book communicates the feeling that the future will be different, in a million-and-one ways that we can scarcely comprehend at present. Incidental action spills off the page in profusion... It encompasses dirt, smell and chaos, but when seen through the eyes of the magic kid it offers wonder and delight, quickening the imagination to a fever....>>
(Pringle Science Fiction The 100 Best Novels)
Nova by Samuel R Delany is a 1960's classic sci-fi tale with all the usual components typical for this time period, but also containing so much more. Nova is a future where Earth has moved out into the neighborhood and settled multiple worlds to the extent that Earth is now in economic competition with a rival power each with their own spheres of influence and playing each other off the less regimented "outer colonies." Against this backdrop are childhood friends that gradually become economic adversaries as the competition between these distinct societies intensifies. With a master plan to hasten the collapse of the economic stranglehold by Earth, a wealthy scion assemblies a ragtag crew to obtain vast quantities of a substance that is the equivalent of oil. He is pursued by his adversary who not only wants to stop him, but to kill him as well.

Delany employs many typical sci-fi elements including interstellar travel and supernovas as well as little touches such as a musical instrument that plays sights and smells as well as sounds in addition to designer recreational drugs. Embedded within the sci-fi story is a tale of childhood friendship that goes awry due to social and philosophical differences that leads one man to a noble cause and another to a monomaniacal obsession with preservation of a way of life that is slowly becoming unsustainable. Interestingly, Delany employs a fledgling author to offer commentary throughout and provide historical underpinnings to the current state of affairs.