Review: Nova

Title: Nova
Author: Samuel R Delany

In the 30th century, humans have spread to hundreds of worlds in the galaxy. Many aspects of human life have changed -- it takes a few days to cross unimaginable distances, communicable disease has been wiped out, work is done by plugging a person into machines. But some aspects are very much the same -- mankind's territories are separated based on complex cultural, historical and economic divisions, poverty and prejudice still exist, and the lengths to which the ultra-powerful will go in competition with one another is as incomprehensible to the common people as it is likely to affect them.

I found this book several months back and put it on my shelf of books I hadn't read but wanted to read. Well, imagine my surprise when I started reading it and began to vaguely recognize the story.

I believe I started reading this book years ago, and something interrupted me. I'm quite sure it was not boredom. I'm also quite sure I bought it because its author, Samuel R. Delany, wrote one of the best books I read in my youth, the Hugo- and Nebula-award winning Babel 17. It is a worthy successor in style, imagination, character and plot.

Nova has two main characters, and a third one critical to the story telling. The one we meet first is Mouse, a poor teenaged gypsy with a speech defect and a exceptional skill entertaining others with an instrument which projects three-dimensional, multi-sensory illusions. The second is Lorq von Ray a scar-faced rich man from one of the most powerful families in the known universe, who has a spaceship, and a quest. This second hires the first, along with a crew of people from several worlds, including the third character, Katin. Katin's knowledge, love of talking, and fascination with the artform known to us as the novel clearly identify him as the author's voice.

As with most science fiction from this era, digging deeply enough can find parallels with the politics and society of the day. But as with the best, Nova does not make those parallels obvious, or even the center of the story. The mystery is central. The characters and their relationships drive the action. The science fiction concepts enable the themes to be carried in a unique way, and for this reason they are indispensable, without being distractions to the modern reader.

Nova is a worthy representation of the good, hard science fiction which helps establish the genre as literature worth reading. But I am now convinced I must find my copy of Babel 17, or buy a new one, and read it once more. As good as Nova was, I'm hoping that Babel 17 is what I remember -- a master work by a true author.