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I found this book at the University of Washington bookstore, in the textbooks and assigned reading section, what better place to find deep, interesting books, right?
I was in high school, and the premise, about the power of language to convey information wrapped in a SF thriller, blew my teenage mind. I'm not surprised this has never been made into a movie - even with the crazy futuristic body modifications and space ship pirates, this is a book about words and meanings. How the way you think can ...more
I was in high school, and the premise, about the power of language to convey information wrapped in a SF thriller, blew my teenage mind. I'm not surprised this has never been made into a movie - even with the crazy futuristic body modifications and space ship pirates, this is a book about words and meanings. How the way you think can ...more
Sep 16, 2022
Christina
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
popsugar-2022-reading-challenge
Popsugar 2022 Reading Challenge: An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner
A quick word on the selection I made for this reading challenge item: look. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are given to Good Books. Fiction, poetry, and nonfiction on Serious Subjects. Also, I've read a bunch of them already. I tried to read another one that looked interesting, but found it incredibly dense and as best I could tell, the same point was being made differently over and over. If I wanted to read stuff like THAT, I'd ...more
A quick word on the selection I made for this reading challenge item: look. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are given to Good Books. Fiction, poetry, and nonfiction on Serious Subjects. Also, I've read a bunch of them already. I tried to read another one that looked interesting, but found it incredibly dense and as best I could tell, the same point was being made differently over and over. If I wanted to read stuff like THAT, I'd ...more
Mar 01, 2015
J. Trott
added it
A whirlwind tour through outerspace with a twist. What is notable is the splashy elegance of the characters and the breakneck pace. You might ask yourself what is going on a few times.
This was the first Delany I've ever read. I enjoyed this. It's interesting to see how the field of SF has evolved. This is a much more cerebral and introspective than I'm used to in my science fiction novels, but that is not a bad thing. In fact, I enjoyed it very much. I loved thinking about how language and culture and thinking intersect as well as trying to parse out the plot at the same time.
The reason I rated this book 3 stars though is that as much I enjoyed the first 90% of the book or s ...more
The reason I rated this book 3 stars though is that as much I enjoyed the first 90% of the book or s ...more
Classic sci-fi that stands the test of time. The ideas still feel fresh and compelling.
A book that explores the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in a futuristic war between galaxy-spanning cultures where the protagonist is a linguist-poet — this was a book I desperately wanted to like. Unfortunately there's "hard" sci-fi, "soft" sci-fi, and a kind of technobabble sci-fi, and this book falls in the latter category, mistaking a cloak of jargon for content. This approach always leads to unsatisfying deus ex-machina resolutions.
Delaney's prose is so beautiful though, that I feel like reading m ...more
Delaney's prose is so beautiful though, that I feel like reading m ...more
Excellent.
Sep 25, 2013
Colleen
marked it as to-read
Nov 21, 2013
Janet
marked it as to-read
May 18, 2014
Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
own-ebook
Dec 11, 2017
Kate
marked it as to-read
Feb 27, 2024
Dimitri
marked it as to-read
