Empire Star
by Samuel R. Delany
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On a habitable moon near Tau Ceti, a young man named Comet Jo encounters a devil-kitten and sees a spaceship crash land. One of the people in the spaceship tells Jo that he has to take an urgent message to Empire Star, and dies. Another collapses to form Jewel, a compact, multicolored, multiplexed crystalline entity. Empire Star is the story of Comet Jo's journey to deliver the message, as narrated by Jewel.Tags
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Second book by Samuel Delany, second book I positively adore. Thoroughly impressive, I don't think I've highlighted this much in any book in the past year, and it's a really short book at that. Describing it wouldn't do it justice, and so soon after reading it, I can't even try.
Este livro é verdadeiramente complexo, simplex e multiplex pois o fim e o inÃcio sobre a forma de libertação dum povo construtor de mundos destruÃdos "Lll" faz parte do plano dum pequeno rapaz simplex que não sabe quantas pessoas vai influenciar por ir a Empire Star, o centro da galáxia onde o presente, o passado e o futuro que há-de acontecer se interligam, permitindo a quem lá estar controlar o Universo. Muito bom
Read as part of 'Babel 17/Empire Star' trade p/b omnibus
This novella was published in 1966 and I don’t think I’ve ever read it until now (2022), although Babel-17, published by the same author in the same year, is an old favourite of mine.
Now that I’ve finally read this one, I’m disappointed. I don’t particularly dislike it; it’s OK; but I find nothing about it that I particularly like. I read it with some interest but without real enjoyment.
Would I have liked it better if I’d read it back in the 1970s, when I first read Babel-17? I suppose it’s possible; but I rather doubt it.
The complex story reminds me somehow of The Sirens of Titan, but I haven’t read that book recently, so I can’t compare them in any detail.
Now that I’ve finally read this one, I’m disappointed. I don’t particularly dislike it; it’s OK; but I find nothing about it that I particularly like. I read it with some interest but without real enjoyment.
Would I have liked it better if I’d read it back in the 1970s, when I first read Babel-17? I suppose it’s possible; but I rather doubt it.
The complex story reminds me somehow of The Sirens of Titan, but I haven’t read that book recently, so I can’t compare them in any detail.
Feb 2, 2025English (UK)
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Author Information
196+ Works 28,800 Members
Samuel R. Delany Jr. was born in Harlem, New York on April 1, 1942. He is a science fiction and short story writer. His first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, was published in 1962. He has written more than 20 novels and collections of short stories, memoirs, and critical essays. He has received numerous awards including the Nebula Award for best novel show more for Babel-17 in 1966 and The Einstein Intersection in 1967, the Nebula Award for best short story for Aye, and Gomorrah and Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones, the Hugo Award for best short story for Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones in 1970 and for his non-fiction book, The Motion of Light in Water, and the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement in Gay Literature in 1993. He is as a professor in the department of English at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. (Bowker Author Biography) Samuel R. Delany is a professor of English & Creative Writing at Temple University in Philadelphia. (Publisher Provided) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Imperiumsstern
- Original title
- Empire star
- Original publication date
- 1965
- People/Characters
- Comet Jo; Jewel; San Severina; the Lump; Ni Ty Lee; Ron
- Epigraph
- Being set on the idea
Of getting to Atlantis,
You have discovered of course
Only the Ship of Fools is
Making the voyage this year,
As gales of abnormal force
Are predicted, and that you
Must, therefore... (show all), be ready to
Behave absurdly enough
To pass for one of The Boys,
At least appearing to love
Hard liquor, horseplay and noise.
--W.H. Auden
. . . truth is a point of view about things.
--Marcel Proust - First words
- He had:
a waist-length braid of blond hair;
a body that was brown and slim and looked like a cat's, they said, when he curled up, half asleep in the flicker of the Field Keeper's fire at New Cycle; - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I leave to you the problem of ordering your perceptions and making the journey from one to the other.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- This is 'Empire Star' by itself. The work was ALSO published as part of Ace Double M-139 (Empire Star / The Tree Lord of Imeten); this work should NOT be combined with that one.
LibraryThing's system is the one combini... (show all)ng the double and the regular book.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Reviews
- 4
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- (3.61)
- Languages
- English, German, Greek, Polish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 4
