Nova

This is a great space adventure novel from the 1970's ripe with all the excess and energy of the "sixties" and as dreamy as any Roger Dean painting. If you want a great big purple psychedelic mushroom of a novel, this or a few others of Delaney's will do the job. This one is a fav though. It's straight-up sci-fi, but with a much higher passionate, dramatic flair, and BTW perhaps the first sci-fi novel I encountered where people did drugs. I could criticize Delaney for a million flaws I perceive in his style or ideas, but mostly I just praise him as a great American writer, and an intrepid explorer of the mind, body, and soul. He was an incredibly inventive writer, only just a little bit like Roger Zelazney, and just as much like a psychedelic Andre Norton.

I have a feeling this is going to be my summer of Delany. I read Nova on the heels of his short story collection Aye, and Gomorrah and the virtues that I found in that collection are also to be found in this novel in spades. Delany writes with an attention to detail, prose and character that is astounding, and in doing so he creates a scifi world that is truly natural and lacks the self-consciousness of much of the genre. Nova is to be compared with the great works of literature, both in theme and achievement. The story centers around a reckless quest by starship captain Lorq Von Ray, a figure reminiscent of Melville's Ahab in his oversized dimensions and emotional complexity. Von Ray hires a crew of "cyberstuds", men who interface with machines to navigate the vast distances between the worlds of their interspace confederation. The mission is to enter a sun as it novas, during the first few hours, to gather an element that is used as the basis of space travel. The element is mined on planets, but rarely found. However, in the core of a sun during a nova, the element is found in great abundance. As the quest continues though, Von Ray's darker obsessions become evident and the tale plumbs deeper themes of revenge, political freedom and the search for the Holy Grail. From the outset of the novel, Delany captures you with the originality of his prose style and the deeper resonance of his characters. Most of the tale is told through the eyes of a gypsy musician, the Mouse and his friend Katin, who is collecting notes for a novel he is destined not to write. These characters are fully drawn, but set up parallels to Melville's Ishmael and Quee Queg. Von Ray is introduced carefully, first by reputation, as an old mad former crewman in a bar describes him. The ties to Coleridge are unmistakable. Then, when Von Ray makes his appearance, he is already clothed in the stuff of myth that makes him such an unforgettable character. His nemeses in the book, Prince and Ruby Red, are every bit as oversized and yet as believable as Von Ray. Prince is rage personified, while Ruby is both sympathetic and devious. This is a work that will haunt the mind for days afterwards. And yet, it is also a first rate scifi yarn as well. Delany's attention to technology, and consistency within the world he creates is remarkable. Delany writes as if we too inhabit this world, artfully showing us the parallels to our own and pointing out the differences with elegance and wit. Anyone who enjoys scifi should make the acquaintance of this author. But even if you don't like the genre, Delany is a writer than should be read. His craft is impeccable and the themes underlying the book are universal, as all great literature should be.

I consider Nova to be one of Delany's best works. While written comparatively early in his career (1968), it shows maturity in handling of both language and character. The narrator, the Mouse, is Delany's typical nail biting, one shoed foot outsider from civilization (gypsy like, in this case), who, while intriguing in his own right, makes an excellent contrast to Prince Red, spoiled, rich, and equipped with an artificial hand that he is extremely sensitive about, and Captain Lorq von Ray. The plot is near space opera, with a race to visit a star in the first stages of nova to collect trans- uranic elements, commonly referred to as Illyrion, that are the power basis of the stellar economy, and also the basis for the high level political/corporate battle. Illyrion is also used to power one of the most unique gadgets I have come across in SF, the sensory- syrynx, which can produce music (or any type of sound), moving holographic images, and scents, all under the control of a single player. This instrument figures prominently in the final climatic scene where Prince gets his just dues. The book also introduces the idea of socket inserts in humans, allowing anyone to plug into any machine and control the machine as an extension of his body.But beyond the simple, near-cliched plot line lies a deeper level of meaning, when each of the characters, gadgets, and indeed even the portrayed socioeconomic structure is viewed as a symbol or metaphor for larger items. Careful reading and thinking about this book will reward the reader with some unexpected insights into courage, environment versus heredity, the use and abuse of power, the influence of 'little people' on the course of history, and many other items.His control of language is illustrated by this quote: He was an old man. He was a strong man. As the Mouse pulled his hand to the edge of the table, the derelict lurched forward. Hip banged the counter. Long toes struck a chair leg: the chair danced on the flags. Old. Strong. The third thing the Mouse saw: blind. He swayed before the Mouse's table. His hand swung up; yellow nails hit the Mouse's cheek. (Spider's feet?) "You, boy..." The Mouse stared at the pearls behind rough, blinking lids. A finely crafted book rich in ideas and well drawn, idiosyncratic characters, told with near-poetic style.

Delany, considered by many to be the most complex and original sci-fi author out there, shines in this book. Nova is probably Delany's most mainstream work, meaning that he cranked the intellect and dialect dial down just a tad so us mortals can just enjoy a fun book for once. And Nova delivers. The story centers around a the haunted captain of the Roc (a ship) that is on a quest for the equivalent of his Holy Grail. Along the way he recruits arguably the most interesting ensemble cast of supporting characters I've ever encountered. The search takes the crew to many strange places and situations. I'm amazed at how much Delany can pack into such a short novel, quite amazing and something that modern sci-fi authors seem unable to do unless they have 700+ pages to work with.Delany offers many innovative ideas in Nova, probably the most important being the pre-cursor to the cyberpunk movement. Man-machine interfaces abound in Delany's books, a decade or more before William Gibson ever wrote or thought of Neuromancer. It's a shame this book is out of print, but you can easily find it at any used book store. Do yourself a favor and pick up some of the classics of bygone days...this being one of them in my opinion.