First impressions review: Nova, by Samuel Delany
This short novel is basically a space-opera-meets-quest-myth. It is the 32nd century and humanity has expanded out into the galaxy, fueled by the rare element of Illyrion. Captain Lorq Von Ray has a daring plan to fly into the heart of a supernova for the chance to bring back seven tons of it. But, as his hastily assembled crew of eccentrics soon discover, he isn’t in it for the money. Lorq’s quest starts in revenge and ends…somewhere else.
With my first introduction to Delany being ‘Stars in my pocket like grains of sand’, and having read synopses of several of his other books, I was immensely surprised that this one wasn’t gay! Then I realized this was published in 1968 when he was only 25 – and, apparently, even the fact that it had a Black main character was a problem when he was trying to get it published. He then took a break from publishing, though not from writing, for 5 years. It is after that hiatus that sexuality became a major feature and theme of Delany’s writing. This novel represents a turning point, I suppose. While it isn’t nearly as experimental-feeling as ‘Stars’, it is still not at all your typical space opera. For one thing, while there is action, it has a very pensive, philosophical vibe most of the time.
The worlds occupied by humans in this book fall into three clusters: The Draco system, which includes Earth, the settlement of which seem to have been driven by richer and whiter elements of society who still retain control; the Pleiades Federation – home to Lorq and several members of the crew – which was settled by a more average group; and the Outer Colonies, which were settled by the poorest colonists. The Von Ray family, though, has grown rich, and Lorq had a very comfortable childhood and young adulthood, during which time he met the Red family from earth, most notably Prince and his sister Ruby. From the moment we meet him, it is clear that Prince is a bit of a psycho. However, it doesn’t seem to occur to Lorq to view him as a genuine threat…until the day Lorq flirts with Ruby and Prince attacks him, calling him a “pirate” and slicing a deep gouge in his face. Lorq then learns that his great-great-grandfather came to the Pleiades with several ships’-worth of goods (some of it stolen) and blew up ships from any Draco monopoly that tried to expand there. Lorq’s father says: “I only know he had a vision – a selfish, mercenary, ego-centered vision…He saw in Pleiades independence a chance to become the most powerful man in a political entity that might someday rival Draco.” And the Reds have not forgotten! Lorq resolves to take his revenge on Prince by flooding the market with enough Illyrion to break the Reds economically before they break him, boosting up the Pleiades Federation in the process.
We don’t start with this story, though! The first thing we see is the Mouse (AKA Pontichos Provechi), a young Romani1 from earth, being accosted by a blind old man in a bar. Dan is the casualty of Lorq’s first attempt to fly through a nova:
“Old Dan is blind in a funny way…Most people go blind in blackness. I have a fire in my eyes. I have that whole collapsing sun in my head…That’s what I’m seeing now. Then you, outlined here, highlighted there, a solarized ghost across hell from me.”
Mouse is clearly quite freaked out by this encounter, so it is a bit odd that he immediately signs up to crew when Lorq starts randomly asking a crowd for volunteers. But, then again, Mouse seems to be teetering between curiosity and fear for most of the trip – and perhaps that is the appeal! Mouse plays an instrument called the sensory syrynx, which can conjure up images and scents as well as sounds. And, like the nova, it can overload the senses if you know how to use it. The “live in the moment” Mouse is contrasted with his crewmate Katin, a somewhat annoying moon-born intellectual who wants to write a novel, but has accumulated thousands of pages-worth of notes without even knowing what he wants to write about.
1. Given the time period, “gypsy” is of course the term used in the book itself.
As alluded to above, the crew is an ethnically-diverse bunch. Lorq is half Norwegian, half Senegalese. Idas probably has full African ancestry, as does his albino twin Lynceos. Mouse is Romani. Sebastian has blonde hair but Asian facial features…and so on. The racism of the publisher’s worry that white readers couldn’t identify with a Black protagonist stands out particularly starkly given that Lorq, in his upbringing and social status, shares more with spoiled yacht club boys than the average American of any race. His father is white and old money and his mother is clearly of an upper-class background too - just proud of her culture, serving dishes like mpati a nsengo at diplomatic banquets. However, there are a few things Lorq does or experiences that might resonate with Black readers (particularly at the time) a little more: the sudden violence with which Prince greets his romantic interest in Ruby, for example, or the way he code-switches between the earth-like upper-class speech and the more working-class dialect of the Pleiades.
While we’re on the subject of diversity, there are a few other issues that are not handled quite as well. While Mouse is a good character, the portrayal of him and his culture does lean a bit heavily on “gypsy” stereotypes. He got the musical instrument he is so attached to by stealing it, for example! And it is never explained why most Romani refused to accept the implants that would allow them to connect to computers (more on that in a minute!), thus ensuring their own economic marginalization. It isn’t presented as a religious thing, and we never see any obvious downsides to the implants, so it just makes them look unwilling to work. This book also has a disabled villain: Prince has a cyborg arm. Because the lack of an arm was congenital, the excellent medical technology of the day hasn’t been able to fix it biologically. The cyborg arm is arguably better – strong enough to squeeze sand into quartz crystals – but his parents never allowed anyone to mention it. Compared to just discussing it like it is totally normal, this seems like a recipe for giving a kid a complex…and it does! There are also a lot of references to Lorq’s scar and the way it makes him look angry all the time (though his crew gradually get better at reading his actual expressions), and to the fear that Mouse has of ending up like Dan. The latter makes sense – Mouse is an artist, so having his senses permanently overloaded would seem particularly scary to him – but I still can’t help feeling that a disability advocate would not give this book particularly high marks!
The implants are a cool aspect of this world. The crew are referred to as “cyborg studs” and working on the ship as “studding”. This seemed a little odd and unnecessarily sexual to me: My first thought is they should have been called “Jacks”, which has a nautical feel while also indicating that they basically have USB ports in their arms and back. It is revealed later that the sexual connotation is actual deliberate…but since it is the computer that plugs into multiple humans, the logical term – if the mostly-male crew didn’t find it emasculating – would be “cyborg dam”. Anyway, where this gets really interesting is the reveal that this mode of interacting with computers was developed to deliberately counter the alienation from one’s own work that was a product of 20th and 21st century capitalism and automation. People were managing button factories or turning on the machines that made buttons, say, but hardly ever saw a button, making it difficult to emotionally connect to their work in the way that an old-time carpenter or weaver might. “Now a man went to a factory, plugged himself in, and he could push the raw materials into the factory with his left foot, shape thousands of precise parts with one hand…and he was a much more satisfied worker…In the rare cases where production was slightly less efficient, Clark pointed out the psychological benefits to society. Ashton Clark…was the philosopher who returned humanity to the working man…That’s why even today, when a woman or man is going to change jobs, you send Ashton Clark, or his spirit, along with them.”
There were a few aspects of the story that made me wonder if it was set in the same version of the universe as ‘Stars’, but just a millennium or so earlier. The world Lorq grew up on, for example, has ruins from an earlier civilization, hinting that there are indeed aliens out there. The cyborg plugs feel like an earlier version of the wireless web connections that people in ‘Stars’ use to get whatever information they want. Most interestingly, while reading that book (during a pandemic, mind you!) I had to imagine that they had invented some powerful anti-virals just to get through it, given that people are interacting with public statuary by licking it and condoms definitely don’t seem to exist. Well, here Katin remarks (after taking a piece of candy Mouse had been sucking on): “Just take the matter of…cleanliness. There was a thousand-year period…when people spent an incredible amount of time and energy keeping things clean. It ended when the last communicable disease finally became not only curable, but impossible…If our man from five hundred years ago, however, saw you walking around this deck with one shoe off and one shoe on, then saw you sit down to eat with that same foot, without bothering to wash it – do you have any idea how upset he’d be?” The array of worlds in ‘Stars’ seems to have largely discarded old earth-based racial categories; This one seems on its way to the same state, but not there yet.
There are a lot of other interesting details as well. The descriptions of what it looks like to be plugged into and steering a starship are gorgeous. The altered sense of scale when interstellar travel is possible is illustrated by Dan remarking: “Paris? That’s awfully close to Australia, ain’t it? I got a kid and two wives in Sydney, and I ain’t so anxious for them to catch hold of me. I suppose if we don’t stay too long-” There are hints of alien beasts, but the descriptions of those are a bit vague, allowing the reader’s mind to fill in the details. Not believing in tarot readings is what is considered uneducated. A lot of intellectuals complain that “pseudo-interplanetary society…has replaced any real tradition” leaving a flashy but hollow culture – but that does not strike me as true or, at least, not true outside the upper classes.
Overall recommendation: While I don’t think this book will end up in my top 25 favorite sci-fi – just not being 100% my style – I quite enjoyed it. It is definitely worth reading for the unique vision of a future civilization, the philosophical ideas, and the beauty of the language.
