Nova

Nova by Samuel R. Delany

Nova follows the story of Captain Lorq Von Ray and his rag-tagged assembled crew as they go in search of an energy source known as Illyrion aboard his ship, The Roc. A galaxy changing amount of Illyrion is believed to be located in dying stars, so the Captain carefully hatches a plan to retrieve the Illyrion from a predicted Nova. With the abundance of Illyrion he can tip the political scale in the galaxy and ruin his families arch nemesis, The Reds, who will literally kill to stop him.

Nova feels high stakes with plenty of interesting and weird characters, but one of the things I found most interesting about the story was whether we were on the right side or not, something addressed in the book itself when Lorq Von Ray and Prince Red finally meet. Their history suggested that the Von Ray’s aren’t the most honourable family, and we are warned about Lorq. Unfortunately, Prince and Ruby Red’s actions also speak loudly as they go about things in the wrong way, especially when they attack Lorq innocence and somewhat naive crew.

The book has loads of ideas, and its futuristic setting allows room to explore them. Set in 3172 we learn that humans have travelled deep into space, diseases have been wiped out (along with the novel) new languages have started to develop, and mining is a massive part of everything. Human’s regularly plug themselves into machines in some very early cyberpunk, but they’re not hooking themselves up to The Matrix. Oddly, this is all countered by a heavy reliance on Tarot cards and mysticism, creating a very complex future.

It sometimes felt like a difficult read as we hopped around this unknown universe in a very lived in world, but there was always a scene to ground things again, and remind you where you were. It normally involved Mouse and Katin, both likeable crew members who you want to be ok.

The universe is full of politics and troubles, plenty of which was explored in an extended flashback surrounding Lorq, Prince, and Ruby, in what was probably the standout long chapter of the book. It’s a high drama space opera really, but disguises this somewhat with its poetic prose.

Nova is a fascinating read. A book which clearly influenced plenty of sci-fi authors after it. It can feel quite heavy at times, and almost too non-sensical at others, but there’s always interesting ideas, technologies, and characters, right around the corner. The world building is great, and the rivalry between the two families feels epic. It’s maybe not a book i’ll go back to any time soon, but definitely one i’d read again one day.