Empire Star

Samuel Delany's Empire Star was a very endearing and clever novella. The journey of a hero, but with the addition of a spatial-temporal loop with and without a clear beginning and end. The novel also engages with the theme of enslavement (the Lll) and war while showing how even so-called simplex individuals are capable of multiplex comprehension and development. In fact, with the enslavement of the Lll and Jo's time on a literal slave-carrying spaceship, one can see links to Afrofuturism and African American history in this novel, even though none of the characters are "black." Indeed, Comet Jo, who "begins" the tale as a simplex boy on Rhys, shows how intelligence by itself does not define the three concepts of simplex, complex, and multiplex. It's also of significance how this novel was used to finance Delany's travels to Europe, which proved influential for his superior novel, Nova. Nova is also a quest story, but Lorq Von Ray is, at least on the surface, a more compelling character. Nevertheless, Delany is a master of world-building and includes some humorous allusions to science fiction (Sturgeon) and Earth history. The Lump is an excellent character, Jewel's interjections are humorous and Delany deserves accolades for a narrative that somehow remains coherent despite its wacky characters.