Babel-17 Audiobook By Samuel R. Delany cover art

Babel-17

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Babel-17

By: Samuel R. Delany
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.33

Buy for $14.33

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Babel-17, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy's deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack.

©2015 Samuel R. Delaney (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc., and Skyboat Media, Inc.
Adventure Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Space Opera Space
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Babel-17

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    478
  • 4 Stars
    302
  • 3 Stars
    172
  • 2 Stars
    53
  • 1 Stars
    32
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    532
  • 4 Stars
    272
  • 3 Stars
    93
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    450
  • 4 Stars
    230
  • 3 Stars
    153
  • 2 Stars
    54
  • 1 Stars
    39

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful performance

Samuel Delany wrote a masterpiece. Lots of things to make you think about language and meaning. Good work on how creating a future society, and what it would look like, and how folks would get along with one another. Normalized being in a threesome sexually.

Performance of both male and female parts was extraordinarily well done.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An incredible story

I was amazed by Delany's creativity and inventiveness, especially in 1966. Any techno-geek will love it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book!

Enjoyable, listened all the way through. Made a quick road trip fly by for me!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Just kept getting weirder and more hard to follow.

The final act was such a left turn, I'm still not sure what happened.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Decent story with mind blowing ideas

Gawdz, I love this book. And I love Samuel Delaney’s brain. I first read this book almost 50 years ago, and revisiting it now as an audiobook, I swooned, and fell in love again, if you love sweeping ideas presented in the midst of a adventure narrative that make you suddenly think in Brand New expanded ways, you will love just about anything Delaney writes.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic from a master

Delany is one of the first sci-fi authors to think deeply about language and culture. He's also one of the first (perhaps the first) to explore alternative notions of sexuality within a sci-fi framework. He's not always easy to follow, but usually that's because he's exploring complicated ideas. I found it helped to listen at 0.85 speed. He's also very good as a prose writer and storyteller. This is one of his first books. It's simpler than what's to come, but it's already packed with interesting thoughts within the framework of a somewhat classic narrative that's told well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Recommended for first time Delany readers

If you're widely read in SF, this is probably your best introduction to Delany. It's one of the most conventional novels that he has written. It has a plot! Wow. And a bunch of SF troupes. Stick with it.

I've read most of Delaney. It's always a little off. The books got better once I learned something about the author's life and epoch.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The vagaries of language

Given when this was written, it was ahead of its time by some distance. It is an engaging story, told well and narrated well. Some of the questions raised about the nature of language endure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

intriguing

To me the story is unique, but a bit ambiguous at times. I feel like I should listen to it again, or read the book for clarification.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining SF

Delany has imagined and put together an arrange of ideas that pulled the story through.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!