Nova (novel)
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First edition (hardcover)
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| Author | Samuel R. Delany |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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1968 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 279 pp |
Nоva (1968) is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. Nominally space opera, it explores the politics and culture of a future where cyborg technology is universal (the novel is one of the precursors to cyberpunk), yet making major decisions can involve using tarot cards. It has strong mythological overtones, relating to both the Grail Quest and Jason's Argonautica for the golden fleece. Nova was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1969.David Pringle lists it as one of the 100 best science-fiction novels written since World War II.
After completing Nova at the age of 25, Delany's published output stopped for several years—though his writing continued. Delany completed the first draft of Tides of Lust (author's title, Equinox) in September 1968 (it appeared in 1973). He first completed Hogg in June 1969 (though the novel itself would not appear until 1995). With the publication of his next major novel, Dhalgren (1975), however, his style had moved on in experimental directions notably different from that of his earlier work.
By the year 3172, political power in the galaxy is split between two factions: the older Earth-based Draco and the historically younger Pleiades Federation. Both have interests in the even newer Outer Colonies, where mines produce trace amounts of the prized power source Illyrion, the superheavy material essential to starship travel and terraforming planets.
Caught in a feud between aristocratic and economically powerful families, a scarred and obsessed captain from the Pleiades, Lorq Von Ray, recruits a disparate crew of misfits to aid him in the race with his arch-enemy, Prince Red from Draco's Red Shift Ltd., to gain economic leadership by securing a vastly greater amount of Illyrion directly from the heart of a stellar nova. In doing so, Von Ray will shift the balance of power of the existing galactic order, which will bring about the downfall of the Red family as well as end Earth's dominance over interstellar politics.
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