Babel 17

 My first Delany!  I am systematically working through all of the Nebula Award winners, and he was next on the list.  Babel 17 was a little murky, but I grew interested anyway.  Babel-17  has, I believe,  been an influence to other authors I have read, which was neat.
 I strongly suspect that Douglas Adams borrowed the concept of Babel 17 for his very own Babel fish and I have to wonder if David Bowie had read it too, because it was the first thing that popped into my mind when, in a part of the book, the audience applauded with finger clicks (remember the video for Blue Jean?).  If I hadn't raced through the story perhaps I might have traced other future influences, but I was in a hurry to see how this story would end.  Delaney put quite a bit of development into his universe,  though I  felt that there was something lacking to this story, there was something not told or finished yet, so many loose ends flapping about.  Which is always a pain in the arse, but it's worth a re-read in the future.