Samuel Delany is the brightest star of science fiction of the 20th century, one of the symbols of the American “new wave”, along with Ursula Le Guin and Roger Zelazny, and one of its finest stylists, winner of a bountiful harvest of major genre awards: four “Nebulas” and “ Hugo” - and all this when he was not yet 27 years old. This collection presents new translations of four works from his classical period, including the deservedly legendary novels Babylon 17 and Crossing Einstein. Delany's heroes are usually in search of their own self, the meaning of existence, a common language of communication, a symbol of faith or creative inspiration. Here, in the midst of a protracted cosmic war, a poetess known throughout the Universe is trying to decipher the language of alien saboteurs, which implies a radically different way of thinking, and other aliens, having occupied the Earth, empty for unknown reasons, try on not only human guise, but also the entire corpus of human myths... “Delaney - not just one of the best science fiction writers of our time, but also an outstanding writer in general, the inventor of his own unique style" (Umberto Eco).