THE BALLAD OF BETA-2 ... [Hardcover]

Samuel R[ay]. Delany (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Boston: Gregg Press, (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0839823932
• ISBN-13: 978-0839823933
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,265,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to find but worth hunting down., June 11, 2005

By 

Elizabeth A Triano "lizziewriter" (In Transition, NY (watch this space)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Ballad of Beta 2 (Paperback)

I was looking for The Ballad of Beta-2 and Empire Star, a two-in-one Delany title that does not seem to be on amazon. I agree with the other reviewer: Ballad of Beta-2 is a quick and interesting mystery, highly recommended. The other tale that it is bound with, in my copy, Empire Star, is more complex (and not as haunting), but still a rewarding bit of short Delany SF. Delany can be very bizarre (as in Dhalgren) but he can also write good old-fashioned SF. !

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short, but very interesting reading, February 18, 2009

By 

Paul Lappen (Manchester, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ballad of Beta 2 (Paperback)

Here is the story of mankind's first, and unsuccessful, attempt to colonize another planet.

A dozen slow, multi-generation ships were sent to a distant star system called the Leffer System. Soon afterwards, mankind developed a star drive, so that by the time the ships reached their destination, mankind had been traveling around the galaxy for a hundred years. Of the dozen ships, two arrived empty, and two others never arrived at all. The ships were simply parked in orbit, and abandoned. Beta-2, one of the ships, even has its own ballad. Years later, as a college assignment, Joneny, a young researcher, is sent to find out just what happened.

Several of the supposedly indestructible ships show evidence of huge internal explosions. Some old audio recordings talk of being attacked by some sort of green humanoid that communicates by telepathy. Joneny meets the humanoid's half-human son, who is able to exist slightly outside of time, and live in hard vaccuum with no problem at all. He watches video from the other ships where the inhabitants have physically, and mentally, de-evolved to the level of an early human. "The Norm" is taken very seriously on the ships. If a person was found to be outside physical norms in any way, whether it's being too tall, or left-handed, or having the "wrong" eye color, they were immediately executed. By the end, Joneny understands just what The Ballad of Beta-2 is all about.

This is a short novel, but a very good one. It's an interesting story about how things on a multi-generation ship can go very wrong, and it's worth reading.

4.0 out of 5 stars An examination of how societies in multi-generational spaceships can (d)evolve over time, April 5, 2009

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Ballad of Beta 2 (Mass Market Paperback)

Joneny is a student of galactic anthropology and is given the task of decoding "The Ballad of Beta-2." Beta-2 was one among a group of multi-generational spaceships moving between the stars where the crew was killed, leaving only a song that was an obvious metaphor for the events leading to their deaths. His search took him to the damaged ships and after some solid detective work and exploration; he was able to learn that civil order broke down in the ships. The moral authority gained dominance over the civil, leading to people being executed for being outside the norm, which included everything from height and weight to political and religious opinions.
Within the destruction, there was the birth of a new species, based on a crossbreed between humans and another species. The captain of the Beta-2 was impregnated, and was able to have the fetus removed and kept with the other fetuses held in storage for the trip. However, when the moral authority learned of the deviance of her pregnancy, she was executed. Fortunately, a sympathetic doctor was able to shield the resulting fetus from destruction and the new species of mind-reading humanoids was created and Joneny learns the meaning of the ballad, as it chronicles the largely self-destruction of the people on the ship.
As humans move out into space, no one really knows what wonders and other species will be encountered. Furthermore, no one knows how long-term space travel will affect the humans in the ships. Physical laws prevent interstellar travel in anything other than multi-generational ships and it is clear that the society that begins the trek will not necessarily be the same one that ends it. Furthermore, humans being what they are, it is also very possible that the society will destroy itself via internal conflict. In this story, Delany explores both of these events and sets forward interesting ideas about what fate human cargo ships will face when they attempt to move between the stars. While the story is not compellingly written, it certainly meets the bar of worth reading.