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There's so much one can say about this book, but I'm not nearly smart or eloquent enough for all that. So here's my sad attempt:

I think Nova is my favorite book by Delany - and that's saying a lot given how much I love Dhalgren. Being the fourth time I read it, I realized that it's really quite a short, quick book if you let it be. There's not so much to the plot itself; rather, most of what's in the book is devoted to scene or world(s)-building. But in the prose there's so much richness: Nearly each sentence is a true million-dollar sentence, not tortured, but masterfully crafted.

And I love how the book tells you how and why it works so well. (view spoiler)[Katin, toward the end of the book, tells the Mouse (or is he telling Lorq?) about habitual, purposeful, and gratuitous actions and how characters live through the lens of how other characters experience them. Now re-read it and keep these (and the other scattered throughout the book) points in mind. Now remember back to other of Delany's books, such as Hogg, where we get to know the characters through their actions (Denny un(sub?)conscious masturbating, or, in The Fall of the Towers, Alter's acrobatics). (hide spoiler)] In Nova, the reader is schooled by one of the world's greatest writers; the book itself is a masterclass in novel writing.

Not only that, but, perhaps because of the above, the characters in Nova are so vivid and so likable. I've always felt this way from the first time I read this book in October, 2003. (view spoiler)[That lanky nerd Katin; the scarred, determined Captain Lorq; the graceful Tÿy, her partner Sebastian, and their pets; the excitable and perhaps a little drug-crazed twins who (in)complete each other's sentences; and, of course, our unassuming hero through whom we experience most of the story - the raspy-voiced, late-teen-age musician and wanderer, Mouse. (hide spoiler)] I love reading about them, and I'm already looking forward to my next re-read of Nova.