Babel-17 vs The ship of Ishtar: Which Should You Read?

Both live on shelves: Life on other planets, Science Fiction, Fiction

Cover of Babel-17

Babel-17 Samuel R. Delany · 1966 ★★★★☆ 3.9 226 pages · ≈ 4 h 11 m · Moderate Find on Amazon

vs

Cover of The ship of Ishtar

The ship of Ishtar A. Merritt · 1924 ★★★★☆ 3.6 309 pages · ≈ 5 h 43 m · Challenging Find on Amazon

The verdict

Readers rate Babel-17 higher: 3.9 vs 3.6 from 61 votes.
Babel-17 is the easier read (Moderate), The ship of Ishtar more demanding (Challenging).

Side by side