Ursula Le Guin has been recognized for more than thirty years as one of the most important writers in the sf field and her readership has extended far beyond the readership of the genre. This was her filrst collection of short stories and her best. It brings together almost all of her early short fiction and includes such poised and enduring masterpieces as the Hugo-winning 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas', the Nebula-winning 'The Day before the Revolution' and seminal works like 'Winter's King', 'Vaster than Empires and More Slow' and 'Nine Lives'. The range, strength and beauty of the stories is breathtaking.
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"Delicious . . . her worlds are haunting psychological visions molded with firm artistry."--Library Journal
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About the Author
Ursula Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbury Honor. Among her novels The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status; and her latest series, the Annals of the Western Shore is joining them. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Ursula K. Le Guin was born in 1929 into an academic family. She was educated at Radcliffe and Columbia and began publishing sf stories in the early 1960s. Her talent and importance was quickly recognized and The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Her other novels include Rocannon's World, The Lathe of Heaven and Always Coming Home.
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How can you tell the legend from the fact on these worlds that lie so many years away?-planets without names, called by their people simply The World, planets without history, where the past is the matter of myth, and a returning explorer finds his own doings of a few years back have become the gestures of a god. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
How can you tell the legend from the fact on these worlds that lie so many years away?-planets without names, called by their people simply The World, planets without history, where the past is the matter of myth, and a returning explorer finds his own doings of a few years back have become the gestures of a god. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book is extraordinary. Each story is better than the previous one, all written with elegant prose, thoughfullness and deep feeling. For me the story that tops them all is "The ones who walk away from Omelas". Given to me years ago as a school assignment by a truly enlighted teacher of English as a foreign language, it was the story that introduced me to the wonderful world of fantasy and sciense fiction, and the one that made me realise early on that these literary genres have nothing to do with muscled men, glittering swords, space battles and special effects. When I found it again in this collection, I was thrilled. And I was even more so, when I read the rest of the short stories, which are equally excellent. Read it, and then read it again. The book will touch you and will make you think what it really means to be "human".
Format:Paperback
Perhaps the greatest attraction to Le Guin's writing is that all at once she perceives a bigger picture for her reader and constructs it bottom-up focusing on the small details, the mundanities that dominate life, to frame each cluster of ideas that create her worlds.
Fans of Earthsea, the Disposessed and even other collections of short stories such as 'Worlds of Exile and Illusion' will find their familiar landscapes revisited and expanded upon and, like a true history, enriched as opposed to other notable FF/sci-fi authors whose add-on's weaken the original (e.g. Hobb).
Paragraphical introductions at the beginning of each short story give us great insight into her inspiration: "From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading roadsigns backwards, naturally."
Notable are 'Winter's King', which describes astutely the loneliness and uselessness of being a cultural alien, 'Nine Lives' exploring the social interdependencies of multiple clones, 'The Stars Below' reminds me of Miyazaki's mining scenes from Laputa - Castle in the Sky and speaks of the craftsmen (in this case Astronomer) who has lost his art, and 'Vaster than Empires and More Slow' revokes fear of fear and awe of nature that Le Guin's
craft is an epiphyte to.
Fans of Earthsea, the Disposessed and even other collections of short stories such as 'Worlds of Exile and Illusion' will find their familiar landscapes revisited and expanded upon and, like a true history, enriched as opposed to other notable FF/sci-fi authors whose add-on's weaken the original (e.g. Hobb).
Paragraphical introductions at the beginning of each short story give us great insight into her inspiration: "From forgetting Dostoyevsky and reading roadsigns backwards, naturally."
Notable are 'Winter's King', which describes astutely the loneliness and uselessness of being a cultural alien, 'Nine Lives' exploring the social interdependencies of multiple clones, 'The Stars Below' reminds me of Miyazaki's mining scenes from Laputa - Castle in the Sky and speaks of the craftsmen (in this case Astronomer) who has lost his art, and 'Vaster than Empires and More Slow' revokes fear of fear and awe of nature that Le Guin's
craft is an epiphyte to.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have to confess to being initially disappointed with this collection. Having recently read more 'hard' science fiction by the likes of Bear, Bester,and Gibson, Le Guin's blend of self styled 'psychomyths'and fantasy at times felt aesthetic but ephemeral. Nevertheless her ability to create plausible places and people does lead to a gradual awakening and appreciation of her ability as a writer.
There are also some genuine 'hard' pieces of science fiction writing- notably 'Vaster than Empires and More Slow',the excellent 'Nine Lives', exploring cloning, the haunting 'The field of Vision',a futuristic spin on religious belief and 'seeing the light'. Le Guin is very strong on the inherent injustice of life, brilliantly demonsrated in the allegorical tale of the cost of developed world/American wealth- 'The Ones Who walk Away from Omelas' and 'The Day Before the Revolution.'
So even if you are not a fan of Earthsea and fantasy this is a collection which is worth owning and
persevering with when reading.
There are also some genuine 'hard' pieces of science fiction writing- notably 'Vaster than Empires and More Slow',the excellent 'Nine Lives', exploring cloning, the haunting 'The field of Vision',a futuristic spin on religious belief and 'seeing the light'. Le Guin is very strong on the inherent injustice of life, brilliantly demonsrated in the allegorical tale of the cost of developed world/American wealth- 'The Ones Who walk Away from Omelas' and 'The Day Before the Revolution.'
So even if you are not a fan of Earthsea and fantasy this is a collection which is worth owning and
persevering with when reading.
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