- Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; Reissue edition (31 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061056057
- ISBN-13: 978-0061056055
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.9 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,129,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Delicious . . . her worlds are haunting psychological visions molded with firm artistry."--Library Journal
Product Description
A spellbinding collection of seventeen stories from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin. Magnificent heroes, compassionate heroines and magical creatures struggle for survival in diverse and distant worlds. They long for immortality, are consumed by their own wizardry and are driven by their quest for utopia. Incomparable and unforgettable, these are the imaginative, wonder-filled, thoughtful stories of a true master.
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First Sentence
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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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".
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
9 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book for the first story however all of them will surpass your expectations. Ursula has a unique way with words that rival her tales.
The Winds Twelve Quarters Ursula K. Le Guin
Foreword
Semley's Necklace ["The Dowry of Angyar"] - ss Amazing Sep '64
April in Paris - ss Fantastic Sep '62
The Masters - ss Fantastic Feb '63
Darkness Box - ss Fantastic Nov '63
The Word of Unbinding - ss Fantastic Jan '64
The Rule of Names - ss Fantastic Apr '64
Winter's King - nv Orbit 5, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam's, 1969
The Good Trip - ss Fantastic Aug '70
Nine Lives - nv Playboy Nov '69
Things ["The End"] - ss Orbit 6, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam's, 1970
A Trip to the Head - ss Quark #1, ed. Samuel R. Delany & Marilyn Hacker, Paperback Library, 1970
Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - nv New Dimensions I, ed. Robert Silverberg, Doubleday, 1971
The Stars Below - ss Orbit 14, ed. Damon Knight, Harper & Row, 1974
The Field of Vision - ss Galaxy Oct '73
Direction of the Road - ss Orbit 12, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam's, 1973
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - ss New Dimensions 3, ed. Robert Silverberg, Nelson Doubleday, 1973
The Day Before the Revolution - ss Galaxy Aug '74
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