The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A book about oppression, freedom, immigration, non-violence, and violence disguised as an easy-to-read YA fantasy book. The writing is really lovely.

View all my reviews

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like this book because it totally immerses you in a strange world as an alien trying to understand- but not completely understanding everything. That strikes me as particularly realistic because it takes a really long time to understand a foreign culture, and probably you never fully get it.

I also like the way the main character develops a complicated friendship with a person of such a dissimilar culture, becoming deeply bonded while still not fully understanding each other.

Finally, the whole exploration of a gender-neutral society so far in advance of the gender nonconformity movement we are currently living through is really interesting, and particularly strange as seen through the eyes of a vaguely sexist but still open-minded main character.


View all my reviews

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin

City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a thousands-of-years-later sequel to Planet of Exile, so I recommend reading that one first, though it's not strictly necessary, as all the Hainish Cycle books stand alone pretty well. The beginning is a pretty straightforward adventure fantasy book with a hero on a quest, but soon becomes more of a puzzle that the reader has to engage with, while simultaneously pondering what constitutes a person's identity.

Le Guin wrote books 3-5 of the Hainish Cycle first: Rocannon's World (1966), Planet of Exile (1966), and City of Illusions (1967). I've read those and the prequel (book 1) The Dispossessed. So far this is my favorite in the Hainish Cycle. I'm going to read The Left Hand of Darkness (book 6) next.

RIP Ursula K. Le Guin. Thank you for all the books.

View all my reviews

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this one. It was short and focused on the dynamics between two groups of alien people at different places in their scientific development. It's interesting both as a thought experiment and also because of the personal relationships in the story.

The planet is Werel, and it takes 60 Earth-years to go around the sun, and it's about to have another really long (15-year?) winter. The main characters are Wold and his daughter Rolery who are members of the group of Tevarans. Might have been easier if they were called Werelians but actually, there's another group of invading Werelians called The Gaal. The other main character is Jakob Agat from a colony of Earthlings that got stuck and left behind on Werel. The two groups descended from the Hainish people originally, but they evolved separately for so long that they can't have children with each other.

Apparently, this planet is renamed from Werel to Alterra in Left Hand of Darkness?


View all my reviews

Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin

Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Decent little sci-fi space opera/fantasy book. Ursula Le Guin invented the word ansible!

Starts with Semley who travels space to get back her family's necklace in a foreign museum. She doesn't realize that her short trip means missing many years on her technologically backward home planet. On her home planet, there are three races: elvish Fiia, the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar, and warrior clan, Liuar. Underground, the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar are technologically advanced -- though the spaceship Semley borrows from them was an alien gift. The rest of the story is pretty much the adventure of Gaverel Rocannon, an ethnologist who previously met Semley at the museum.

I think I might reread this one after I've read other ones in the series because I kept getting distracted while reading the end. The flying cats alone should make it worth another go, right?

View all my reviews

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book! It was well-written, it was philosophical, political, frightening, and enjoyable all at the same time. My one complaint early on in the novel when I thought the main character George was behaving inauthentically, was actually explained later in the story. The underlying political message seems to be a bit conservative or at least pessimistic, with the antagonist being kind of a liberal optimist, but I still enjoyed it as a liberal. Le Guin creates a better dystopia than Ayn Rand.

View all my reviews

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know. It's well-written. It's an eloquent and complete answer to Ayn Rand about the possibilities of cooperation- not perfect even if set-up perfectly, but better than greed and selfishness. At the same time, the characters are real and moving people. This isn't an empty allegory.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot I actually enjoyed in this book. I more or less just powered through it.

View all my reviews

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one is my favorite of the trilogy so far. So many of these epic fantasy books focus on an adventure story about the struggle between good and evil, but this one also focuses heavily on the struggle of life, the fear of death, and how death plays a role in "the balance." It is a unique perspective and maybe a commentary on religion? In Earthsea, there is no magic without death and the afterlife has a noticeable Buddhist influence.

Of course, Earthsea might not have anything to do with Earth, but it's clear that either way, Le Guin makes an argument for the necessity of death. This argument isn't totally developed in the book which is disappointing because modern science is really seeking life-extension technologies and even cures for death (see studies on telomeres, attempts to record human consciousness in computers, along with all of Google's anti-death projects).

View all my reviews

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this one much better than the first. I liked the focus on the development of Arha as she learned more about the world around her. And the Tombs are magical.

View all my reviews

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a cute little story, and I think it would have been good if I'd read it as a child, but as an adult it didn't provide much more than plot, plot, plot.

View all my reviews