Orsinian Tales
by Ursula K. LeGuin
Orsinian Tales
Ursula K. LeGuin |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 160)
Read in March, 2008
recommended to Kirsten by:
Jennyrecommends it for: philosophically-minded escapists
This collection is just what the doctor ordered: a seamless prose world of forests, shadows and light, great cities, young (and imperiled) love...in creating her fictionalized country, LeGuin goes further than presenting fantasy; rather, she uses the opportunity to explore states, subjugations of all sorts, insidious hopes, and the delicate power of art in an otherwise unsympathetic environment, among other things.
For the most part, I found myself very drawn in and read through these stories...more
For the most part, I found myself very drawn in and read through these stories...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of our greatest living writers. My interest in sci-fi has decreased as I've gotten older, as most of it is just poorly written or hackneyed. Le Guin doesn't have that problem at all:a her prose is beautifully crisp, and her stories are always thought-provoking.
This collection of short stories is somewhat atypical of Le Guin, as it is not really fantasy or science fiction, though it takes place in the fictional country of Orsinia. However, Le Guin spins some truly...more
This collection of short stories is somewhat atypical of Le Guin, as it is not really fantasy or science fiction, though it takes place in the fictional country of Orsinia. However, Le Guin spins some truly...more
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Read in July, 2008
Just finished reading Le Guin's Orsinian Tales. I'm not sure what I think of it, actually. The stories in themselves are well written, interesting -- the first few, in my opinion, are better than the last few. Or maybe that's the warm day and my lack of focus speaking. Either way, I really liked Conversations at Night, one of the earlier ones. It's an interesting idea -- a series of stories about an imaginary European country. I think she also has a novel based on the country, whic...more
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I am going to be devastated on the day that I see Ursula K. Le Guin's obituary in the papers, and this book is one of many reasons why. This is some of the best prose that I've read recently. She writes like Batman fights: no jazzy wire-fu whirl and leap, no showy moulinette pirouette lunar gravity twirl--just the right phrase in the right place at exactly the right time.
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Read in March, 2008
I don't know about this book. I really usually love LeGuin, but this book was an oddity. I kept waiting for a connection between the short stories or even a reference to the title "Orsinian Tales" but have been unsuccessful thus far. Some of the stories are sweet though, and seem very Germanic. Weird. Weird little book.
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Read in January, 1999
Favourite story in here is "Conversations at Night" because its hot. Kind of.
Ursula Le Guinn's take on science fiction is here mingled with the absurd of the past. Eastern block peasantry meets minimalist aesthetics for streamlined strange fiction, no ribbons. Yay.
Ursula Le Guinn's take on science fiction is here mingled with the absurd of the past. Eastern block peasantry meets minimalist aesthetics for streamlined strange fiction, no ribbons. Yay.
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of evocation short fiction!
Le Guin shifts through hundreds of years of history in a fictional Eastern European country. Each story is self contained. One contains Christian monks being sacrificed to dark nature gods!
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