For more than four decades, Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled readers with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous lit...
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Feb 16, 2011
John
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I think it’s something of a cliché to say that science fiction is about the here and now. Reading Iain M. Banks or Vernor Vinge, who write (awesome) adventure novels about post humans and super-intelligent computers set in space in the far future, it’s easy to forget just how much light SF can shed on the condition of us earth-bound, unenhanced humans of the early 21st century. And then you read Ursula Le Guin and remember.
For that reason alone, The Birthday of the World is a spect More...
For that reason alone, The Birthday of the World is a spect More...
Nov 03, 2008
Jennifer
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Ursula Leguin is a genius at speculative fiction. What she does is create worlds like little tiny machines, with something at the heart of them that drives them differently from ours. Then she starts them and sees where they go, and writes beautiful, beautiful stories about them.
This collection of stories explores a variety of worlds. It takes us back to the world of "The Left Hand of Darkness," where the inhabitants are genderless most of the time, only becoming male or More...
This collection of stories explores a variety of worlds. It takes us back to the world of "The Left Hand of Darkness," where the inhabitants are genderless most of the time, only becoming male or More...
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Oct 05, 2007
Tunde
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Wow. I was an anthropology and sociology major at the University of Michigan, and I picked up this book for free at a used book sale. Impressed would be an understatement. Guin's stories are as thorough as the ethnographies that I have to read for my Anthro classes; class, gender, inequality, signification, and more are covered in a writing that envelopes and enchants the reader. My favorite story is "Paradise Lost", a story about the culture and mythology that are created in a space v
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May 30, 2010
Cat
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I was utterly absorbed in all of the stories in this book. Le Guin is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, and I look forward to reading more. She approaches science fiction like anthropology or ancient history, considering the cultural bases for our identities, inhibitions, and expectations. By inventing, with meticulous and compelling detail, cultures and bodies, she makes the reader reexamine her own frameworks for understanding the world.
Le Guin is also a master of cha More...
Le Guin is also a master of cha More...
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Apr 21, 2009
Sapote3
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This is my absolute favorite of Le Guin's short story collections. Every single story in it is among my favorites. Unlike some of her early and sometimes difficult and bitter dystopian short stories, these stories generally deal with worlds where things are going right, or at least the way they've always been, and sit in the middle of them comfortably looking around instead of hurrying to arrive at any plot points. Of course every story has a point to make - the first part of "The Matter of
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Sep 25, 2009
Tatiana
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This is a collection of short fiction, 8 stories set in UKL's various worlds and universes. I found them all to be engaging, serious, and good. The first one, Coming of Age in Karhide is set on the world of The Left Hand of Darkness, which is a world I've missed. It was cool to get to revisit it and learn more about the culture of Karhide on Gethen. I won't take you through each story, but suffice it to say that some are sad, others are joyous or funny, but all of them are so very real. The
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Oct 26, 2009
Nicole
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Some of the stories in this collection were great and some were just fairly good, but I found something I liked about every story and something to think about in each of them. Le Guin skilfully uses societies that are very different from our own to present themes that matter in ours, and only occasionally does it feel like she's hitting you over the head with a moral.
If I read this again I'd try not to read the whole thing in one day, both because it got a bit confusing, especially f More...
If I read this again I'd try not to read the whole thing in one day, both because it got a bit confusing, especially f More...
Apr 15, 2009
Reshma
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Fabulous! I love the stories Le Guin comes up with! This is not your stereotypical SciFi novel. Le Guin creates new societies, which happen to be on other planets, and write rather simple stories about them so that we, the readers, can gain insight. It is a study in anthropology and sociology. I felt my brain thinking and philosophizing as I read. Felt good.
This collection of short stories, and the novella at the end, is the perfect way to get into this type of science fiction if More...
This collection of short stories, and the novella at the end, is the perfect way to get into this type of science fiction if More...
Jun 07, 2009
Jennpants
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The first story in this book uses the term, "fuckery," in it. As in, "She went to the Fuckery," or, "The Fuckery was located centrally in the town for better access," or something. I'm sorry. I LOVE Ursula K. LeGuin and really like this collection of stories, but I just couldn't get over that word.
That being said, this collection covers various different planets and directly or indirectly their own unique ideas on human pairing. Aesexual, open relationsh More...
That being said, this collection covers various different planets and directly or indirectly their own unique ideas on human pairing. Aesexual, open relationsh More...
Jun 05, 2011
Samrat
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That was really fascinating. It was definitely a different approach to science fiction than I've read before - and I'll attribute a good portion of it to the author's gender. The stories are written with a beautiful tenderness, anthropological explorations of unfamiliar worlds and races and relationships, made real through very relatable themes of love and friendship. They're very curious. Some of the worlds are sketchily described, while Paradises Lost, the final story and the longest by far, i
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Jul 02, 2011
mstan
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Many of these short stories take place in the same universe The Left Hand of Darkness does, but Le Guin goes further in exploring matters to do with sex and love for a few of them. More than just being 'experiments', though, her worlds are complete, organic. You can also picture them growing beyond her, the births and deaths and forests extending beyond what we can see on the page.
What if...
- A marriage were a foursome (a sedoretu with a 'Day' male/female pair and an 'Evening More...
What if...
- A marriage were a foursome (a sedoretu with a 'Day' male/female pair and an 'Evening More...
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Dec 02, 2010
martha
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Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books were some of my absolute favorites while I was growing up, but I found when I came back to them a few years ago that they left me relatively cold; the language was more formal than I like in my books these days. Enter these short stories about life on a number of planets in the same universe. This is scifi anthropology at its finest: really interesting speculative concepts explored and taken to their logical extremes, without sacrificing strong characterization
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Aug 09, 2009
Jennifer
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It was nice to be able to read stories about the different planets of evolving humans that I had encountered in previous novels, but the real crown jewel of this collection is the novella at the end, "Paradises Lost". In it, Di Chew (Di Qiu, the Chinese Pinyin word for Earth) sends an envoy of humans to explore and settle a planet, Hsin Di Chew (Xin Di Qiu, or New Earth) hundreds of years away. As the envoy cycles through a few generations waiting to arrive, some form a religion deemi
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Jul 06, 2008
Joanne
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Sometimes I wonder what lies within the mind of Ursula Le Guin, that she could explore sexuality and social mores with such graceful leaps and bounds... her ability to traverse chasms of uncomfortable topics with unwavering strength of character never ceases to blow me away. A lesser writer, I would set down the book and veer away from any future works, but Le Guin manages to lead me calmly through the storm, with my faith in her wry feminism acting as an odd sort of comfort I've never experienc
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Dec 18, 2008
Michael
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On one level, LeGuin is the bard of polymorphic perversity (quite literally so in the case of the periodic hermaphroditism on Gethen, first introduced in The Left Hand of Darkness). In this collection of nine stories, she explores the romantic and reproductive strategies of a wide range of human (or at least human-like) societies: complex foursomes on the planet O, equilibrium-oriented reproduction on a generation-spanning starship, gender imbalance on Seggri, radical introversion on Eleven-Soro
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Feb 10, 2009
Becca
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This book contains eight short stories, all of which I enjoyed immensely. I had never read Le Guin before, so I wanted to get a feel for her writing through something like short stories. And I've come to the conclusion that I really like her writing! Not only does she create interesting and intriguing worlds, she brings up social issues that would have never crossed my mind but are almost difficult to think about. It really made me think.
Jun 24, 2011
Ves
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I could not finish this book, possibly because it require more attention than I could give it in the Airport and on the plane. The few stories I read did have very interesting exploration of alternative social structures, but the characters lacked depth to me. I am guessing this book would be better the second time around, since I would not have to relearn so many new terms and ideas. It just did not intrigue me enough to give it another shot.
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May 24, 2010
Diana
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The stories in this book by Ursula K. Le Guin force the reader to re-evaluate the way we think about relationships and power. By giving us characters and conflicts from different planets and different times, she breaks all the rules we know when it comes to gender, sexuality, religion, politics, etc. She forces us to see the tensions in the relationships we take for granted. Perfect for scifi geek feminists.
Jan 31, 2011
Osho
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The Birthday of the World is a good book, as were Le Guin's last several. In the present volume, Le Guin explores themes clustered around questions of right action and right being, and explores narrators' and protagonists' relationships to culture, the idea of home, and conscious or unconscious cultural imperatives. And there is a focus on varieties of sex, by which I mean gender, sexuality, sexual acts, and sex as violence. We meet more Hainish, Werelians and Yeoweans (and are reacquainted with
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Mar 05, 2011
Terry
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A collection of short stories in settings that push human social and mental development in directions other tan those we are familiar with. Humans adapt to androgyny, strict separation by gender, being born, living, and dying on a ship, and the responsibility of being gods.
Jul 09, 2009
Darceylaine
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LeGuin revisits some of the Hainish themes, and creates several new compelling worlds. One story even got my 8 year old son's attention at dinner the other day (it involves a space ship you see.)
As you would expect from LeGuin, these are engaging stories that make you think and play with our perceptions of reality. Occasionally she veers too far into anthropology-geek, but we love her anyway. I don't think there is anyone I'd rather read right now.
As you would expect from LeGuin, these are engaging stories that make you think and play with our perceptions of reality. Occasionally she veers too far into anthropology-geek, but we love her anyway. I don't think there is anyone I'd rather read right now.
Nov 13, 2010
Chie
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It was heavy. Some Funny...wierd, sad, others, all of the three and more. I need to re-read this a couple of times before i can come to an entirely sound conclusion, because this is packed. If you want a sort of dynamic frame of mind, then you have to read this.
Jan 01, 2009
Fiona
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Short stories, mostly set in worlds that Le Guin has written about before. Absorbing stories and characters, and fascinating anthropological speculations - though they're maybe a bit relentless in their anthropological focus when taken in one sitting.
Jun 19, 2011
Cheyenne
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Great collection of shorter sci-fi stories by this amazing author :) The last story, "Paradises Lost" was my favorite. I love all her different worlds' different social/sexual/romantic situations, they are all so interesting to think about. This book was especially great because the stories were deep enough to get my brain really going, but nice and short for my ADHD brain ;) There are many different worlds in this collection of stories, and it was interesting to read one after anot
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Dec 17, 2009
Tiffany
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After my disappointment in LeGuin's novel "The Left Hand of Darkness", these short stories are great! The first story actually takes place on the same world as "The Left Hand of Darkness", but gets into the juicy details of gender, sex, and kemmer in the society. Most of the other short stories also have unusual gender stuff going on, which makes for some really interesting reading and pondering. The last story is less about gender, but delves into religion in fascinating way
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Jun 22, 2010
Lock
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Her scifi remains fascinating for me because it is less what is termed "hard scifi" (more concerned with technology and its implications), and more a laboratory for exploring the implications of various alternative societal configurations, mainly concerning gender, sexuality, and ecology. These short stories exemplify that tendency, and are great!
Jun 01, 2009
Gwyn
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Short stories set in a variety of different worlds, exploring various possible sexual relationships. Le Guin's science fiction has always read more like anthropology. She is a master (mistress?) of the short story.
Mar 12, 2009
Beth
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The first few stories were kind of interesting. The second to last and next to last stories sucked. The last story was, by far, the best. Get it from the library, read just the last story, then return it.
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Sep 25, 2011
Lucia
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Ursula presents great ideas about social constructs and gender issues. She has created intriguing sci fi worlds lead to subtle evaluations of our own social norms and why we adhere to them the way we do.
Jun 12, 2011
I really like Le Guin's shorts. I dont think it was in this collection? but you should check out the story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" if you haven't read any of hers. Reeeeeally good
