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The Hainish Cycle
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
The winner of the Pushcart Prize, the Kafka Award, and the National Book Award, Ursula K. Le Guin has created a profound and transformational literature. The award-winning stories in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea range from the everyday to the outer limits of experience, where the quantum uncertainties of space and time are resolved only in the depths of the human heart. Astonishing in their diversity and power, they exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers and the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intac
207 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1994
127 people are currently reading
7782 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,045 books30.1k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 348 reviews
April 28, 2021
Love has a right to be spoken. And you have a right to know that somebody loves you. That somebody has loved you, could love you. We all need to know that. Maybe it's what we need most.
Confession: I don't read a lot of science fiction, and all I can say, having just finished this collection, is holy f---! I merrily read through the first few stories, and once I got to The Shobies' Story very quickly felt very stupid. Was I supposed to feel disoriented and overwhelmed? Or was it because I was a such science fiction novice? But I pushed through, and loved it, and by the end of the collection found myself hopelessly in love with Ursula le Guin. Not only was she such a talented writer--I may never want to read a book set on Terra again--she also had a sense of humor!
It is nonetheless a slightly (very slightly) uneven collection. I wish the last three interlinked stories had been published on their own as they alone merit rave reviews, while The Ascent of the North Face completely misses the mark in context with the rest of the stories. But what would be the fun is finding the perfect Le Guin collection (if it exists) on my first try? And so I continue my quest that find that perfect short-story collection--this one definitely came close.
The First Contact with the Gorgonids - 4
Newton's Sleep - 5
The Ascent of the North Face - 3
The Rock That Changed Things - 5
The Kerastion - 5
The Shobies' Story - 5
Dancing to Ganam - 4
Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - 5
December 17, 2022
A story that is the literary equivalent to Interstellar. Brilliantly oscillation between big science fiction and the personal, while capturing all the implications of time dilation
Story is the only boat we have to sail on the river of time
The quality of the novellas of Le Guin doesn’t cease to amaze me! Can in less pages compete easily with Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, without feeling outdated one bit!
Complicated marriages in foursomes of heterosexual and homosexual pairings, in a rural planet, form the background to a Japanese Terran, Hideo, growing up.
Implications of time dilution and losing everyone you know make this a story akin to Interstellar.
It is fascinating how Ursula K. Le Guin envisions a stagnant rural society, with 30 centuries of farming, to be part of the Ekumen, which is highly technologically advanced.
Hideo starts working on something that resembles a Star Trek transporter, but instead of technobabble, Le Guin focusses on mental health and the implications of dislocation to find a better life. In the end life not lived is the main theme of this novella, and time travel is just used to facilitate this meditation. Very well executed.
Story is the only boat we have to sail on the river of time
The quality of the novellas of Le Guin doesn’t cease to amaze me! Can in less pages compete easily with Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, without feeling outdated one bit!
Complicated marriages in foursomes of heterosexual and homosexual pairings, in a rural planet, form the background to a Japanese Terran, Hideo, growing up.
Implications of time dilution and losing everyone you know make this a story akin to Interstellar.
It is fascinating how Ursula K. Le Guin envisions a stagnant rural society, with 30 centuries of farming, to be part of the Ekumen, which is highly technologically advanced.
Hideo starts working on something that resembles a Star Trek transporter, but instead of technobabble, Le Guin focusses on mental health and the implications of dislocation to find a better life. In the end life not lived is the main theme of this novella, and time travel is just used to facilitate this meditation. Very well executed.
April 28, 2013
Ursula Le Guin is best known for her fantasy and her science fiction writings, though she also writes other fiction as well as poetry, articles and reviews. The short stories in this 1994 collection, while firmly in the SF genre, also demonstrate her ability to compose in various tones, from light to dark, from gentle humour to philosophical musings. Originally published in various periodicals between 1983 and 1994, the narratives are clearly placed in context by an excellent introduction in which she not only discusses the tales but also mounts a spirited defence of SF as a genre, a defence which twenty years on may be less urgent though no less valid or effective.
She explains that she experiments with SF by using the form to explore character and human relationships, rather than exploring the ‘scientism’ and elitist technocracies that much traditional ‘hard’ SF was associated with and which put off the unconverted. She also denies that SF (and by extension, I suspect, fantasy) is necessarily escapist; instead, by exploring human characteristics, even or especially in alien humanoids, she throws light on our own humanity, humaneness, human-ness; she focuses on the potential strengths of SF, most particularly on a quality that is not always attached to this genre: beauty.
There is no doubting the beauty of many of these stories. “The Kerastion” (the name is for ‘an instrument that cannot be heard’) concerns the impermanence of a society’s art created for their divinity, and how sacrilege may be committed when an individual tries to make sculptures that are not transitory. His funeral is accompanied by music played on a ceremonial flute made by his sister, soundless except to the ears of the dead. This haunting tale feels like an anthropological commentary in that there is no implied value judgement given on what transpires, but it is told with poetic sensitivity and a sympathy for the individuals involved.
Preceding “The Kerastion” is “The Rock That Changed Things”, another story that verges on the fantasy genre but which has a very political purpose, dealing with gender and caste issues for instance. There is also the strange human obsession with unusual stones, as here where the placement of coloured stones within a pattern has a significance which only the initiates have the right to interpret. Aspects of this story reminded me of Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game or Robert Graves’ short story “The Shout”, but only distantly; and the presence of a third eye in these beings reminded me that this was no earth-bound tale.
Another aspect of SF that Le Guin plays with is humour. As she herself says, ‘Is anything deadlier than somebody explaining a joke?’ And so there is nothing to explain in “The First Contact with the Gorgonids”, about tourists coming face to face with extra-terrestrials in the Australian outback, other than that the title and the label suggest a inversion of the more familiar Perseus myth. As for the earliest story in the book, “The Ascent of the North Face”, that transposes the typical names for obstacles and camps on mountaineering expeditions to the more domestic setting whence many of the terms originated; it may be a one-joke story, but it is staunchly and consistently maintained.
It’s less easy to say precisely what “Newton’s Sleep” is about. The title is a reference to a poem by Blake which includes the line ‘May God us keep | From single vision, and Newton’s sleep!’ Ike is part of a group, the SPES Society (named for the Special Earth Satellite), which eventually leaves a devastated earth forever to orbit around it. Discussion and argument arises amongst the travellers about the necessity of learning about Earth geology or even aping Earth culture, such as in the station’s architecture, when the intention is that they will never return. Despite a supposedly rational ethos, the satellite’s inhabitants increasingly see ghosts and find their environment changing, suggesting that you can take humans away from Earth but you can’t take Earth away from humans.
“Newton’s Sleep” is a deeply-layered story. Ike Rose’s family all have Jewish names like Noah and Esther, which suggests a Biblical aspect. Ike, of course, is named after the patriarch Isaac, who went blind in later life, while Ike’s own daughter Esther is becoming similarly afflicted. Newton was another Isaac, a complex thinker with heterogeneous beliefs, one of whose accomplishments was to institute the science of optics. Because he helped lay the foundations for the Enlightenment pursuit of science, he was credited by the mystic poet Blake with only following Reason, the ‘single vision’ of his poem.
Does this imply an anti-Science stance by Le Guin? Not at all. Into the mix comes a reference to Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Engenders Monsters, a self-portrait of the artist being assailed by beasties. The text attached to Goya’s work actually tells us that “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.” In other words, humans need fantasy as much as rational thought in order to create and innovate, in order to be truly human. “Newton’s Sleep” is not an anti-Science diatribe, then, but a plea for combining two human qualities in order to be free of nightmares. The final pages quote an almost biblical message from his daughter Esther: ‘I am going up in the mountains for a while.’ In his desperation to find her in the metallic shell of the orbiting satellite he finds his perception of reality altering, fantasy and reason somehow united. The SPES has become a little like a Pandora’s Box: when everything else has escaped what remains is Hope; and in Latin spes of course means precisely this.
The remaining three stories are part of the Hainish Cycle, Le Guin’s SF universe. Having many years ago conceived the ansible, a device for instant communication across light-years, and seeing it taken up by other writers as a convenient plot-device, she here devises churten theory, which allows for transilience, a way for humans to instantaneously travel across vast distances in space, and much faster than NAFAL speed (Nearly As Fast As Light) would allow. She’s not interested in the nuts-and-bolts rationale behind churten theory, just the impact it has on people and their psyches. To start with, “The Shobies’ Story” is about a group of ten travellers attempting transilience for the first time who find that their individual versions about what happens on arrival are at variance with each other. This is more than just the unreliability of eyewitness memory as it seems to imply that reality changes according to perception. Can the crew of the Shoby find a narrative that they all agree with?
“Dancing to Ganam” is a further exploration of the application of churten theory, this time involving fewer voyagers led by the charismatic figure of Dalzul to the planet of Ganam. This time the dissonance of different perceptions cannot be resolved, does not result in unison but in a fall that inevitably follows hubris. Where there is no clear communication a common narrative can’t come into being.
The last and longest tale “Another Story” is another step along the development of churten technology, set on the planet O. It begin with a traditional tale A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, which to us has elements of the literary fairytale Undine and similar accounts of mortals inadvertently spending centuries in the land of the fairies. Put simply, “Another Story” is as the author tells us an ‘experiment with time-travel’ which ‘explores the possibility of two stories about the same person in the same time being completely different and completely true’. Hideo travels from his home planet to help develop churten technology, but something goes wrong. Will he not only become estranged from family and friends but also lose the potential lover he knew in childhood?
Le Guin describes many of these tales as metafictions, or stories about stories. This quality of tales-within-tales is part of what makes her writing special, along with the lucidity of her prose and the timelessness of her style. Above all, you get the impression that she cares about her creations, deeply flawed as many of them are, and that caring is something that she generously invites the reader to share.
http://wp.me/p2oNj1-mk
She explains that she experiments with SF by using the form to explore character and human relationships, rather than exploring the ‘scientism’ and elitist technocracies that much traditional ‘hard’ SF was associated with and which put off the unconverted. She also denies that SF (and by extension, I suspect, fantasy) is necessarily escapist; instead, by exploring human characteristics, even or especially in alien humanoids, she throws light on our own humanity, humaneness, human-ness; she focuses on the potential strengths of SF, most particularly on a quality that is not always attached to this genre: beauty.
There is no doubting the beauty of many of these stories. “The Kerastion” (the name is for ‘an instrument that cannot be heard’) concerns the impermanence of a society’s art created for their divinity, and how sacrilege may be committed when an individual tries to make sculptures that are not transitory. His funeral is accompanied by music played on a ceremonial flute made by his sister, soundless except to the ears of the dead. This haunting tale feels like an anthropological commentary in that there is no implied value judgement given on what transpires, but it is told with poetic sensitivity and a sympathy for the individuals involved.
Preceding “The Kerastion” is “The Rock That Changed Things”, another story that verges on the fantasy genre but which has a very political purpose, dealing with gender and caste issues for instance. There is also the strange human obsession with unusual stones, as here where the placement of coloured stones within a pattern has a significance which only the initiates have the right to interpret. Aspects of this story reminded me of Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game or Robert Graves’ short story “The Shout”, but only distantly; and the presence of a third eye in these beings reminded me that this was no earth-bound tale.
Another aspect of SF that Le Guin plays with is humour. As she herself says, ‘Is anything deadlier than somebody explaining a joke?’ And so there is nothing to explain in “The First Contact with the Gorgonids”, about tourists coming face to face with extra-terrestrials in the Australian outback, other than that the title and the label suggest a inversion of the more familiar Perseus myth. As for the earliest story in the book, “The Ascent of the North Face”, that transposes the typical names for obstacles and camps on mountaineering expeditions to the more domestic setting whence many of the terms originated; it may be a one-joke story, but it is staunchly and consistently maintained.
It’s less easy to say precisely what “Newton’s Sleep” is about. The title is a reference to a poem by Blake which includes the line ‘May God us keep | From single vision, and Newton’s sleep!’ Ike is part of a group, the SPES Society (named for the Special Earth Satellite), which eventually leaves a devastated earth forever to orbit around it. Discussion and argument arises amongst the travellers about the necessity of learning about Earth geology or even aping Earth culture, such as in the station’s architecture, when the intention is that they will never return. Despite a supposedly rational ethos, the satellite’s inhabitants increasingly see ghosts and find their environment changing, suggesting that you can take humans away from Earth but you can’t take Earth away from humans.
“Newton’s Sleep” is a deeply-layered story. Ike Rose’s family all have Jewish names like Noah and Esther, which suggests a Biblical aspect. Ike, of course, is named after the patriarch Isaac, who went blind in later life, while Ike’s own daughter Esther is becoming similarly afflicted. Newton was another Isaac, a complex thinker with heterogeneous beliefs, one of whose accomplishments was to institute the science of optics. Because he helped lay the foundations for the Enlightenment pursuit of science, he was credited by the mystic poet Blake with only following Reason, the ‘single vision’ of his poem.
Does this imply an anti-Science stance by Le Guin? Not at all. Into the mix comes a reference to Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Engenders Monsters, a self-portrait of the artist being assailed by beasties. The text attached to Goya’s work actually tells us that “Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.” In other words, humans need fantasy as much as rational thought in order to create and innovate, in order to be truly human. “Newton’s Sleep” is not an anti-Science diatribe, then, but a plea for combining two human qualities in order to be free of nightmares. The final pages quote an almost biblical message from his daughter Esther: ‘I am going up in the mountains for a while.’ In his desperation to find her in the metallic shell of the orbiting satellite he finds his perception of reality altering, fantasy and reason somehow united. The SPES has become a little like a Pandora’s Box: when everything else has escaped what remains is Hope; and in Latin spes of course means precisely this.
The remaining three stories are part of the Hainish Cycle, Le Guin’s SF universe. Having many years ago conceived the ansible, a device for instant communication across light-years, and seeing it taken up by other writers as a convenient plot-device, she here devises churten theory, which allows for transilience, a way for humans to instantaneously travel across vast distances in space, and much faster than NAFAL speed (Nearly As Fast As Light) would allow. She’s not interested in the nuts-and-bolts rationale behind churten theory, just the impact it has on people and their psyches. To start with, “The Shobies’ Story” is about a group of ten travellers attempting transilience for the first time who find that their individual versions about what happens on arrival are at variance with each other. This is more than just the unreliability of eyewitness memory as it seems to imply that reality changes according to perception. Can the crew of the Shoby find a narrative that they all agree with?
“Dancing to Ganam” is a further exploration of the application of churten theory, this time involving fewer voyagers led by the charismatic figure of Dalzul to the planet of Ganam. This time the dissonance of different perceptions cannot be resolved, does not result in unison but in a fall that inevitably follows hubris. Where there is no clear communication a common narrative can’t come into being.
The last and longest tale “Another Story” is another step along the development of churten technology, set on the planet O. It begin with a traditional tale A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, which to us has elements of the literary fairytale Undine and similar accounts of mortals inadvertently spending centuries in the land of the fairies. Put simply, “Another Story” is as the author tells us an ‘experiment with time-travel’ which ‘explores the possibility of two stories about the same person in the same time being completely different and completely true’. Hideo travels from his home planet to help develop churten technology, but something goes wrong. Will he not only become estranged from family and friends but also lose the potential lover he knew in childhood?
Le Guin describes many of these tales as metafictions, or stories about stories. This quality of tales-within-tales is part of what makes her writing special, along with the lucidity of her prose and the timelessness of her style. Above all, you get the impression that she cares about her creations, deeply flawed as many of them are, and that caring is something that she generously invites the reader to share.
http://wp.me/p2oNj1-mk
September 26, 2011
I think that the short story that this book was named for, the Fisherman of the Inland Sea, is my favorite short story of all time. .. although it is a beautiful story in its own right it also struck me as a seamless contemporary re-working of a well-known Japanese fairy-tale . Reading this somehow helped me get over my sense of being displaced when I first moved to the South ten years ago.. Ursula Le Guin navigates cultures and the movements of the soul with such grace, I am awed.. I am so grateful for her writing.
December 5, 2023
This is yet another great cycle of short stories by Le Guin set in the Hainish universe. They deal with the invention of the FTL technology used in her novels based on Churten theory. Each story is set in a different time period, but each is inventive and surprising. Maybe a really cool and easy place to start if you are getting your first peek at Hain and Le Guin?
Fino's Reviews of Ursula Le Guin
The Lathe of Heaven: Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hainish Cycle
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 1: Rocannon’s World / Planet of Exile / City of Illusions / The Left Hand of Darkness / The Dispossessed / Stories: Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 2: The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / Stories Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rocannon's World Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Planet of Exile Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
City of Illusions Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Left Hand of Darkness Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Word for World Is Forest Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Five Ways to Forgiveness Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
The Telling Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Earthsea Cycle
A Wizard of Earthsea Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Tombs of Atuan Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Farthest Shore Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tehanu Fino Review:
The Other Wind Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Short Stories
Unlocking the Air and Other Stories Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino's Reviews of Ursula Le Guin
The Lathe of Heaven: Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hainish Cycle
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 1: Rocannon’s World / Planet of Exile / City of Illusions / The Left Hand of Darkness / The Dispossessed / Stories: Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 2: The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / Stories Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rocannon's World Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Planet of Exile Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
City of Illusions Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Left Hand of Darkness Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Word for World Is Forest Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Five Ways to Forgiveness Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
The Telling Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Earthsea Cycle
A Wizard of Earthsea Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Tombs of Atuan Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Farthest Shore Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tehanu Fino Review:
The Other Wind Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Short Stories
Unlocking the Air and Other Stories Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
July 24, 2012
I never know what to expect going into a book of UKL short stories, but I'm always hoping for something from the Hainish cycle. This delivered in spades, in the three final stories, interconnected around the same idea so interestingly that they could make a nice novella. This is the farthest into the future of anything I've read in this universe (though I should point out that the same characters basically never reoccur between stories/books; I only know when a book is set based on references to technology or politics). In these stories, physicists have developed faster-than-lightspeed travel and are trying it out, but it turns out human perception plays a huge, complicated role in how/whether the technology works. The first story is a crew's very weird experience as the first to test the new churten technology, the second is a delicious, eerie all-is-not-as-it-seems trip to an uncontacted planet, and the third, "Another Story," is a heartwrenching, fascinating story about O and family and regret. One of my favorite things about her writing and this kind of scifi in general is the extrapolation of the human element from science fiction concepts: sure, nearly-as-fast-as-light travel makes you age much more slowly than people back home, but how does that actually feel? I could read this kind of thing forever.
The whole time I was reading these three I had the delicious feeling you get when you've studied all the exact right things for a test: I knew about the religious/scientific overlap of Annares-based physics because I'd read The Dispossessed earlier this year, understood the Gethen family in the Shoby's crew because I finished The Left Hand of Darkness a few months ago, I was excited to read about Dalzul because of the references to him in The Telling, and I knew about sedoretus, the four-person marriages on O, from The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, the mixed-species crews from the word for world is forest.
This is the strength of the Hainish cycle, I think: you can start essentially anywhere among the novels and stories she's written in this universe and not be lost, but the more you read, the more you understand, in fulfilling, interesting ways. The worldbuilding is so rich but so laid back at once, which takes a very deft hand.
Of the other, non-Hainish stories in this book, a few are fine but unremarkable (published quite early, I think). The two that stood out for me were "The Rock that Changed Things," which I read as social commentary story on class/race/overlooked art forms, and "Newton's Sleep," which I so wanted to be at least twice as long. The privileged, white inhabitants of a spaceship, who've fled an earth in chaos, begin having mass hallucinations about everything they've left behind: other races, animals, nature. That's the frustrating part of SF shorts, when there's a big idea trying to fit into just a few pages.
Those last three stories, though! I'll be thinking about them for quite a while.
The whole time I was reading these three I had the delicious feeling you get when you've studied all the exact right things for a test: I knew about the religious/scientific overlap of Annares-based physics because I'd read The Dispossessed earlier this year, understood the Gethen family in the Shoby's crew because I finished The Left Hand of Darkness a few months ago, I was excited to read about Dalzul because of the references to him in The Telling, and I knew about sedoretus, the four-person marriages on O, from The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, the mixed-species crews from the word for world is forest.
This is the strength of the Hainish cycle, I think: you can start essentially anywhere among the novels and stories she's written in this universe and not be lost, but the more you read, the more you understand, in fulfilling, interesting ways. The worldbuilding is so rich but so laid back at once, which takes a very deft hand.
Of the other, non-Hainish stories in this book, a few are fine but unremarkable (published quite early, I think). The two that stood out for me were "The Rock that Changed Things," which I read as social commentary story on class/race/overlooked art forms, and "Newton's Sleep," which I so wanted to be at least twice as long. The privileged, white inhabitants of a spaceship, who've fled an earth in chaos, begin having mass hallucinations about everything they've left behind: other races, animals, nature. That's the frustrating part of SF shorts, when there's a big idea trying to fit into just a few pages.
Those last three stories, though! I'll be thinking about them for quite a while.
February 11, 2018
Kitabın adı kesinlikle "İçdeniz Balıkçısı" olmamalıymış. Okursanız ne demek istediğimi anlayacaksınız.
İyiydi... Bir yerden itibaren Mülksüzler esintisi çok yoğundu. Hatta hikâyeler Mülksüzler'e bağlanmış da denilebilir.
İyiydi... Bir yerden itibaren Mülksüzler esintisi çok yoğundu. Hatta hikâyeler Mülksüzler'e bağlanmış da denilebilir.
April 30, 2021
"Bu öykülerde mesaj yoktur. Bunlar kader kısmet çeken tavşanların çektiği notlar değil. Öykü bunlar."
Ne diyim Ursula yine döktürmüş. Her öyküde bakış açısına, fikrine, kalemine defalarca aşık oldum.
Hainli Döngüsünü sırasıyla okumak gerçekten çok önemli bence. Çünkü böyle olmasaydı diğer kitaplarına yaptığı çokça göndermeyi anlamayamam bu kadar hayran kalamazdım galiba.
Kitabın başında kendi yazdığı "Bilimkurgu Okumamak Üzerine" başlıklı özsözü dönüp tekrar tekrar okumak istedim.
Son üç öykü "Çörtme Teorisi" üzerine birbirinden güzel üç öykü. Çörtme'nin keşfi, deneyleri ve kullanımı üzerine.
"Gorgonidlerler Temas" ve "Kuzey Yüzüne Tırmanış" kendisinin tabiriyle esprili, "Her Şeyi Değiştiren Taş" ise hüzün verici. Keşke daha uzun olsaydı dedim bittiğinde.
"Newton'un Uykusu" salgın hastalık ve savaş dolayısıyla Dünya'yı terkedip Ödu'da seçkin bir cemiyette yaşan İzi ve ailesinin hikayesi. Geride bıraktıkları için duydukları özlem bu insanlarda bazı inanç değişiklerine yol açıyor. Anti-teknolojik bir hikaye. Okuduğumuz bütün uzay gemisi hikayelerine farklı bir bakış sunuyor.
Ne diyim Ursula yine döktürmüş. Her öyküde bakış açısına, fikrine, kalemine defalarca aşık oldum.
Hainli Döngüsünü sırasıyla okumak gerçekten çok önemli bence. Çünkü böyle olmasaydı diğer kitaplarına yaptığı çokça göndermeyi anlamayamam bu kadar hayran kalamazdım galiba.
Kitabın başında kendi yazdığı "Bilimkurgu Okumamak Üzerine" başlıklı özsözü dönüp tekrar tekrar okumak istedim.
Son üç öykü "Çörtme Teorisi" üzerine birbirinden güzel üç öykü. Çörtme'nin keşfi, deneyleri ve kullanımı üzerine.
"Gorgonidlerler Temas" ve "Kuzey Yüzüne Tırmanış" kendisinin tabiriyle esprili, "Her Şeyi Değiştiren Taş" ise hüzün verici. Keşke daha uzun olsaydı dedim bittiğinde.
"Newton'un Uykusu" salgın hastalık ve savaş dolayısıyla Dünya'yı terkedip Ödu'da seçkin bir cemiyette yaşan İzi ve ailesinin hikayesi. Geride bıraktıkları için duydukları özlem bu insanlarda bazı inanç değişiklerine yol açıyor. Anti-teknolojik bir hikaye. Okuduğumuz bütün uzay gemisi hikayelerine farklı bir bakış sunuyor.
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March 30, 2013After reading this book, I dont think short stories are the best way for me to get into a new author. It's just such a different beast from a novel; there's little time to get acclimated to a story and a much steeper learning curve. Just when you think you're getting a grasp on it all, its over. It can be merciful when the story's not too good ( The Kerastion ), but painful when its excellent, and it's gone in a blink ( Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Seas ). Im still highly interested in reading more LeGuin, but most of the stories here didn't really hold my interest, short as they were.
The last three however, went from good, to really good, to amazing. They should be considered a micro-collection, since all three explore a new instantaneous travel technology with some pretty harrowing side effects. Although the second story in this micro-collection ( Dancing to Ganam ) has some characters from the first (The Shobies' Story ), and the third ( Another Story ) also mentions characters and technology from the first two, they are self contained stories.
On Not Reading Science Fiction - 4 stars. A short, wonderful little essay where LeGuin repudiates the common arguments against reading science fiction: "inhuman, elitist, and escapist". She counters that the science is in "service" of the fiction and not the other way around. She also gives examples of the setting for her most famous novel The Left Hand of Darkness , and how there is little science and/or technology to be found there, therefore nearly
everyone could get into it. The only slight issue I have with this essay is that it seems more like she is defending her specific brand of science fiction and not the entire genre itself. From what I understand, LeGuin has a distinct style where she skims over the hard science and technology in favor of the story. It's a kind of "soft science fiction" that from what I understand, dips into the fantasy realm from time to time. I have no problem with this and no doubt it's one of the reasons why Ursula is such a highly acclaimed and popular author. However, I sometimes enjoy inhuman, elitist, escapist books from time to time, with a strong emphasis on technology. Some of my favorite authors such as Asimov, Clarke, and Baxter are pretty much LeGuin's polar opposites and really do seem to emphasize the hard science and ideas in sacrifice of round characters and even story. It's just their style, but anyways, I really enjoyed the essay even though I wasn't the target audience that needed the reassurance to widen their reading horizons.
The First Contact with the Gorgonids - 1 star. This is basically a "dumb American husband" joke where the wife ultimately "one ups" her domineering cruel husband in one of the worst ways possible - with the involvement of alien "gorgons" that can turn a dickish guy to stone. She then becomes the "heroine" as the story concludes. Hard not to read between the lines here, as it had the subtelty of a sledgehammer.
Newton's Sleep - 2 stars. In her introduction, LeGuin states that this story is NOT an anti-technological diatribe, but I beg to differ. This had some really interesting science fiction ideas in it, such as an orbiting colony of the "elite", who have escaped an Earth devastated by disease and famine. I won't spoil the mechanism by which these elite are punished for escaping to live on an artificial satellite instead of on mother Earth, but its kindof heavy handed and frankly a bit silly. And what's the message here, that its better to suffer and die on our home planet instead of escaping (if you had the means) via technology and trying to build a better life (albeit in orbit) for you and your children? It was ok as an anti-elitist diatribe.
The Ascent of the North Face - 1 star. This felt more like an assignment in a creative writing class about writing about something seemingly mundane like climbing a mountain (wow that sentence sounded absurd), but embedding a clever little trick/joke/twist in the story that makes you want reread it again, knowing what you know, if you ever happen to catch the little clues throughout. Shamefully, I didn't without the aid of Father Google, afterwhich I felt like a dolt.
The Rock that Changed Things - 3 stars. This was a fun little parable about slavery and revolution. This is more typical of what I imagine LeGuin's longer works to be like. She invents a fantastical setting with fantastical creatures with its own unique set of rules (and no science or technology), to serve as the vehicle for her message. It was much more subtle than Newton's Sleep , and First Contact with the Gorgonids , so I liked it.
The Kerastion - I'm not going to give it stars because I frankly have no idea what it was about. Went shoom over my head although it was the shortest story in the book at five pages. I've tried to reread it, but I can't get into it.
----------- The Churten Stories ----------------------------------------
The Shobies' Story 3 stars. The first of 3 interrelated stories about a new method of transportation that is nearly instantaneous. Freaky side effects such as cessation of cause and effect occur, causing the strange hilarity to ensue. It delighted me to learn this was part of her larger Hainish Universe in which many of her novels including Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and The Word for World is Forest . I'm a sucker for large series set in one universe, so this was an unexpected introduction into future LeGuin books that use the same technology and some of the settings.
Dancing to Ganam 4 stars. Sort of a sequel or extension to The Shobies'Story, but can be read alone. It proposes a solution to the hilarity that was the side effect of the Shobies' maiden voyage into instantaneous travel, but more than that, it's a great story about how easy and tragic it would be to misinterpret the customs of an alien (albeit human) culture on a mysterious planet. It is extremely satisfying once we and our protagonists understand what's really going on down there.
There's also a great little wink here to those who've read The Left Hand of Darkness :
p135 "My God, Shan, is there any world in this universe where men can understand women?" "Gethen, Shan said".
In case you're wondering, Gethen is a world LeGuin created for The Left Hand of Darkness, where individual gender doesn't exist. Gethen's population is sexually neutral for most of the time, only coming into heat once a month either as a male or as a female. It's inhabitants can either father or bear children.
Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Seas 5 stars. By far my favorite story in this collection. Anytime you mix time dilation, time travel, and a love story, you've got my attention. A simply beautiful and powerfully moving conclusion to this collection.
December 3, 2012
A short collection, but packed with wonderful ideas and imagery. The high points: a thoughtful introduction by the author in which she discusses not only the stories to follow, but also in more depth why she writes science fiction, what she sees as its characteristics, and its role in the literary canon.
Also, the non-Hainish stories are mostly superb. 'The Rock That Changed Things' is a powerful and simple story about prejudice and social change that really works on every level. 'The Ascent Of The North Face' is a hilarious little vignette that appealed to me. 'The Kerastion' and 'Newton's Sleep' are good too, though the latter falls away after a strong start. 'The First Contact With The Gorgonids' is somewhat less good, a rather slight comic piece that shows its age a little.
The final three stories are all based around the Hainish universe of 'The Left Hand Of Darkness', specifically dealing with the concept of FTL travel known as the 'churten'. Le Guin uses this as a tool to explore the importance of story in human relationships and in our experience of the world: as she says in the introduction, 'story is our only boat for sailing on the river of time'. The concept is intriguing, but I found the execution disappointing in the first two stories: somehow, the characters fell flat and the situations didn't feel 'real' enough. The final story, though (from which the collection's title comes) worked much better, perhaps due to a tighter focus.
Overall, the entire collection is worth buying for the intro and 'The Rock That Changed Things' alone: the other stories add to the value!
Also, the non-Hainish stories are mostly superb. 'The Rock That Changed Things' is a powerful and simple story about prejudice and social change that really works on every level. 'The Ascent Of The North Face' is a hilarious little vignette that appealed to me. 'The Kerastion' and 'Newton's Sleep' are good too, though the latter falls away after a strong start. 'The First Contact With The Gorgonids' is somewhat less good, a rather slight comic piece that shows its age a little.
The final three stories are all based around the Hainish universe of 'The Left Hand Of Darkness', specifically dealing with the concept of FTL travel known as the 'churten'. Le Guin uses this as a tool to explore the importance of story in human relationships and in our experience of the world: as she says in the introduction, 'story is our only boat for sailing on the river of time'. The concept is intriguing, but I found the execution disappointing in the first two stories: somehow, the characters fell flat and the situations didn't feel 'real' enough. The final story, though (from which the collection's title comes) worked much better, perhaps due to a tighter focus.
Overall, the entire collection is worth buying for the intro and 'The Rock That Changed Things' alone: the other stories add to the value!
July 18, 2019
Mi-a plăcut mult. Modul în care Ursula K. Le Guin știe să-și construiască lumile, civilizațiile, să ridice probleme morale, să aducă în discuție reacția în fața unor concepte și situații stranii, interacțiunile între specii aparent prea diferite ca să se poată înțelege - a fost permanent o sursă de inspirație pentru mine. Unele texte de mai mică întindere din volumul de față mi se pare că puteau mai mult (sau n-am reușit eu să rezonez cu modul în care o autoare căreia îi apreciez răbdarea de a țese gradat acțiunea a concentrat totul în doar câteva pagini). Dar cele lungi mi se par foarte bune, iar cel ce dă titlul volumului - o adevărată capodoperă. Traducerea a fost la înălțime.
October 28, 2021
Overall:
My favorite short story collection from Le Guin thus far. Each was incredibly unique and detailed and alive and pertinent and a million other adjectives to describe just how thought provoking her writing is. Love it.
The Shobies' Story:
This was a really imaginative take on FTL travel. Specifically, she explores the idea of non-interval travel and how that could be possible. The break down of cause-and-effect was really well done and just made for a fascinating story. Nothing too deep here, but just a great little story.
Dancing to Ganam:
A spiritual successor to Shobies' story, where we further explore the non-interval travel. Introduces the idea of higher intelligence beings needing to be "in sync" in some form for the non-interval travel to work. Had similar vibes to It's Hard to be God as well, but any more would be major spoilers. Tackles themes of egoism and dissonance and a touch of feminism as well. Another great story.
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea:
The final story in the non-interval travel trio. The theme of what is truly important in life is the main thread of the story, but with some really cool takes on the non-interval travel line as well. Also introduces the ki'O people who bring up some BRILLIANT sociological commentary that she continues with in the following stories.
Unchosen Love:
WOW! The last line of this sent chills through my body. This was such a beautiful, expertly crafted story about love and meaning and finding ourselves. This story can just be summed up in one word: frisson. 5/5
Mountain Ways:
A story about eschewing the modern definitions/customs/taboos of love and living for yourself. Not terribly deep but still enjoyable and thought provoking (as if Le Guin would write otherwise).
The Matter of Seggri:
An absolutely fascinating take on gender roles. What if men were far less likely to be born? How would the society structure itself? As always, Le Guin doesn't shy away from some of the more graphic parts of this society, and it was just a joy to read. Many of the remarks by the women of this story were quite obviously reflections of men in our society. Additionally, the medium that this story was told through was very well suited to the "discovery of a new planet" genre.
Solitude:
Probably my least favorite of the bunch. Another examination of how the society we grow up in, not the one we're from, shapes so much of our thinking and understanding of the world. Language alone can only carry so much culture and meaning.
My favorite short story collection from Le Guin thus far. Each was incredibly unique and detailed and alive and pertinent and a million other adjectives to describe just how thought provoking her writing is. Love it.
The Shobies' Story:
This was a really imaginative take on FTL travel. Specifically, she explores the idea of non-interval travel and how that could be possible. The break down of cause-and-effect was really well done and just made for a fascinating story. Nothing too deep here, but just a great little story.
Dancing to Ganam:
A spiritual successor to Shobies' story, where we further explore the non-interval travel. Introduces the idea of higher intelligence beings needing to be "in sync" in some form for the non-interval travel to work. Had similar vibes to It's Hard to be God as well, but any more would be major spoilers. Tackles themes of egoism and dissonance and a touch of feminism as well. Another great story.
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea:
The final story in the non-interval travel trio. The theme of what is truly important in life is the main thread of the story, but with some really cool takes on the non-interval travel line as well. Also introduces the ki'O people who bring up some BRILLIANT sociological commentary that she continues with in the following stories.
Unchosen Love:
WOW! The last line of this sent chills through my body. This was such a beautiful, expertly crafted story about love and meaning and finding ourselves. This story can just be summed up in one word: frisson. 5/5
Mountain Ways:
A story about eschewing the modern definitions/customs/taboos of love and living for yourself. Not terribly deep but still enjoyable and thought provoking (as if Le Guin would write otherwise).
The Matter of Seggri:
An absolutely fascinating take on gender roles. What if men were far less likely to be born? How would the society structure itself? As always, Le Guin doesn't shy away from some of the more graphic parts of this society, and it was just a joy to read. Many of the remarks by the women of this story were quite obviously reflections of men in our society. Additionally, the medium that this story was told through was very well suited to the "discovery of a new planet" genre.
Solitude:
Probably my least favorite of the bunch. Another examination of how the society we grow up in, not the one we're from, shapes so much of our thinking and understanding of the world. Language alone can only carry so much culture and meaning.
August 25, 2024
While only the last three stories are ‘Hainish,’ this whole collection gels fantastically. I say this as someone that is largely against the short story as a tenet of my religious faith (Novelism). The Hainish stories, being linked, fuse into an effective novella. There be some sad shit in there, though. (Tunics: don’t remember; not looking; come on, it’s the future! I’d say safe bet).
August 5, 2025
Það tók mig dágóðan tíma að klára þessa (þurfti að taka u.þ.b. fjögurra mánaða pásu) en það er langt síðan smásaga hefur snert mig jafn djúpt og síðasta sagan í þessu hefti.
September 28, 2022
Another incredible collection of short stories from the GOAT. I really love the one story before bed method, would recommend.
My favorites were: Newton's Sleep, The Kerastion, The Shobies' Story, Dancing to Ganam, and A Fisherman of the Inland Sea.
My favorites were: Newton's Sleep, The Kerastion, The Shobies' Story, Dancing to Ganam, and A Fisherman of the Inland Sea.
July 19, 2020
The First Contact with the Gorgonids -3 Stars
Newton's Sleep - 4 Stars
The Ascent of the North Face - 2 Stars
The Rock That Changed Things - 3.5 Stars
The Kerastion - 4 Stars
The Shobies' Story - 3 Stars
Dancing to Ganam - 3.5 Stars
Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - 5 Stars
Newton's Sleep - 4 Stars
The Ascent of the North Face - 2 Stars
The Rock That Changed Things - 3.5 Stars
The Kerastion - 4 Stars
The Shobies' Story - 3 Stars
Dancing to Ganam - 3.5 Stars
Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - 5 Stars
January 2, 2022
Technically my review is 4.4 stars, but sadly that's not an option. I'm giving it a 5-star review because it definitely inspired me to read a longer Le Guin novel. It's a great intro into the genre, and I think Ursula Le Guin does a phenomenal job showing that sci-fi can allow us to ask sociological/moral questions because "we have to take out dirt with us wherever we go" (p.11).
I'll break down my numerical ratings of each short story below, but some quick thoughts. Personally, I thought that between 'The First Contact with the Gorgonoids' and 'The Ascent of the North Face,' the former was the funnier and more entertaining "joke" (p.9). I really loved the Kerastion, if nothing else, for its Antigone-like energy and the human condition for things to remain eternally. Also, the micro-collection, exploring a new instantaneous time-travel technology (the last three stories), was SO well done, and I ripped through it really fast. I am still girl-crushing over how well she uses literal time travel to create a metaphor for narration, alluding to the "chancy and unreliable but most effective means of constructing a shared reality" (p.9).
Here's the breakdown:
On Not Reading Science Fiction - 5 Stars (though this is technically an intro, it is well worth it's own rating)
The First Contact with the Gorgonoids - 4 Stars
Newton's Sleep - 5 Stars
The Ascent of the North Face - 3 Stars
The Rock That Changed Things - 3.5 Stars
The Kerastion - 5 Stars
The Shobies' Story - 4 Stars
Dancing to Ganam - 5 Stars
Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - 5 Stars
I'll break down my numerical ratings of each short story below, but some quick thoughts. Personally, I thought that between 'The First Contact with the Gorgonoids' and 'The Ascent of the North Face,' the former was the funnier and more entertaining "joke" (p.9). I really loved the Kerastion, if nothing else, for its Antigone-like energy and the human condition for things to remain eternally. Also, the micro-collection, exploring a new instantaneous time-travel technology (the last three stories), was SO well done, and I ripped through it really fast. I am still girl-crushing over how well she uses literal time travel to create a metaphor for narration, alluding to the "chancy and unreliable but most effective means of constructing a shared reality" (p.9).
Here's the breakdown:
On Not Reading Science Fiction - 5 Stars (though this is technically an intro, it is well worth it's own rating)
The First Contact with the Gorgonoids - 4 Stars
Newton's Sleep - 5 Stars
The Ascent of the North Face - 3 Stars
The Rock That Changed Things - 3.5 Stars
The Kerastion - 5 Stars
The Shobies' Story - 4 Stars
Dancing to Ganam - 5 Stars
Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - 5 Stars
January 19, 2010
I love the way Ursula Le Guin builds (on) worlds. Some of these stories are about worlds we already know about, if we've read her other work; some of them are almost entirely new. I liked all of them, some more and some less: I particularly liked the opening essay, The Rock That Changed Things, and Another Story. I didn't get the "I'm not smart enough for this" feeling so much with this set of stories, which is good, and I enjoyed the way she writes as much as always, so clear and with wonderful images.
I think my favourite thing is the way she writes about people, though. Regardless of whatever trappings they come with of world-building or whatever, whether they're supposed to be aliens, you can relate to them and feel for them. The only thing I was sad about was that I wished that there was more written about the Night marriage between Hideo and Sota, in Another Story, because the love between them seems to me as notable as the love between Hideo and Isidri.
There are other worlds contained in this relatively small book, and it's lovely.
I think my favourite thing is the way she writes about people, though. Regardless of whatever trappings they come with of world-building or whatever, whether they're supposed to be aliens, you can relate to them and feel for them. The only thing I was sad about was that I wished that there was more written about the Night marriage between Hideo and Sota, in Another Story, because the love between them seems to me as notable as the love between Hideo and Isidri.
There are other worlds contained in this relatively small book, and it's lovely.
January 30, 2018
Bir Le Guin kitabından bekleyeceğiniz üzere çok güzeldi. Özellikle "Newton'un Uykusu" -bir Black Mirror bölümü dahi çıkar bu öyküden- ve "Bir Başka Masal ya da İçdeniz Balıkçısı" -Omelas ile beraber okuduğum en iyi Le Guin öyküsü- isimli öyküler şimdiye kadar okuduğum öyküler içerisinde en iyiler listesine rahatlıkla girerler. Ursula K. Le Guin'in öldüğünü öğrenince bu kitabı okumaya başlamıştım ve şimdi bitirince diyebiliyorum ki Le Guin gerçekten de yazdıklarıyla her daim bizi etkileyecek, bizimle beraber olmaya devam edecek. Yoksa İçdeniz Balıkçısı isimli öyküyü günlerce hatırlayacak olmamı, dönüp dolaşıp tekrar okuyacak olmamı başka nasıl açıklayabiliriz ki?
April 26, 2022
Best: The Shobies' Story, Dancing to Ganam, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
Worst: The Ascent of the North Face
Worst: The Ascent of the North Face
August 4, 2024
Interstellar without the cliches; also some night parade vibes?
July 19, 2024
If I could give this another star I would
November 30, 2018
I'm not a huge fan of short story collections – they're hard to rate, I don't like reading stories bunched together all that much, it's just not for me. So giving **A Fisherman of the Inland Sea** 4/5 stars means a lot – Ursula Le Guin always manages to show deeply familiar human sides to technological developments. Here I was impressed with her ability to show groups (families and other groups) interact and evolve. The deep understanding of individuals growing older, away from home or at home, was touching too, and terribly well executed. Oh, the humanity, you know?
March 18, 2025
Fantastic and fascinating as usual. Surprisingly I enjoyed the titular story even though I tend to get disturbed by too much time travel
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 30, 2021
A very good volume with some interesting stories and some kind of obscure tales and experiments in science fiction.
May 14, 2023
Another excellent collection of thoughtful, stimulating short stories from humanity’s greatest master of speculative fiction.
I’m a Hainish Cycle guy!
I’m a Hainish Cycle guy!
August 2, 2009
For those of you familiar with Ursula K. Le Guin’s Science Fiction works, her return to Gethen and Hainish characters is both comforting and intriguing. But not all of the stories in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea do this; of eight total stories, five do not. The collection opens with an introduction by Le Guin on Science Fiction and its appeal (or lack of) to those who don’t--or choose not to--read in the genre. Among other things, Le Guin defends Science Fiction with a humanist approach, contrary to any preconceived notions of the “science” inevitable in the fiction. The human foundation behind the works is what inevitably drives SF forward, “It’s stories. It’s fiction that plays with certain subjects for their inherent interest, beauty, relevance to the human condition” (p. 1).
Le Guin encourages and emphasizes this approach in the face of hesitation due to technophobia or the belief that readers, as humans, can only understand the lives and purposes of other humans. After all, the “freedom of metaphor” (p. 4) Science Fiction as a genre provides is the ability to explore the human conditions in many different ways, from many different angles. She writes, of Science Fiction, “it includes other beings, other aspects of beings. It may be about relationships between people--the great subject of realist fiction--but it may be about the relationship between a person and something else, another kind of being, an idea, a machine, an experience, a society” (p. 5). The impression left behind is the influence Earth-thinking has on us as humans as our fictional counterparts leave to explore other beings, other ideas, other machines, other societies. Our experiences will always be drawn with respect to where we have been and where we as readers are now, picking up this collection to begin a journey through eight different stories.
Science Fiction is relevant to our lives, to our examination of life and of living because “we have to take our dirt with us wherever we go. We are dirt. We are Earth” (p.11).
In its second part, the introduction concludes, specifically on the stories in the collection, that there “are no messages” in them. They “are stories” (p.7). To remember this important phrase, along with the reminder that we take our Earth with us wherever we go, is key to understanding the beauty behind each story--the beauty inherent in the telling of experiences, of having experiences, of being a story.
“The First Contact With the Gorgonoids” and “The Ascent of the North Face” are both short, humorous stories where expectations are met with very different and surprisingly delightful conclusions. “Newton’s Sleep” is more on the serious side, and Le Guin’s response to “smugly antiseptic” (p. 11) stories that “depict people in space stations and spaceships as superior to those on earth.” In a direct reference to Theodore Sturgeon’s “Cold Equations,” “Newton’s Sleep” is a caution against the harsh reality of science without human consideration, of the dead weight humans represent when not figured into the scientific endeavors. Heralding science for the sake of science, above and at the expense of humans and humanity is to inevitably lose something that makes us what we are.
The Spes Society values community over culture and nationality, neither of which is needed on a space station. It’s argued whether or not children should learn about Earth when they’ve never been there, or if environmentally conscious decorations should be done away with, favoring the sterility of the space station. What invariably falls victim to this are the rich cultures of Earth. By selectively choosing the fittest, most intelligent people from a dying planet, they are left with a type of survivor’s guilt and suffer the ghosts of those left behind. Esther’s repeated attempts at technological replacements for her degenerating vision mirrors the problems of the space station: technology will never be a replacement for the real thing. As the society of the Spes station begins to unravel, they begin to understand existence cannot be denied by perception alone. Out of sight, out of mind does not work.
The importance of society and of relationships to functioning in “Newton’s Sleep” are extremely important to the last three stories, “The Shobies’ Story,” “Dancing to Ganam,” and “Another Story.” But “The Rock That Changed Things” and “The Kerastion” are not directly related to either. Both are stories of rebellion, of denied freedoms and the artistic metaphors that are quite liberating, quite pertinent to Le Guin’s introduction.
The last three stories in the collection, I believe, should be treated as a micro collection within the larger one. All three return to the Hainish universe Le Guin frequently visits, and all three examine what it is to narrate our lives, whether through shared experiences or alone. Truth lies somewhere in that mixture, but it is neither one nor the other. The introduction of churten technology which gives humans the ability to achieve transilience--“skip” from one location to another, to be in both places simultaneously as an attempt at traveling from one point to the other is attempted--enforces the need for groups to think and work together despite cultural and age differences to go forward to any one destination. The consequence of not doing this results in dissonance, severe psychological delusion and distress. In “Dancing to Ganam” the events of “The Shobies’ Story” (where churten technology is first applied to a group of humans) is explained just in case it was misunderstood. In addition, the story is expanded upon, examining whether synchronous beliefs (the key to successful transilience) alone achieve “entrainment” (harmonious thought, inter-connectedness of mind) or if previous experience reassures and inspires the confidence needed for the same result. As the crew discovers, getting to their destination is the least of their problems, however delightful the means. Dancing becomes the best method to avoid the disastrous outcome of the Shoby crew; dancing requires working relationships, to the music, to each other; dancing brings the entrainment needed for transilience. But when the crew lands on Ganam, the dancing stops and our protagonists are faced with disparate realities that threaten the sanctity of the mission.
“Another Story” is a culmination of both of these stories in which churten theory both works and doesn’t work; its malfunction (time travel) brings about a distressing experience Hideo needs to work through to find the harmonious life he’s been looking for.
Churten theory is a “metaphor for narration...the chancy and unreliable but most effective means of constructing a shared reality” (p. 9). At the end of the collection, which I have not done justice in my review, we can look back at the experience of reading the book (the book itself, an experiment in churten theory; we are both in our reality and in the reality of the book), of looking at the same words from different perspectives and say, “We danced it!” (p. 129)
Le Guin encourages and emphasizes this approach in the face of hesitation due to technophobia or the belief that readers, as humans, can only understand the lives and purposes of other humans. After all, the “freedom of metaphor” (p. 4) Science Fiction as a genre provides is the ability to explore the human conditions in many different ways, from many different angles. She writes, of Science Fiction, “it includes other beings, other aspects of beings. It may be about relationships between people--the great subject of realist fiction--but it may be about the relationship between a person and something else, another kind of being, an idea, a machine, an experience, a society” (p. 5). The impression left behind is the influence Earth-thinking has on us as humans as our fictional counterparts leave to explore other beings, other ideas, other machines, other societies. Our experiences will always be drawn with respect to where we have been and where we as readers are now, picking up this collection to begin a journey through eight different stories.
Science Fiction is relevant to our lives, to our examination of life and of living because “we have to take our dirt with us wherever we go. We are dirt. We are Earth” (p.11).
In its second part, the introduction concludes, specifically on the stories in the collection, that there “are no messages” in them. They “are stories” (p.7). To remember this important phrase, along with the reminder that we take our Earth with us wherever we go, is key to understanding the beauty behind each story--the beauty inherent in the telling of experiences, of having experiences, of being a story.
“The First Contact With the Gorgonoids” and “The Ascent of the North Face” are both short, humorous stories where expectations are met with very different and surprisingly delightful conclusions. “Newton’s Sleep” is more on the serious side, and Le Guin’s response to “smugly antiseptic” (p. 11) stories that “depict people in space stations and spaceships as superior to those on earth.” In a direct reference to Theodore Sturgeon’s “Cold Equations,” “Newton’s Sleep” is a caution against the harsh reality of science without human consideration, of the dead weight humans represent when not figured into the scientific endeavors. Heralding science for the sake of science, above and at the expense of humans and humanity is to inevitably lose something that makes us what we are.
The Spes Society values community over culture and nationality, neither of which is needed on a space station. It’s argued whether or not children should learn about Earth when they’ve never been there, or if environmentally conscious decorations should be done away with, favoring the sterility of the space station. What invariably falls victim to this are the rich cultures of Earth. By selectively choosing the fittest, most intelligent people from a dying planet, they are left with a type of survivor’s guilt and suffer the ghosts of those left behind. Esther’s repeated attempts at technological replacements for her degenerating vision mirrors the problems of the space station: technology will never be a replacement for the real thing. As the society of the Spes station begins to unravel, they begin to understand existence cannot be denied by perception alone. Out of sight, out of mind does not work.
The importance of society and of relationships to functioning in “Newton’s Sleep” are extremely important to the last three stories, “The Shobies’ Story,” “Dancing to Ganam,” and “Another Story.” But “The Rock That Changed Things” and “The Kerastion” are not directly related to either. Both are stories of rebellion, of denied freedoms and the artistic metaphors that are quite liberating, quite pertinent to Le Guin’s introduction.
The last three stories in the collection, I believe, should be treated as a micro collection within the larger one. All three return to the Hainish universe Le Guin frequently visits, and all three examine what it is to narrate our lives, whether through shared experiences or alone. Truth lies somewhere in that mixture, but it is neither one nor the other. The introduction of churten technology which gives humans the ability to achieve transilience--“skip” from one location to another, to be in both places simultaneously as an attempt at traveling from one point to the other is attempted--enforces the need for groups to think and work together despite cultural and age differences to go forward to any one destination. The consequence of not doing this results in dissonance, severe psychological delusion and distress. In “Dancing to Ganam” the events of “The Shobies’ Story” (where churten technology is first applied to a group of humans) is explained just in case it was misunderstood. In addition, the story is expanded upon, examining whether synchronous beliefs (the key to successful transilience) alone achieve “entrainment” (harmonious thought, inter-connectedness of mind) or if previous experience reassures and inspires the confidence needed for the same result. As the crew discovers, getting to their destination is the least of their problems, however delightful the means. Dancing becomes the best method to avoid the disastrous outcome of the Shoby crew; dancing requires working relationships, to the music, to each other; dancing brings the entrainment needed for transilience. But when the crew lands on Ganam, the dancing stops and our protagonists are faced with disparate realities that threaten the sanctity of the mission.
“Another Story” is a culmination of both of these stories in which churten theory both works and doesn’t work; its malfunction (time travel) brings about a distressing experience Hideo needs to work through to find the harmonious life he’s been looking for.
Churten theory is a “metaphor for narration...the chancy and unreliable but most effective means of constructing a shared reality” (p. 9). At the end of the collection, which I have not done justice in my review, we can look back at the experience of reading the book (the book itself, an experiment in churten theory; we are both in our reality and in the reality of the book), of looking at the same words from different perspectives and say, “We danced it!” (p. 129)
September 29, 2017
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 3/5
Resonance: 2/5
I was disappointed in this. I'm not much of a fan of short stories, but I think of Le Guin as one who is adept with the medium. Also, as an added advantage, this was offered as a Hainish title, and having already read the first six entries to the series, I was looking forward to filling in niches and making connections.
Part of my disappointment lies in learning that only about half of this short volume is obviously connected to the Hainish Cycle. Some of the others presumably could, of course, as Le Guin has kept its boundaries vague and the timeline spanning eons. Still, for 5 of the 8 stories, there's no Hainish geographical connections, character links, technology, or political themes.
This also started off badly for me. The author includes a two-part introduction: "On Not Reading Science Fiction" and "On the Stories in This Book." (I didn't read the second one until I had finished the work.) The "On Not Reading Science Fiction" introduction might be portrayed as a defense of the science fiction genre. I think it was intended as just that. It might otherwise be portrayed as condescending hortatory. It certainly came off as that. The content of the introduction clearly is targeted at people who hold science fiction in low regard. I'm not sure why she thought they would be reading this book. Even though I agreed with a lot of her arguments and ideas, I found her tone and posturing belittling and overly defensive. She also presumed a lot, taking it upon herself to define what science fiction was, what it meant, and its strengths and weaknesses. I don't hold Le Guin works up as the pinnacle of science fiction, she's often only marginally sci fi in her writings and could easily be considered more of a fantasy writer. I found a lot of her ideas on the attributes of science fiction to be too narrow and tilted too heavily toward her own genre contributions. I was surprised by the arrogance she displayed in her opening, and it did not engender my goodwill.
The other odd quality of the introduction was that it set the wrong goals for the compendium. She writes persuasively of the beauty of science fiction. Specifically, she argues for that beauty to be understood as more than a beauty of ideas and messages - for it to be extended to a beauty of the aesthetic, human, emotional, and moral. She makes a clear, bold statement that there "are no messages in these stories." That would be a surprising turn from some of the other Hainish works, namely The Word for World is Forest, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed. Once she set as goals the aesthetic, human, emotional, and moral, I anticipated finding those elements. And they were largely missing. With the exception of the collection's namesake - A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - these stories were not beautiful. They were not particularly innovative in structure, anthropological, or moving. In fact, the common element to at least five of these was the message - the very trait Le Guin claimed was not present. There was a common theme of a defense of the primitive culture, or its obverse, a criticism of modernity. I have no objections to defending and exploring the irrational, native, forgotten, and backward. I enjoy critical insights in the regressive and predatory sides of the modern. Le Guin had amusing and tragic insights into these areas. But they weren't beautiful by the standard she had given us. The form wasn't creative, the ambience wasn't distinctive, the characters rarely connected, the emotions were not succinctly conveyed, and any conception of morality was swamped by the message.
The last three stories were more deliberate Hainish contributions. The sixth was a short story that could easily have been tacked on to the seventh. The last two, the seventh and eighth, were short novellas. The eighth and final was the best work in this collection. These three did play with a metanarrative that, too, read like message fiction. They fit nicely with the message of the first four stories, and I can see why an editor chose to put these together in a volume. I just cannot understand why Le Guin wrote the introduction she did for this collection. The three Hainish stories were fine additions to the series; better than the original novella, Rocannon's World, but not as good as the series' second, Planet of Exile. I thought it an odd choice for Le Guin to pursue unconventional sexual relationships again, the Left Hand of Darkness had already covered that territory.
The "On the Stories in This Book" portion of the introduction suggests that some of these were basically leftovers - scraps - that she didn't have other purposes for. Some of them were pieces that she was unhappy or unfinished with but didn't know what else to do with. And no where does she suggest that she intended to build up and develop the Hainish world; that seems to have been incidental. What this is, then, is a collection of works that the author herself wasn't happy with and probably would not have been published had they not a) been from Ursula K. Le Guin and/or b) been connected to the Hainish Cycle. This seems like a product of a publishing house looking to capitalize on a respected name and a familiar series. I, as a patron, take umbrage at being sold an inferior product wrapped up on brand-name packaging. There's a serious conceit when an author believes that even their leftovers and oddments are valuable enough to package and sell.
Individual ratings:
The First Contact with the Gorgonids: 2/5
Newton's Sleep: 3/5
The Ascent of the North Face: 2/5
The Rock That Changed Things: 3/5
The Kerastion: 2/5
The Shobies' Story: 2/5
Dancing to Ganam: 3/5
Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: 4/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 3/5
Resonance: 2/5
I was disappointed in this. I'm not much of a fan of short stories, but I think of Le Guin as one who is adept with the medium. Also, as an added advantage, this was offered as a Hainish title, and having already read the first six entries to the series, I was looking forward to filling in niches and making connections.
Part of my disappointment lies in learning that only about half of this short volume is obviously connected to the Hainish Cycle. Some of the others presumably could, of course, as Le Guin has kept its boundaries vague and the timeline spanning eons. Still, for 5 of the 8 stories, there's no Hainish geographical connections, character links, technology, or political themes.
This also started off badly for me. The author includes a two-part introduction: "On Not Reading Science Fiction" and "On the Stories in This Book." (I didn't read the second one until I had finished the work.) The "On Not Reading Science Fiction" introduction might be portrayed as a defense of the science fiction genre. I think it was intended as just that. It might otherwise be portrayed as condescending hortatory. It certainly came off as that. The content of the introduction clearly is targeted at people who hold science fiction in low regard. I'm not sure why she thought they would be reading this book. Even though I agreed with a lot of her arguments and ideas, I found her tone and posturing belittling and overly defensive. She also presumed a lot, taking it upon herself to define what science fiction was, what it meant, and its strengths and weaknesses. I don't hold Le Guin works up as the pinnacle of science fiction, she's often only marginally sci fi in her writings and could easily be considered more of a fantasy writer. I found a lot of her ideas on the attributes of science fiction to be too narrow and tilted too heavily toward her own genre contributions. I was surprised by the arrogance she displayed in her opening, and it did not engender my goodwill.
The other odd quality of the introduction was that it set the wrong goals for the compendium. She writes persuasively of the beauty of science fiction. Specifically, she argues for that beauty to be understood as more than a beauty of ideas and messages - for it to be extended to a beauty of the aesthetic, human, emotional, and moral. She makes a clear, bold statement that there "are no messages in these stories." That would be a surprising turn from some of the other Hainish works, namely The Word for World is Forest, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed. Once she set as goals the aesthetic, human, emotional, and moral, I anticipated finding those elements. And they were largely missing. With the exception of the collection's namesake - A Fisherman of the Inland Sea - these stories were not beautiful. They were not particularly innovative in structure, anthropological, or moving. In fact, the common element to at least five of these was the message - the very trait Le Guin claimed was not present. There was a common theme of a defense of the primitive culture, or its obverse, a criticism of modernity. I have no objections to defending and exploring the irrational, native, forgotten, and backward. I enjoy critical insights in the regressive and predatory sides of the modern. Le Guin had amusing and tragic insights into these areas. But they weren't beautiful by the standard she had given us. The form wasn't creative, the ambience wasn't distinctive, the characters rarely connected, the emotions were not succinctly conveyed, and any conception of morality was swamped by the message.
The last three stories were more deliberate Hainish contributions. The sixth was a short story that could easily have been tacked on to the seventh. The last two, the seventh and eighth, were short novellas. The eighth and final was the best work in this collection. These three did play with a metanarrative that, too, read like message fiction. They fit nicely with the message of the first four stories, and I can see why an editor chose to put these together in a volume. I just cannot understand why Le Guin wrote the introduction she did for this collection. The three Hainish stories were fine additions to the series; better than the original novella, Rocannon's World, but not as good as the series' second, Planet of Exile. I thought it an odd choice for Le Guin to pursue unconventional sexual relationships again, the Left Hand of Darkness had already covered that territory.
The "On the Stories in This Book" portion of the introduction suggests that some of these were basically leftovers - scraps - that she didn't have other purposes for. Some of them were pieces that she was unhappy or unfinished with but didn't know what else to do with. And no where does she suggest that she intended to build up and develop the Hainish world; that seems to have been incidental. What this is, then, is a collection of works that the author herself wasn't happy with and probably would not have been published had they not a) been from Ursula K. Le Guin and/or b) been connected to the Hainish Cycle. This seems like a product of a publishing house looking to capitalize on a respected name and a familiar series. I, as a patron, take umbrage at being sold an inferior product wrapped up on brand-name packaging. There's a serious conceit when an author believes that even their leftovers and oddments are valuable enough to package and sell.
Individual ratings:
The First Contact with the Gorgonids: 2/5
Newton's Sleep: 3/5
The Ascent of the North Face: 2/5
The Rock That Changed Things: 3/5
The Kerastion: 2/5
The Shobies' Story: 2/5
Dancing to Ganam: 3/5
Another Story OR A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: 4/5
May 16, 2025
“Story is our only boost for sailing on the river of time, but in the great rapids and the winding shallows, no boat is safe.”
Another batch of LeGuin short stories. The last three are part of the Hainish Cycle and deal with instantaneous space travel. A way of breaking the issue of time dilation. An ansible but for people not words.
Every story plays with an idea and comes to some major payoff in the final paragraph. Sometimes explosive, almost always emotionally heavy.
LeGuin also starts off with an introduction discussing what it’s like to write science fiction. Themes vs ideas. Being a feminist writer. Trying to move sci fi away from the “cardboard-character syndrome“ and into something more real, more human.
Another batch of LeGuin short stories. The last three are part of the Hainish Cycle and deal with instantaneous space travel. A way of breaking the issue of time dilation. An ansible but for people not words.
Every story plays with an idea and comes to some major payoff in the final paragraph. Sometimes explosive, almost always emotionally heavy.
LeGuin also starts off with an introduction discussing what it’s like to write science fiction. Themes vs ideas. Being a feminist writer. Trying to move sci fi away from the “cardboard-character syndrome“ and into something more real, more human.
September 13, 2022
Le Guin, again, because I'd not ever read this collection, or if I have, I've forgotten.
It was, as short story anthologies tend to be, not perfectly even. Several of the tales in this collection are of a more experimental variety, meaning they're a teensy bit opaque. But others are not, and when she's got a concept boiling and a character lit up, she's ruddy brilliant. The novella length story that gives the collection its name is an example of said brilliance.
The tales that contribute to this book are all from the early 1990s, which makes Le Guin's casting of variant cultural models of gender fascinating. She's not engaged in the ritual intersectional genuflection that can feel trite and obligatory in so much contemporary fiction. She's creating worlds that were, for her time, revolutionary. Perhaps that's why they still feel fresh.
Good stuff.
It was, as short story anthologies tend to be, not perfectly even. Several of the tales in this collection are of a more experimental variety, meaning they're a teensy bit opaque. But others are not, and when she's got a concept boiling and a character lit up, she's ruddy brilliant. The novella length story that gives the collection its name is an example of said brilliance.
The tales that contribute to this book are all from the early 1990s, which makes Le Guin's casting of variant cultural models of gender fascinating. She's not engaged in the ritual intersectional genuflection that can feel trite and obligatory in so much contemporary fiction. She's creating worlds that were, for her time, revolutionary. Perhaps that's why they still feel fresh.
Good stuff.
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