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Honesty this first story “The Snow Women” isn’t that great so far, but I like the generally humorous and pulpy tone. If only Leiber wouldn’t be so tawdry in his imagination.

“Ever since he had discovered the rationality of the hrossa he had been haunted by a conscientious scruple as to whether it might not be his duty to undertake their religious instruction; now, as a result of his tentative efforts, he found himself being treated as if he were the savage and being given a first sketch of civilized religion—a sort of hrossian equivalent of the shorter catechism.”

“The Good Trip” is the least satisfying story so far. It feels like LeGuin was testing an idea, a narration during an LSD trip, or a similar kind of trip. But in the end, I found the meaning too obscure, the drug-inspired ramblings without much value, and the story in some ways too slight. The ending isn’t bad, and there’s still plenty of evocative prose, but I was restless throughout. At last it ended.

I might have been more interested in math if my high school teachers had us read LeGuin’s short story “The Masters,” which makes algebra (and even our numerical system) a means of noble rebellion against a dystopian society.

“April in Paris” is a very inventive, satisfying time-travel story, especially for anyone who has studied the Middle Ages. The sort of thing that for me would have been a vague story idea scribbled in a notebook and never expanded, but here it is developed with intelligence and healthy curiosity.

“He gazed about him, and the very intensity of his desire to take in the new world at a glance defeated itself. He saw nothing but colours—colours that refused to form themselves into things. Moreover, he knew nothing yet well enough to see it; you cannot see things till you know roughly what they are.”

I read the first story, “Semley’s Necklace”, and the two Earthsea stories, and all three have been excellent. I’m eager to see what the other stories are like.

“We rejoice so faintly in God, because we are so imperfectly acquainted with Him. And we are so little acquainted with Him, because we have so few close transactions with Him.”

Merry Christmas to all the readers!