You searched for book_author:"Ursula K. Le Guin"
At least one book’s length, if not a whole library of, encomia of Ursula K. Le Guin has already been written by people far more learned than me. It’s so tempting to take this collection of her novellas and use it as an excuse to praise Le Guin as an author in general. Yet there isn’t much I can hope to add to that conversation. Yet The Found and the Lost, as a collection…
Oh let me count the ways I love Ursula K. Le Guin. I have many favourite authors, but her writing has a special place in my heart, and her storytelling also. The Earthsea cycle is such a rich canon of literature, and just thinking about the ways in which Le Guin explores humanity in these books makes my head spin. Tehanu perfectly demonstrates Le Guin’s ability to achieve this exploration through understatement. This is a…
I love Ursula K. Le Guin’s first two Earthsea novels. A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan are among my two favourite fantasy novels, and together I think they form an essential duology that showcases some of the most compelling and truthful storytelling about identity and finding oneself. So it was with some trepidation that I read The Farthest Shore.
In the third Earthsea novel, magic is dying. Our protagonists are a…
This what A Wizard of Earthsea taught me: * To know a thing's true name is to know its nature. * Don't fuck with dragons (unless you know their true names). * Summoning the spirits of the dead is a bad idea, especially on a schoolboy dare. * Truly changing your form is dangerous, because you can become lost in the aspect you assume. * If you find yourself hunted, turn it around and become…
Why is it Ursula K. Le Guin always makes my life as a reader and reviewer difficult? Her books can’t be nice, straightforward stories—no, she has to create lyric, moving pieces of experimental literature that transcend our ordinary definitions of form and genre. I have a problem with Always Coming Home, but that problem is entirely independent of the book itself. It is, rather, a result of me and my particular biases…
Damn you, Ursula K. Le Guin, for writing books that are so good, sometimes they hurt.
Like A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan follows a single protagonist over a long span of her life. Tenar, identified as the reincarnation of the First Priestess of the Nameless Ones, is taken from her parents at a young age. Her soul ceremonially consumed by the Nameless Ones, Tenar becomes Arha, "the Eaten One," and paradoxically…
Damn you, Ursula K. Le Guin, for managing to move me even when I think your book sucks.
Many of the poor reviews on Goodreads here can be summed up like so: "Le Guin is a great writer, but this isn't her best." Both of these statements are true. However, I'm not willing to leave it at that. I refuse to accept that a writer of such skill as Le Guin can have an "off"…
Wow. That is an awful, awful cover. It just screams, "I'm a pulp fantasy cover from the '60s! Ignore me if you want people to think you're normal!" If ever there was a time not to judge a book by its cover, now is that time. Rocannon's World is Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel, and it shows. Nonetheless, it's not as cringe-worthy as this paperback reprint's cover makes it seem.
Anyone familiar with Le…
The success of The Dispossessed lies in Le Guin’s presentation of two distinct visions of utopia. Each feels that the other is an aberration. Both are superior to the contemporary government of Earth, which at this stage has just barely managed to avoid destroying Earth's biome. Yet both are dysfunctional, have strayed from whatever utopian ideals may have founded them. They are not failed experiments, but they are not entirely successful either—owing to human nature—and…
There are many flavours to science fiction, something that omnivorous readers adore and sceptics of sci-fi forget. Not all science fiction is Star Wars (which is arguably science fantasy), with action heroes, fast ships, and big guns (or, you know, swords). Not that there's anything wrong with those stories—but those who pan The Left Hand of Darkness for lacking such things tend to miss the point. It's not supposed to be like those stories;…
I respect Ursula K. Le Guin greatly, for although she tackles many difficult and controversial topics, she never beats you over the head with her opinions. Works like her The Left Hand of Darkness allow you to read an intriguing story while at the same time, if you want, open yourself to new ideas.
Le Guin brings a feminist voice to the eponymous Lavinia, a character from Vergil's Aeneid. She tells Lavinia's story from…