Ursula Le Guin is a Master

I loved the complex and believable characters, and the way Le Guin explores deeply issues of gender, sexuality, and how we see ourselves, whether through the eyes of an alien, a differently imagined culture, or another species. She has a way of turning assumptions on their heads and using that position to examine and question, but fully in the context of an engaging story. The exploration just unfolds itself. I also loved the narration... Tandy Cronyn's voice hit just the right notes, pardon the pun.

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chapter names

1.Introduction
2.The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
3-Semely’s Necklace
4-Nine Lives
5-Mazes
6-The First Contact with the Gorgonids
7-The Shobies’ Story
8-Betrayals
9-The Matter of Seggri
10. authors notes
11-Solitude
12-The Wild Girls
13-The Flyers of Gy
14-The Silence of the Asonu
15-The Ascent of the North Face
16-The Author of the Acacia Seeds
17-The Wife’s Story
18-The Rule of Names
19-Small Change
20-The Poacher
21-Sur
22-She Unnames Them

- 1 star for lazy publishing!

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Always Relevant and Fresh

First read this author as a teen, she opened my mind to new ways of seeing our own world. The best that science fiction/fantasy can do for me. What a joy to come back to her as an older person and be more in wonderment than the first time. Every story like a gem with depth, I know now she set a standard of writing I looked for and rarely found in following decades of voracious reading.

Revisit Ursula if it has been awhile. Read her by all means if you have been touched by the recent revival of "The Handmaid's Tale."

The narrator is very good. It enhances the characters, ranging in age and gender with polish I would only expect from the stage.

Best, these stories have some kind of hopeful ending. In writing about alien races Ursula gives me insight into human strength and capacity to love.

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It was easy to like

Most of the stories were refreshingly odd. Well written, and enjoyable.

I loved almost everything. The narrator was ok. But the stories were very entertaining.

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Surreal & Stunning!

This was my first full foray into the bright-dark world of Le Guin, and as with many famed authors I am easing into for the first time, a sharp collection of electric short stories was the right call for me— and if the same is true for you, start here, but know as I have learned that Le Guin did not come to make you feel comfortable. Much in the vein of Mary Shelley in the 19th and Margaret Cavendish in the 17th century, Le Guin’s work does not so much disturb as she does destabilize. She doesn’t want to throw you into a “new” or “blazing world” (even when she does) for the sake of the imagined world; she is doing so to draw into the light the familiar grievances that are so ingrained in our “real” lives that we cannot see, much less be outraged by them. But that’s her art— you aren’t familiar with the planet or the people or their social structures; but you do (hopefully) recognize misogyny, racism, classism, ableism, discrimination, cruelty, and exploitation when you see it in a narrative, and you notice it in all of its gore because it’s the only thing that looks familiar. To this end, Le Guin not only picks up the tradition of science fiction as a vehicle of cultural destabilization (as with Shelley and Cavendish); but recasts this legacy in the atmosphere of 20th century “progress”— to blast down confining, finite (the truly performative “unreal”) constructs of the very “real” infinities of science fiction. Also, pro-tip: I usually speed through books at 1.5-2x pace, but this does a disservice to both Le Guin’s art and Tandy Cronyn’s performance. Stay between 1-1.3x for full-force.

Enjoyable

Great stories even for those not into science, but would have benefited from a longer pause between each.

beautiful short stories that make you think

love this! the stories are beautifully done and great for thinking about why things are.