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She's reached the Farthest Shore

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  • Janik
    replied
    Well, as I say above, her Hainish books don't have that element. What they deal with is weighty adult topics like gender politics (The Left Hand of Darkness), what an anarchist society might look like, warts and all (The Dispossessed), environmental meditations, culture gaps and anti-colonialism (The Word for World Is Forest), etc.
    Last edited by Janik; 24-01-2019, 13:51.

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  • slackster
    replied
    I’d only seen a couple of very short stories before to do with time travel, so when Le Guin died I promised myself I’d read some of her novels, and at Xmas got the full Earthsea series on kindle for a tenner.

    I like her style a lot, but The Wizard of Earthsea was hard work for me. It was just dragons and a wizard on a quest and not much else. Liking the 2nd book - The Tombs of Atuan - much more. It’s more about hierarchies, power and rituals - and a lot more enjoyable for it. I know she was initially commissioned to write the Earthsea books for young adults, but there’s little to stop an adult enjoying them if you dig the fantasy plots.

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  • Janik
    replied
    Having missed this thread, I discovered the news by walking into a bookshop yesterday and seeing rather more of her books on prominent display than is usual. At first I thought this was good, as she strikes me as under-appreciated author. But then one of the tables had 19**-2018, which prompted the 'Oh nuts, THAT is why they are going larger on her' thought.

    Anyway, put me down as a major fan of her Hainish stuff. I've never been able to overcome the sense that the Earthsea books are too close to the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy type to actually buy one, which is probably a mistake on my part. IIRC Ginger Yellow rates those stories, which ought to be recommendation enough to overcome the first impressions the blurbs create but somehow... isn't.

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  • delicatemoth
    replied
    Originally posted by hobbes View Post
    I've just realised that I mixed Ursula K Le Guin up with Jean M Auel who wrote Clan of the Cave Bear. In doing so, I wrote off reading anything (else) she wrote as Cave Bear was so unbearable, fist-gnawingly terrible.
    I must go back a reappraise.
    When I worked in a bookshop Auel was the only author besides JK Rowling who had seriously enforced publication date embargoes.

    I can't really pick out a single Le Guin to recommend above others, but The Lathe Of Heaven, The Left Hand Of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Word For World Is Forest and A Wizard Of Earthsea are all justifiably renowned in the genre. If this thread prompts anyone to read one of her books I will be quite pleased.

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  • Moonlight Shadow
    replied
    I'm currently reading "The left hand of darkness" and I suspect I will read more from her.

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  • hobbes
    replied
    I've just realised that I mixed Ursula K Le Guin up with Jean M Auel who wrote Clan of the Cave Bear. In doing so, I wrote off reading anything (else) she wrote as Cave Bear was so unbearable, fist-gnawingly terrible.
    I must go back a reappraise.

    Leave a comment:


  • Hot Pepsi
    replied
    Still haven't got around to reading anything by her. I'm sure I will.

    RIP


    My school was a bit smaller, around 2000 when I was there in all four grades and I'm sure I didn't meet everyone attended with other than the ones in my year.

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  • delicatemoth
    started a topic She's reached the Farthest Shore

    She's reached the Farthest Shore

    The great Ursula K. Le Guin has died at the age of 88.

    She wrote bright, fierce science fiction, imagining other worlds and places, genders and races, pondering how the people in those places would live their lives and deal with their problems. Like most really lasting writers she was essentially optimistic, however dark aspects of her creation.

    The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    A historical oddity - she attended the same high school as Philip K. Dick, at the same time, but they never met. There were around 3000 people at Berkeley High. If I ever visit the Bay Area I will have to swing past that school.
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