Ursula K. Le Guin is the queen of short stories,* yo. Nobody does it better. The first six stories in the book are part of Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle,** the seventh may be, and the eighth isn’t. In the first story, Le Guin returns to the world of her novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. It is a planet populated by androgynes, who only have gender once a month, when they go into kemmer and can become either female or male. They spend a couple […]
If I ever meet her, I will embarrass Ursula K. Le Guin with my fangirl weeping.
The Tombs of Atuan is the story of Tenar. According to the Priestesses of the Tombs, Tenar was the reborn spirit of the First Priestess. Tenar is taken from her family at five years old and sent to the Tombs, where no man, not even the Godking himself, can enter, to train to serve the Nameless Ones, to live the life she has lived hundreds of times previously. After a year her name is taken from her and she is only ever to be Ahra, […]
An epic fantasy anthology, cherry-picked from other sources.
This was a pretty great anthology. I was probably destined to like it because it’s pretty hard for me to dislike most kinds of fantasy. This is also different than some anthologies because the editor didn’t commission pieces for this book, but collected them from other already published sources. I sampled a lot of authors I’ve been meaning to try for some time, although I’m annoyed that some of the stories occur halfway through a series or something like that. If you like Epic fantasy […]
“We broke the world to make it whole…”
In a possibly controversial opinion, the final novel of the Earthsea cycle just might be my favorite. To get here, we’ve had two great adventures, an exploration of a foreign ritualistic spirituality, and a pointed take on the value of women in a world of male-dominated power, both political and magical. In this last book, all of those elements come together, and the story looks back to the origins of magic, just as it looks forward and asks where the people of Earthsea truly stand in the […]
“Oh yes. We’re precious. So long as we’re powerless.”
So remember when I wanted to read the “Where Are They Now” for Tenar, the young protagonist who escapes with Ged in the second book of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan? Well, it turns out, that’s what book 4 is about! Thanks Ursula K. Le Guin! From Goodreads: “Years ago, they had escaped together from the sinister Tombs of Atuan — she, an isolated young priestess; he, a powerful wizard. Now she is a farmer’s widow, having chosen for herself the simple pleasures of an ordinary […]
A book that proposes a meaning of life
The Farthest Shore is possibly the most complex book so far of the Earthsea cycle, and probably the most challenging. The first two books examined the search for the truth within oneself: Ged embraces his darkness, Tenar her light. Both had to forgive themselves and find their absolution while dark worldly powers sought to use their fears against them. For a change of pace, The Farthest Shore sees its protagonists more or less at peace with themselves, but the world around them is collapsing because […]
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