Four Ways to Forgiveness

by Ursula K. Le Guin

320 pages

English language

Published Dec. 13, 2004 by Perennial.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-076029-8
OCLC Number:: 56198548

(22 reviews)

At the far end of our universe, on the twin planets of Werel and Yeowe, all humankind is divided into "assets" and "owners," tradition and liberation are at war, and freedom takes many forms. Here is a society as complex and troubled as any on our world, peopled with unforgettable characters struggling to become fully human. For the disgraced revolutionary Abberkam, the callow "space brat" Solly, the haughty soldier Teyeo, and the Ekumen historian and Hainish exile Havzhiva, freedom and duty both begin in the heart, and success as well as failure has its costs.

In this stunning collection of four intimately interconnected novellas, Ursula K. Le Guin returns to the great themes that have made her one of America's most honored and respected authors.

8 editions

Erin reviewed Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Review of 'Four Ways to Forgiveness' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Le Guin is so interesting. Her decisions about the type of story to tell are so different from the typical author of science fiction. She regularly picks people who are not the main actors in a political drama. She’ll give us slow, understated events. She also doesn’t focus a lot on the technology of her settings. She’s always talking about physical books in her worlds of space travel, which makes me laugh, but I forgive it.

I actually read Five Ways to Forgiveness from a two volume set of the Hainish Cycle. Old Music and the Slave Women was included.

Like her other work, there are some forward thinking moments and some backward stuff. At one point she refers to some male performers as “transvestites.” As far as I can tell they would be parallel to men in drag in our world. But she uses a dated term, offensive to many people. At the same time, she’s writing a story which defends their existence.

“A Woman’s Liberation” was probably my favorite story. Le Guin’s choice to have an owner’s attempt to help his slaves go so poorly was fascinating. For such short stories, she’s always presenting complicated politics. The “good” side is still flawed, includes ignorant and greedy people.

Favorite quotes:

There are two kinds of knowledge, local and universal.

You can't change anything from the outside in. Standing apart, looking down, taking the overview, you see pattern. What's wrong, what's missing. You want to fix it. But you can't patch it. You have to be in it, weaving it. You have to be part of the weaving.

ManyRoads reviewed Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Review of 'Four ways to forgiveness' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This set of novella's were interesting enough, although, I found them a bit less than perfectly thematic. As with most of Ursula's writings, the style and flow were excellent. The characters were interesting especially as the four novella's progressed. She saved the best for last...

loppear reviewed Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Review of 'Four ways to forgiveness' on Goodreads

4 stars

Connected stories of enslavement, measures of freedom and distance. Terms of peace.

Steen Christiansen reviewed Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Review of 'Four ways to forgiveness' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Good collection of shorter stories that show of Le Guin’s skill and speculation.

Enno reviewed Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Review of 'Four ways to forgiveness' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

this must be my least favorite book of hers.

Ryan reviewed Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Review of 'Four Ways to Forgiveness' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

"But my people, she thought, know only how to deny. Born in the dark shadow of power misused, we set peace outside our world, a guiding and unattainable light. All we know to do is fight. Any peace one of us can make in our life is only a denial that the war is going on, a shadow of the shadow, a doubled unbelief."

"There are truths that are not useful. All knowledge is local, my friend has said. Is it true, where is it true, that that child had to die in that way? Is it true, where is it true, that she did not have to die in that way?"

"Nobody knew anything about any time when things had been different. Nobody knew there was any place where things might be different. We were enslaved by the present time. Erod had talked of change, indeed, but the owners were going to make the change, we were to be freed, just as we had been owned. In history I saw that any freedom has been made, not given."

"What is one man's and one woman's love and desire, against the history of two worlds, the great revolutions of our lifetimes, the hope, the unending cruelty of our species? A little thing. But a key is a little thing, next to the door it opens. If you lose the key, the door may never be unlocked. It is in our bodies that we lose or begin our freedom, in our bodies that we accept or end our slavery."