Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories Vol. 2 (LOA #297): The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / stories (Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin Edition)

Hardcover, 890 pages

English language

Published Sept. 5, 2017 by Library of America.

ISBN:
978-1-59853-539-6
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4 stars (36 reviews)

The star-spanning story of humanity's colonization of other planets, Ursula K. Le Guin's visionary Hainish novels and stories redrew the map of modern science fiction. This second volume in a definitive two-volume edition gathers Le Guin's final two Hainish novels, The Word for World Is Forest, in which Earth enslaves another planet to strip its natural resources, and The Telling, the harrowing story of a society which has suppressed its own cultural heritage. Rounding out the volume are seven short stories and the story suite Five Ways to Forgiveness, published here in full for the first time as the author intended. The endpaper features a full-color chart of the known worlds of Hainish descent.

"Genre cannot contain Ursula Le Guin: she is a genre in herself." —Zadie Smith

1 edition

Review of 'Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories Vol. 2 (LOA #297): The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / stories (Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin Edition)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Le Guin doesn't pull any punches in this short novel that turns out to be a version of the environmentalist, anti-colonialist story of which there are many iterations of in media, but is also one of the better ones, with Le Guin's usual transparency of intention and thoughtfulness behind it. She doesn't hold back or confuse the message one bit. I thought the PoV being split between 3 characters and the length of the book makes them a little one-note and doesn't let them be more than what they represent (including one of the most hateable, loathsome characters I've read) but they do the job fine.

Review of 'Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories Vol. 2 (LOA #297): The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / stories (Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin Edition)' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Well, this was horrible to listen to in all the right and predictable ways. I'm not sure if it just gives me the righteous indignation feels, or those and then some more thoughtfulness. Anyway, I much prefer to be righteously indignant at fiction to being "righteously indignant" at reality where it doesn't help, and is often missing like 99% of the actual complexity. Honestly, a bit harsher book than I expected in terms of the violence that happened during this book. Made me think of books like [b:A Clockwork Orange|41817486|A Clockwork Orange|Anthony Burgess|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549260060l/41817486.SX50.jpg|23596] or [b:American Psycho|28676|American Psycho|Bret Easton Ellis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436934349l/28676.SY75.jpg|2270060] (though not similar in any sense). Yeah, I'm great at picking books to listen to while there's a war on in a nearby country.

Review of 'Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories Vol. 2 (LOA #297): The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / stories (Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin Edition)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Short, sharp, shock. Startling shift in tone from Le Guin, going inside the head of a bigot. Shows range and skill.

Review of 'Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories Vol. 2 (LOA #297): The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / stories (Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin Edition)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Still great. Maybe better this time?

Review of 'Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories Vol. 2 (LOA #297): The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / stories (Library of America Ursula K. Le Guin Edition)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is a short book with a simple premise and story. It's told very well through 3 separate viewpoints. The characters, though clearly defined, appear somewhat two-dimensional. Perhaps, though, this is just a limitation of the short nature of the story, at just barely 200 pages. Still, I enjoyed it for its simplicity. The similarity to so many other stories (humans conquering natives, which rise up against them) made it feel a tad derivative, though bear in mind that this was written in the 1970s so perhaps it was seen as fresh and new among the science fiction community back then?

For a full review, see my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2013/09/book-review-word-for-world-is-forest-by.html

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