User Profile

Courts

courts@bookwyrm.social

Joined 9 months, 3 weeks ago

Mostly Sci-fi and Fantasy, with a dash of "classic" literature sprinkled through.

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Courts's books

Currently Reading

2024 Reading Goal

40% complete! Courts has read 17 of 42 books.

Ursula. K Le Guin: Planet of Exile (1966, Ace) 4 stars

The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years. But ten …

Short Novella with a Decent Story

4 stars

3.5 stars rounded up. A human colony is stranded on a faraway planet for about 600 years now and has to survive and deal with the primitive native folk. The storytelling is decent, but a bit dusty regarding e.g. gender roles. To be fair, it was written in 1966 and Le Guin was only in the process of becoming the huge success and forward thinker she later turned out to be.

The book is short and shouldn't be any longer for the given story. It's part of the loose canon of Hainish novels (although either I missed it, or they don't play any role in this one), so as a completionist, I just had to read it. I liked it a bit better than Rocannon's World, the first one.

Becky Chambers: A Closed and Common Orbit (Paperback, 2017, Hodder & Stoughton) 4 stars

Once, Lovelace had eyes and ears everywhere. She was a ship's artificial intelligence system - …

Another Lovable Book from the Wayfarers Universe

5 stars

The books from the Wayfarers series can be read standalone, but I recommend reading them in order so you get a feel for the universe and an introduction to the characters (ok, I've only read the first two right now). Things will make a little bit more sense.

Anyways, this was another really nice, character-driven book.

Ursula K. Le Guin: Rocannon's World (1984) 4 stars

Rocannon's World is a science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, her …

Interesting High Fantasy/Scifi Mix

4 stars

I must admit, this book didn't capture me as much as others. It is not long though, and you have to consider its age (published in 1966!).

Its ideas and story are therefore quite remarkable. I have not read the other, more famous stories from the Hainish novels, but I'm sure this is not the best.

It contains some landmarks of Scifi though (even though most of it is high fantasy), most remarkably the Ansible, which Le Guin invented here and which is a mainstay for so many other works from later authors.

Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Hardcover, 2015, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd) 4 stars

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who …

Just Lovable

5 stars

A lovable and diverse spaceship crew on an adventure. What's not to like. The main plot almost fades into the background because there's a lot of focus on the different characters of the crew, their lives, emotions and character development throughout the book.

I'm looking forward to reading the other books from this series.