Tag: Ursula LeGuin

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Fall Reading 2024

Unraveller by Frances Hardinge. A cunningly told story about a strange land, with wild and weird magic, and organic responses to the dangerous and threatening magic. Kellen can unravel curses, while those who curse are feared and often wind up imprisoned for their own good. Friendship and balance wind up being critical – but not as straightforwardly as a “book for young adults” would lead you to expect.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. This was a reread, but it’d been long enough that many elements were familiar – but I only really anticipated the broad strokes of each of the three main POV stories. Kaladin’s story forms the backbone, but Shallan and Brightlord Dalinar Kholin have great stories in very different social strata. The minor characters around each (Dalinar’s sons, Shallan and Jasnah, and the members of each of Kaladin’s bands) are all brightly sketched and wonderfully revealed.

Breach of Containment by Elizabeth Bonesteel. The third book in the series; the stakes continue to spiral ever higher. Some new characters advance into focus, and the status quo continues to erode. Elena crosses back from PSI and gets sucked into a deep plot. Greg’s ship and crew change as they’re asked to do more and more, while the universe drifts out of control.

Alone with You in the Ether by Olive Blake. A compelling story of developing friendship, that drifts and grows into romance. A thorough look into two very charming and beyond quirky leads, delving into how people tick, solving abstract problems, math, and art. Fascinating and different.

A City on Mars by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith. This is non-fiction, but with humor and a light touch. It investigates the idea of space settlements, with wide detours into related elements – like antarctic bases, the laws of the deep sea, and the treaties covering outer space. They have a firm viewpoint (mostly that current enthusiasts skip over a lot of missing knowledge and legal constraints), but present all sides without stacking the deck obnoxiously.

Wild Oats & Fireweed by Ursula LeGuin – Poetry, mostly from the 80s. There’s a lot of more pointed commentary on news events, and more emphasis on change rather than acceptance. Still beautiful seeing and describing lands and sometimes the strange customs, or interesting wildlife to match.

Serpent Bride by Sara Douglas – A very interesting book with a few good leads. It’s a rough start, marred by a huge overhead of “what happened last time”. To a degree, it feels like a world in motion – but it also feels like a “related to” sequel. As the book continues, the investment in this set of characters (and reference back to old characters and events) lessens, allowing more space for the well told tale.

Twisted Citadel by Sara Douglas. A very good sequel, with only the least hangover from the previous series. There’s an abrupt change sprung right at the beginning that mostly fell flat (the One for Kanubai)- but once you are past it, the substitution winds up being fine. It just wastes the relationships and enmity that was developed for the whole first book. The end, however, has a very dramatic shakeup — much more than you expect from the average middle of a trilogy.

(I returned The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard because it expired after a renewal; I’ll check it out again sometime next year.)

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Summer 2024 Reads

So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018 by Ursula K LeGuin. A fascinating mix; aging and acceptance are powerful themes, but not the only ones.

By a Silver Thread: DFZ Changeling Book 1 by Rachael Aaron. A very enjoyable fantasy world overlaid on a mid-future. This one has a thick layer of grime – there’s addictive blood magic, mind games, and a lot of jockeying for position. The fae are alien here, in a pleasing way.

Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers, #1) by Rachel Aaron. The same world as By a Silver Thread (I suspect that it’s decades earlier), with a very different feel due to the main character’s attitude and relationships. Julius doesn’t have an easy path, but it makes victories the right way sweeter when they do come.

Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Delightfully weird; it’s a bay area of almost today, with a slight skew and subtle almost magic that threads through a few parallel storylines.

California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout. This is a weird urban fantasy – California seceded from the US on the strength of bone magic. It’s mostly about a heist crew, their relations, navigating a strange and usual world. Disney and Mullholland wind up running rival powerbases in the weird LA. It’s a weird elite, with “power corrupts” running strongly through – along with some crisis of ecology that slides in and becomes a surprisingly strong background theme.

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Recent Reads

December and January

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The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. LeGuin

This is a pair of collections of her short stories; I think they’re all reprints, but some (particularly in Volume 1) were new to me.

I started with Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, which has mostly her science fiction short stories. The Rule of Names was new to me (a fun short story set in the East Reach of Earthsea), as were the following four stories of the collection. It’s hard not to be a fanboy, but all of the stories are crisp and beautifully written. The first stories are familiar, The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas is often reprinted, with great reason. Semley’s Necklace was interesting; I’d read it before, but I was more willing to read it from Semley’s perspective, which improved it for me this time around.

I think I’ve read First Contact with the Gorgonids before, but enjoyed her wry pokes at Jerry this time. So many others were familiar, but it was good to read them again and have them in one place.

Volume One: Where on Earth got off to a strong start. I really appreciated collecting the Orsinian tales; the second Orsinian story is much stronger for following the first with the same characters. Many of the remaining stories were familiar, and most were quite strong. Ether, OR was another story that was new to me–and quite enjoyable, with interesting characters dealing with a very unusual but understated problem.

There’s a really interesting piece at the end, Half Past Four. I might have gone crazy trying to line everyone up, if I hadn’t vaguely remembered her warning in the introduction explaining how the story came about.

This was a pair of books I’ll reread again; it’ll probably take a few reads to get many of these onto my favorites list… but I suspect some will clear that high bar.

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Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin

A wonderful book, set in a the world of the Aeneid. (I’ve never read it, but I have read many references to the Aeneid before.) LeGuin takes her character from the margins of the poem and delves deep into her life. It reads as historical fiction, which was amplified by some of the choices she made [and explained in the afterword].

Lavinia’s life is regimented and “poor” for a princess– the kingdoms of coastal Italy aren’t huge and lack the impressive tax base that comes later. Religion and faith are constant and soothing– and smaller scale. It’s the gods of the hearth, not Olympian gods striding the battlefields.

The lives of the simple kingdom are turned upside down by Lavinia’s actions and the interference of “the poet”. The presence of the poet was mixed to me– in many ways I appreciated his presence and tie to the poem, but it doesn’t mesh well with the detailed life that we see and experience. If they were missing, I’d have enjoyed it as pure historical fiction… but there’s a constant umbilical that keeps this from drifting back into pure fiction.

Lavinia’s role is circumscribed by society– you’ll be disappointed if you’re looking for a warrior woman wielding a bloody blade. There’s a lot of action and struggle and the world changes, which was plenty for me.

I enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who would appreciate a story of powers viewed on edge. This is the story of moving and shaking, but subtly.

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Powers by Ursula K. LeGuin

By far my favorite of the Annals of the Western Shore, this book is a great continuation of an interesting world. More important– this book is about Gavir, a house slave in the city of Etra. It is very well written, empathy for Gavir is immediate and strong.

Gavir provides a great viewpoint of the world. His house, the city, and the world are all positively revealed through his eyes. As the book goes on, Gavir learns, but his core nature remains unchanged. His relationships involve a huge mix of relative power and authority. His book knowledge is widely respected and makes him popular in many ways, but it alters the way he’s seen consistently.

I’ll have to reread the first two books in the series [though there’s no direct connection, not even characters]. The theme running throughout this book (about trust and power) is strong, so if you dislike coincidence in service to a theme and it gets your hackles up, this might trip your radar. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

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Viligant, Men of Iron, and Gifts

Vigilant, by James Alan Gardner, is a solid book in the Expendables universe. While it’s not the strongest book, it does have enjoyable mysteries and plotting, and a solid viewpoint character (Faye).

Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle is about a fictional struggle in early 15th century England. The book does a good job of hewing to the viewpoints of the era; unlike most of today’s fantasy, the characters have viewpoints appropriate to the era. Despite stilted speech and some interesting authorial choices as to which parts of the story he’d tell, it was a good read. (Discussion about it will start up soon in CVGamer’s bookcase.)

Ursula LeGuin’s Gifts is a good book, and a strong start on a series. It’s in the Young Adult section, but is as interesting and complex as most of her stories. The tale of Orrec and Gry growing up as landholder’s children in a fantastic Scotland analogue is light on action and long on solid, believable thought.

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