Product Description
Exclusive 3-in-1 harcover book. Includes A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA: The windswept isles of Earthsea were famous for wizards, and the greatest of all was Ged, called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.THE TOMBS OF ATUAN: Chosen to serve the Ancient and Nameless Powers of the Earth, Tenar is taken away from her home and family to become Arha, the Priestess Ever Reborn, guardian of the ominous Tombs of Atuan. While learning her way throughthe gloomy Labyrinth that is her domain, she encounters Ged, a wizard come to steal the Tombs' greatest treasure. But Ged also brings with him the light of magic, a light as forbidden in the Tombs as wizards are in the Kargad Lands....THE FARTHEST SHORE: Ill-tidings have arrived on the Isle of the Wise: The springs of wizardry are drying up. Driven to seek the source of the trouble, Archmage Ged embarks on a perilous journey with the boy-prince, Arren. Their travels take them to a land cursed with a strange soul sickness, to an encounter with Orm Embar, the greatest of the world's dragons, and into the realm of death itself. For if the balance of magic is not restored, darkness will overtake the world. Jacket art by Leo and Diane Dillon. (422 pp.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Three books in one for the Earthsea adventurer!
Have you ever woken up, knowing that you just had a pleasant dream, but the memory of that same dream is just beyond your powers of remembrance?Now add to that a sprinkle of déjà vu.This is my reaction to Ursula K Le Guin's The Earthsea Trilogy.It is familiar throughout, but I couldn't tell you what happens on the next page, let alone the end of each book.

And this is not a complaint!

I must have read these books at some time in the distant past (they were written in 1968-1972), but I could never have admitted that I read them.Indeed, I picked this copy up from a book swap, thinking I needed to read at least one of the famous Earthsea books.This volume was ideal, since it contains the first three books in this series (Le Guin started adding to the original trilogy in 1990).These books are:

-A Wizard of Earthsea
-The Tombs of Atuan
-The Farthest Shore

All three books follow the tale of Sparrowhawk (Ged is his real, secret name), who went from very humble beginnings to become a Dragonlord (speaking to dragons) and Archmage (the Warder or leader of Roke, THE school for wizards).

I sense elements of this story in other fantasy tales.Has Le Guin influenced a generation of writers?

See for yourself!

head on over to Amazon.co.uk
. . . where they have a version of the first four books in this series in a single volume.It includes "Tehanu" but not "The Other Wind."And it's paperback, unlike this one.Plus cheaper, even after shipping it overseas.

Its details are:

ISBN-10: 0140348034
ISBN-13: 978-0140348033

Beats me why Amazon's sites in the various countries do not share their "holdings" more transparently.

A nice classic fantasy novel
This novel is a good classic fantasy novel.It has well written characters and delves fairly deeply into the inner workings of the protagonist.Like most classic fantasy novels, it also contains stories of journies to accomplis one task or another.

Readers of modern fantasy who are accostomed to more gore, action, and characters shaded of grey (rather than black and white), may find this novel lacking.However, I think this novel is worth reading simply to follow the progression of fantasy from Tolkien/Lewis to the diverse modern fantasy genre.

Magnificent
The trilogy is an amazing piece of work. Le Guin has a remarkable style, and communicates well the humanity of these wizards and sorcerers. She has made characters she understands well, and they come to fruition throughout her works. The format of having all three books in one is, for my purposes, better than having three separate works. If there was something that I wanted to go back and check in a previous book, it was right there. For me, the style and format of this trilogy is wonderful. Very satisfying.

Pretty good
I got into the whole fantasy world with Lord of the Rings and since then I have been looking for books with and alternate world theme. I bought the whole set at one go and must say I have enjoyed it so far. It is well written and I really like the story line. ... Read more

Product Description
Ace paperbacks boxed set of the first four novels by Ursula K. Le Guin in her Hainish series: Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, and The Left Hand of Darkness. Print dates are 1976 - 1977. Ace mass paperbacks, cover art by Alex Ebel and uncredited (Rocannon's World), 12mo (6 7/8" x 4.25") Hainish series #1 - #4, followed by The Word for World is Forest, The Dispossessed, and others. The Left Hand of Darkness is now considered a classic, and won the 1969 Nebula Award, the 1970 Hugo Award, and the 1995 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, Retroactive. It was nominated for the 1970 Ditmar Award. Other awards: 1975 Locus Poll Award, All-Time Best Novel (Place: 3), 1987 Locus Poll Award, All-Time Best SF Novel (Place: 2), and the 1998 Locus Poll Award, All-Time Best SF Novel before 1990 (Place: 3). ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (14)

Bittersweet
I'm not really a fan Le Guin, to be honest. I found this book in a used book store many years ago for a quarter and bought it on a whim.

I won't praise this book and give you high expectations of a blockbuster 'can't-put-down-till-I-finish' book. It's not that in the least. It's just a slice of someone's life, a person just like the people you probably bump into everyday, people you have no interest in knowing, people you greet out of politeness, and forget they exist before the hour is up.

This is a short book but a slow read. Take your time, there's really no hurry. It is a story of an unhappy person, who is only able to escape his unhappiness for short periods of time, nothing more. He stumbles into a 'way out' and desperately tries to not to lose what he's found.


(BTW, the cover artwork is very misleading and the sooner you strip away thesepreconceived images of the characters, the more you'll enjoy the story.)

Not one of her best works, but a still a masterpiece
For me, very little can equal the impact of Ursula Le Guin's "Left Hand of Darkness" upon me as a child--it taught me that we are all human, regardless of gender. I had an epiphany at the end about what it truly means to struggle for what you believe in. I read on one of the reviews that the reviewer was forced to read it in a Literature class ... that is not the beauty of that book. It is picking it and first being surprised that it is any good (and nothing like the cover) and secondly, being unable to put it down because of the rich characters.

This book's descriptions and prose are just as rich, if not more ... and so much more poignant, because it is set in our own world, our own time. The protagonist is a heavy boy, a stocky adolescent with a 9-5, without a car and has a paranoid and controlling mother. Not yet realizing her as a fully-developed person, he still takes her for granted.

I found a lot of the development in this book not to be with the other main character, Irene (a touching love story) but in his relations and epiphany about the modern world. Don't all of us want to escape at one point or another? Yet, in the end, isn't this where we truly belong?

Yet, it's written with a touch of darkness, a "mature" book without including hardly any detailed sex or violence. Truly a novel for the intellectually-graduated who enjoy a high level of diction. If you're looking for a short but fulfilling short story, don't hesitate to pick it up.

But, like the Eye of the Heron, it is not her best work. Though the dialogue, plot, and writing all seem to be fit ... why does the female lead here also come off as bland and unlikable, written by a female author? It's strange.

Does it have the beauty of Lathe of Heaven or Left Hand of Darkness? Does it still have the achingly bittersweet melancholy like the Word for World is Forest?

Yes and no. The writing is still as beautiful, but it's less polished. But, like the beginning carving of a great sculptor, it should still hold interest of any fan of her work and I'm sure that a young reader will be more than satisfied with it.

It's all about style
The Beginning Place is classic Le Guin and you either love her writing or you hate it.I love it.First consider this book was published in 1980 and then consider how fantasy has changed in 26 years.

At least she writes a book that has a beginning, middle, and end.She doesn't expect you to hang with her for a decade to find out the end of the story...all the while hoping she doesn't croak before it is complete.

Ursula K LeGuin is the ONLY author who I can compare with the master Theodore Sturgeon when it comes to telling a story that is the story. She doesn't bore you with long histories, detailed descriptions of the Queen of Zunderlund's dress or the poor street rat's rags.In fact you might acccuse her of being parsimonious, but if you read her story you will see the faces, the shapes, the dresses, the trees and all the other details in that theatre of your mind and you will see it in richer detail than any "Wheel of Time" book.Why?Because she doesn't force you to see it her way.She isn't building the Ark of the Covenant, she is giving you just what you need to spark the old imagination.

Try this book.You won't regret it.

A Great Introduction to Ursula K. Le Guin
"The Beginning Place" was one of the first books I read in Science Fiction/Fantasy and it has stayed with me ever since. This is simple tale of Hugh Rogers, a board young man who discovers a gateway to The Beginning Place and Temreabrezi - or Mountaintown - an idyllic and eternal world of twilight. Here he finds an escape to the monotony of his life in the "real world".

Hugh is not the first to discover The Beginning Place; seven years before, Irena Pannis came to this land when she was thirteen. She has come to know Mountaintown and its gentle residents very well, and Hugh's intrusion is seen as trespassing and Irena becomes very protective.

But, when a dark shadow threatens to destroy Temreabrezi and its inhabitants, Irena realizes that Hugh is not the threat, but an ally in the struggle to save The Beginning Place. And, along the way, their partnership blossoms into more.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

"Magical...Lyrical..."yes
I found this book accidentally, a few years ago (as an adult) and read it based on my previous reading of the 'standard' Le Guin (read in college): "The Dispossesed" & "The Left Hand of Darkness".
This is a story of a young person growing up -or fighting against growing up in the conventional societal sense.
I was rapidly taken in by the story and mesmerized, I could hardly put it down. Somehow this book touched my soul.
Maybe because I also was once a grocery clerk... .

It seems to be a polarizing book, some other reviewers were lukewarm or disliked it, I guess that makes it special if it can speak in different ways to different people.
I recommend reading "The Beginning Place", and see for yourself. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection by an award-winning author includes ten short tales, eighteen poems, and the title story in which a child survives a plane crash and enters a Dream Time of primitive myths and an all-knowing coyote. Reissue. ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Four young cats with wings leave the city slums in search of a safe place to live, finally meeting two children with kind hands. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (55)

let your imagination fly!
I've been reading this series to first graders for decades.Both boys and girls love it.It's not just an exciting series, it's heart rending. It teaches about kindness and friends and families supporting each other.I've enjoyed her adult fiction as well.

Catwings Boxed Set
Great series of books for the 4-8 crowd.We rec'd the first one as a gift, but it was cheaper to buy the set than to buy the remaining books individually. My daughter loves these books!

Catwings Collection

My nine year old hates to read. This is the only collection of books that she just loves. She will read them again and again. I wish there were more.

Really Won Me Over As A Child
I am ashamed to say I grew up in a household that hated cats.We were all allergic and i guess its difficult to like something that makes you feel so awful.Needless to say I know better now, but as a kid I absolutely scorned anything about cats.However, being an avid reader and fond of anything small I bought this box set with pocket money when I was out of books to read one summer.I fell in love immediately.The stories and characters are fantastic and these books mix the charm of animal stories with the ever popular adventure of kids survival stories (the type with orphaned children living on their own or post disaster a child must brave the elements and challenges of nature to make his or her way to safety).These stories are appropriate for most ages because while the story is relatively tame, they manage to be enthralling at the same time.As a child I tried to steer away from the overly tame books, which I found boring and patronizing.The Catwings books are neither.The stories are sweet without taking out depth or content and are simple without being dull.

An earlier said these books might cause the reader to get a little teary at times.This is definitely likely but was not my experience as a kid.The Velveteen Rabbit made me cry as a child and still makes me sad.Certain children's animal stories did as well (I swear the majority of these involve a faithful animal companion dying) but the sad parts of Catwings were brief enough that they did not bother me.I suggest any parents worried about their children's ability to deal with the sad parts read the story first themselves to judge if their child may need some support while reading these stories or maybe should be a bit older before reading them. Don't worry they end happily.

I think these are books that kids will enjoy reading, parents will enjoy reading to their children and even single adults who don't take themselves so seriously as to avoid good book will love to read.They are fabulous little treasures and I highly recommend them.

An amazing story!
I have recintly realized that i am hooked on fantisy books.But not on Cinderella-ish kinds, but on this kindIf you are like me then you should read these books.These kind of books. leave you wishing they never end!Four books in the series?I wish there were 22 books in the series!It;s the kind of story you can enjoy if you are 2 or 102.If you like these books you should also try reading Varjak Paw or Harry kitten and Tucker mouse. ... Read more

Product Description
Wonderful Alexander, the kitten who is the biggest, stongest, and loudest in his family, thinks he is destined for wonderful things. No sooner has he set out to explore on his own than he is chased up a tree and stuck there. His rescuer, Jane, a black kitten with wings, leads him to her home, where Alexander meets the other Catwings.

Alexander soon learns how he can repay Jane, who has been so wonderful to him. He helps Jane confront her greatest fear. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

More magical Catwings
This is the 3rd installment in noted author Ursula K. LeGuin's excellent Catwings series. It is as good as the others. The Catwings stories are the adventures of 5 young winged cats that were born to a normal alley cat in a gritty, realistic city. They find their way to an old barn in the country and 2 kind children who look after them, and keep their secret . Alexander is a normal cat who is sure he is destined to do something wonderful. As a kitten, he goes exploring, gets lost, and finds his way to the Catwings and their humans. There he finds friendship, a home, and does indeed something wonderful by helping the youngest Catwing, Jane. A bad experience while a kitten caused her to lose the ability to speak, she can only say 'me' and 'hate'. Alexander helps her overcome her trauma and speak again. This book would be perhaps useful for children with a trauma in their lives. These slender little books with great illustrations can be read by adults, and do not talk down to children. They are warm, and firmly rooted in our world, but have the feel of a magical fairy tale with the winged cats and talking animals. They leave you wanting more. LeGuin is a well known science fiction and fantasy author, who hopefully will write more young children's stories of this caliber.

Catwings Soar
The Catwings books are little treasures. Ursula LeGuin's skilled, poignant, humorous writings and her sensitive insights on genuine, deep emotions combine to entertain, create suspense, and tug at the reader's heartstrings all at the same time.S.D. Schindler's beautiful pen-and-ink illustrations capture the delightfulpersonalities of the cats without becoming cartoons.He makes us believe that cats with wings are entirely possible and real. This amazing illustrator should have received more recognition over the years, for he is a master.

The Catwings books are not only for children. Adults who love cats and who can believe that all things are possible will revere these wonderful stories, as well.

Wonderful
The Catwings books are great, so they make fantastic gifts.My 8YO godson agrees!

The series realizes its potential here.
Ursula K. LeGuin, Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings (Orchard, 1994)

Five years after the first two books in the series, LeGuin released the third, Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings. It's the best of the series so far, mostly because it actually feels like a self-contained story. Alexander is a wingless kitten from a normal kitten family who goes out exploring one day, gets lost, and is taken in by the catwings. He develops a friendship with Jane, and goes to work unraveling the trauma that has kept her from speaking for most of her life.

Now, remember when reading that synopsis that the Catwings books are short (forty-two pages, in this case). That's some pretty complex stuff for what is, essentially, a kids' picture book. It's certainly light-years removed from the simple, rather bucolic tales found in the first two. This is where LeGuin takes the series and turns it into something special; if you're fan, and you passed these over because they're for young readers, go back and give them a spin. *** ½

Top-notch children's literature
This is the first in the catwings series my 4-year old and I have read together.We plan to read the 4-volume set!The plot and characters are highly imaginative; and LeGuin's keen observations of animal behavior bring the story to life. The detailed, realistic drawings that appear on nearly every page are beautiful and enjoyable, and keep my pre-school daughter's interest in the story, even though she may not grasp some of the more complex prose.LeGuin does not spare the reader realism--this is not a candy-coated story--but I believe even very young children appreciate honest portrayals of life's challenges.My daughter asks that I tell her the catwings story after lights out--we have even made up our own chapters. ... Read more

Product Description
Earth, like the rest of the Known Worlds, has fallen to the Shing. Scattered here and there, small groups of humans live in a state of semi-barbarism. They have lost the skills, science and knowledge that had been Earth's in the golden age of the League of Worlds, and whenever a colony of humans tries to rekindle the embers of a half-forgotten technology, the Shing, with their strange, mindlying power, crush them out. There is one man who can stand against the malign Shing, but he is an alien with amber eyes and must first prove to paranoid humanity that he himself is not a creature of the Shing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The best of the Hainish novels?
Why do so many science fiction lists have places for every cocktail napkin that Philip K. Dick scribbled a note on, but a real writer like Ursula K. Leguin is frequently restricted to only two novels? I suppose literary cannons, whether for academics or sci fi nerds, are as subject to fads as anything else, but in this case its really a pity.The Hainish novels are worth the effort to read, and give great insight into a Titan of Science Fiction.

"City of Illusions" is a terrific quest novel. It is a welcome reward for having read the two previous Hainish novels, and perhaps slightly better than the undeveloped metaphor of Left Hand of Darkness.By this point in her career LeGuin has mastered her trademark motif of having a man cross a world on foot.More playful, and interesting than the boring trek that pads out the last third of "Left Hand of Darkness" the walk of Falk, our hero, across a sort of apocalypse United States, is the best part of this novel which has many great features.Let me first note that LeGuin, as always with the Hainish novels, shows us a post race world which is absent in most science fiction written by male writers.Again the foundation of the book is an excellent characterization of a likable hero who always behaves in human ways, and logical, subtle world building that is only ever shown to us through the speech, and the gestures of the characters, and never in dreary, long winded exposition.The spare science fiction of "Planet of Exile" harmonizes the over abundant fantasy of "Rocannon's World" as a realistic world is peppered with talking animals, and bits of technology.The overarching element of science fiction/fantasy, however, are psychic abilities, that characters have to varying degrees.
The ending loses its way slightly...as our hero and the book switch gears from adventure, to intrigue and spy games, but still its a satisfying peice of work.

Older Le Guin
City of Illusions is an early book from Le Guin (published 1967). It is set in her Hainish worlds, however. The story takes place on future Earth, after some kind of apocalypse has wiped most of humanity out and the rest live down to earth under the rule of the Shing.

A mysterious alien man appears from the woods. He's lost his memory and learns a new life like a child. Is he a Shing, a tool of the Shing or a friend? He wants to find out and eventually sets out to the city of Shing.

The book is divided into two parts: first is the man's journey through the Northern American plains to the Shing city Es Toch - the city of illusions. There he starts to unravel his past and decipher what the Shing actually want. It's a web of lies and deceit and quite an challenge.

While City of Illusions is far from being Le Guin's greatest work, it is a pleasant little book that offers solid entertainment.

Aliens conquers us by lying!
If we were able to use telepathy and were convinced that it is impossible to mindlie, then we would be very vulnerable for an alien race who could mindlie.
So, centuries after the human race is conquered and rendered to a brutish state, an amnesic human hybrid from another star tries to find his memory back and use truth against the lie.
It is no wonder that Ursula LeGuin has become such a popular writer. Her style is very engaging, well written and she doesn't use endless descriptions to convey her points or ideas.
The multiple personalities in the main character, and how he deals with it, explained in the last part of the book, are a joy to read, even if the story stops very short. I expect there was to be a next book to be written. I sincerely hope Ursula LeGuin or someone else picks up the torch.

Stylistic eloquence but weak resolution
Here are the early glimmerings of a future mastery. Le Guin will come into her own with the Earthsea trilogy and earn pre-eminence with The Left Hand of Darkness. But here, in her first efforts, we can see the developing touch--the sure hand and the restrained voice already at work.

The City of Illusions is the last of a loose trilogy of works that the author calls the "Three Hainish Novels". Set in the same Hainish universe as two earlier works, this novel shares little with its predecessors, except for a hazy reference to a collective history and the common device of telepathy.

Still, it is pure Le Guin. The author likes large themes - in this case, truth, falsehood, and the crisis of identity. The protagonist is on a journey, both figuratively and literally, to find his true being - not just his being, but his true being - a subtle but important difference. When we are introduced to him, he is a blank with no identity and no past. He must painfully build a new identity from nothing; burdened with the belief that a previous lifetime has been erased. In searching for that past, he is forced to face the fear of a false self; a life based on a lie.

Such a psychological drama could have sunken into contrivance but for the skill of the author. Le Guin navigates this hazard by making the anguish of the protagonist real and immediate, and she avoids manipulation by revealing rather than directing.

Yet, for all the written skill, this novel does not fulfill its potential. It is unsatisfying - not severely, but enough to diminish the reading experience. For one thing, the plot is incomplete: it needs an epilogue to sate our curiosity. It is also incomplete in a more vital and thematic sense: a large need is filled in a small way. When the human race is enslaved to aliens, what significance can we attach to the fleeting freedom of one man? The weight is all off kilter. The final passage ends on a note of hope, but is insufficient to redress the imbalance.

Though better than most science fiction, this book remains uneven. The austerity of the writing is cool and bracing; but the ideas lack expansiveness and the story lacks a resolution. While reading it, we set aside the immediate for the promise of things to come; but when that promise goes begging, we are so flustered by its unexpected absence that we lose sight of the vibrancy in the present. This book appeals more to stylists; less to seekers after an organic whole.

City of Illusions
A man crawls out of the woods, naked, hungry, without knowledge, without spirit.The people who take care of him call him Falk.He is being educated, he gains knowlegde and spirit.He becomes a man of honour andtruth.But who is he?After 5 years with his new family, he starts on aquest to find his true identity.

He is on Earth, in a far future.Earththat has conolized many planets, is now a barbaric world.The people ofEarth are no more what they used to be.No more explorers, inventors,politicians, scientists.They became tribes, nomads and slaves.

Heleanrs that he actually is a man from another world.And he IS human.Hetries to find a way to win this 'battle' he is in.

This book tells of thevalue of truth and honour and of the importance to know yourself.

Ittells a good sf story about the human race that is conquered by an alienrace that used the lie as their main weapon.And this is not an sf storyin which technology and space battles are the main ingredients, buteveryday life, a long journey, weird lines of thought, psychologicalstruggle and conversations that don't seem to make any sense.

I have readThe Left Hand of Darkness as well, another wonderful book by Ursule LeGuin. They are on the same line of history in a far future.In both books, anindividual will change the future of a whole world.In both books,honesty, honour, integrity, intelligence and courage turn out to be the wayto conquer problems.

In this line of history, LeGuin has written twomore books: Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile, and I can't wait to startreading them. ... Read more

Product Description
From Huxley's Brave New World, to Orwell's 1984, to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, dystopian books have always been an integral part of both science fiction and literature, and have influenced the broader culture discussion in unique and permanent ways. Brave New Worlds brings together the best dystopian fiction of the last 30 years, demonstrating the diversity that flourishes in this compelling subgenre. This landmark tome contains stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, M. Rickert, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and many others. ... Read more

Product Description

The winner of the Pushcart Prize, the Kafka Award, and the National Book Award, Ursula K. Le Guin has created a profound and transformational literature. The award-winning stories in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea range from the everyday to the outer limits of experience, where the quantum uncertainties of space and time are resolved only in the depths of the human heart. Astonishing in their diversity and power, they exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers and the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intact.

Customer Reviews (19)

Wonderfully Weird
Reading Ursula K. Le Guin's writing is always an exercise for my imagination. I always have to be focused and determined to think while reading, or else I will easily slip out of synch with her stories and get lost in the myriad of new words and concepts that she throws forth. But I enjoy this aspect of Le Guin's writing--how it challenges you to think, to perceive differently, and to reconsider the many facets of existence--and my patience and attention paid off with "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: Stories". A little effort was the key to unlocking a grand universe of strange but stimulating ideas, rich new cultures, and wonderfully puzzling experiences.

My favorite stories were the final three, which revolve around a new technology called "churten" that can transport people astronomical distances in the blink of an eye. But as with any new invention, churten theory comes with a brand new set of difficulties, from technological to psychological to philosophical. The way Le Guin introduces and explores churten through her character is absolutely magnificent. I highly recommend this book just for those stories, though the others are good, too.

Rather Insipid
UKLG writes in the introduction "The beauty of a story may be intellectual...; it may be aesthetic...; it may be human, emotional, moral;... The critics are decades behind, not even discussing the language, deaf to the implications of sounds, rhythms, recurrences, patterns... This is naïve." Though I am not a critic, I disagree with her. A collection of words can't be a work of art because one can accept and justify any sequence of words with such a principle. The sequence has to be both meaningful and able to touch the reader's soul. In that context, beauty means nothing. Besides, what may be beautiful in a language will immediately lose its beauty as soon as it's translated into another one whereas a wonderful story will remain marvelous in any language. That feature precisely summarizes the power of literature. Also a story is neither a song, nor a poem; it lacks notes for sounds and rhythms; repeating the same patterns over and over makes any story unimaginative and tedious only.

I think UKLG set off on that way of writing with "Always Coming Home", her first book I wasn't able to finish. Sadly, many others would follow.

It may be UKLG tried to apply those "advanced" ideas in A Fisherman's short stories and that might explain why they are dull. Even the last one that is highly regarded by many reviewers is quite common. I've read that sort of story several times before. Indeed, it's the only short story in the book which is a true story, the rest being intellectual constructions without interest, and that fact probably explains why it's liked so much.

It's really a pity because UKLG is unique, an incomparable and inimitable author... as long as she abides by the canons of literature.

Not Free SF Reader
A rather weak collection, this one, barely averaging over 3 per story.Nothing of any particular note.



Fisherman of the Inland Sea : The First Contact With the Gorgonids - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : Newton's Sleep - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : The Ascent of the North Face - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : The Rock that Changed Things - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : The Kerastion - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : The Shobies' Story - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : Dancing to Ganam - Ursula K. LeGuin
Fisherman of the Inland Sea : Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea - Ursula K. LeGuin

Alien corroboree.

3 out of 5


Exit preparation extra visitors.

3 out of 5


Social climbers.

3.5 out of 5


Design stonewall.

2.5 out of 5


Skinflute.

2.5 out of 5


Look, its full of stars.

3 out of 5


Space princess shocker.

3.5 out of 5


Instant travel has timing problems.

3.5 out of 5




2.5 out of 5

the last story just stays with me
i like this whole anthology despite not generally being a fan of short stories.however, it is the last one (the title story) i find most haunting.i come back to it again and again.

Story, meaning, and community
This little book is what LeGuin calls a "story suite", a set of interconnected short stories with overlapping themes and characters. The connecting theme of Four Ways to Forgiveness is, no surprises here, forgiveness--specifically, forgiveness between men and women trapped in the evils of gender domination. The connecting theme of Fisherman is narrative--story as a way to organize reality, story as revelation, story as truth.

All of the stories in Four Ways are set in LeGuin's Hainish universe, or the Ekumen. This is not the case with Fisherman; the three longest stories are set in the Ekumenical universe, but there are other, shorter pieces, including several humorous ones. "The Ascent of the North Face" describes climbing a gigantic skyscraper as if it were Everest. "The First Contact with the Gorgonids" makes an unexpected heroine of a browbeaten wife. "The Kerastion" demonstrates what an inspired writer can do with a list of items generated at a workshop; it's a story about a musical instrument that makes no sound.

The three Ekumenical stories, include the title story, revolve around the invention of a new technology, churten theory. Hitherto LeGuin has obeyed Einstein in this universe; her spaceships travel Nearly As Fast As Light, but never faster. People who wish to travel between worlds must accept that a trip which seems to them to take four days may amount to four hundred years on their home planet. Now, however, the Cetian and Hainish physicists have come up with churten, which is instantaneous travel, transilience: from here to there in no interval, no time. LeGuin, as always, is interested in how people deal with the implications of such technology, rather than in how it works.

In "The Shobies' Story", the first group of people to travel by churten *as* a group deals with a chaotic experience of their trip by weaving a single coherent story. "Dancing to Ganam" is a classic story example of the unreliable narrator: What do you do when the hero you admire seems to be telling a story that makes no sense? Finally, my favorite story, "Another Story, or, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea", explores the problem of churten and the marriage arrangements of the people of the planet O, who marry by sedoretu, a bond between two men and two women.

"Another Story" is, I think, LeGuin's only time-travel story to date, and it is unlike any other time-travel story I've ever read. Hideo leaves the farmhold where he grew up, son of a Japanese woman who married into this ancient culture, to study churten theory on Hain and its neighboring planet of Ve. His one visit home makes him realize how much he has given up in order to do so; he is deeply shaken by seeing his germane Isidri, child of the other parents in the marriage, married but without children. After many years of study, he uses churten to travel from Hain to O and discovers he has gone back in time eighteen years; he has the opportunity to reclaim the life he gave up.

The title of the story is based on a traditional Japanese folktale which Hideo's mother used to tell, about a handsome young fisherman who spends a night with the Queen of the Sea and returns to his village four hundred years later. I read the same story as a child in one of my many fairy tale books, where it was called "Urashima and the Turtle". Urashima's magical experience of time dilation is the same as Hideo's mother's experience of it--the loss of all she held dear in her decision to work for the Ekumen. Churten is the overcoming of that loss, which requires the creation of a new story, another story, in order to understand the universe.

Once again, Le Guin offers new stories by which we can come to new understandings of our own universe. ... Read more

Product Description
These warm, funny, and eloquent poems, spanning the years 2000 to 2005, by the celebrated author of Always Coming Home and The Language of the Night, showcase Le Guin’s many facets as a writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Immense talent with respect to the use of language to evoke images and emotions
Best known as an award winning writer of science fiction and fantasy, Ursula K. Le Guin is also an accomplished poet. "Incredible Good Fortune" is the latest volume of her verse to see print and continues to document her immense talent with respect to the use of language to evoke images and emotions within her reader's 'theatre of the mind' through the use of free verse expression. Poetry enthusiasts in general, and Ursula K. Le Guin's legions of fans in particular, will want to avail themselves of a copy of "Incredible Good Fortune". 'Waking in April': Drifting on the birdsong river/between no light and light/and the sleep of a man and a cat,/I wear the soft old shirt/my mother made me seventy years ago,/winter coat, wedding gown./I wonder, as it wears away to rags/and gauze, will there be a mirror/to see the naked soul in,/or only an unraveling of shadow/as the day widens/and things grow clearer. ... Read more

Product Description
Incisive, eloquent, crackling with ideas, this is a "mental-biography" of the award-winning fiction writer, Ursula K. Le Guin. She draws together essays, travel journals, lectures, informal talks and reviews spanning twelve years, for a fascinating peek into the mind of a remarkable woman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Le Guin's Non-Fiction Pieces: A Mental Biography
I had never read a word of Ursula K. Le Guin until I recently picked up "Dancing at the Edge of the World," a chronologically arranged collection of essays, talks and book reviews written by Le Guin during the period 1976 through 1988. It is a collection that is intended, in the author's words, "[to] provide a sort of mental biography, a record of responses to ethical and political climates, of the transforming effect of certain literary ideas, and of the changes of a mind."

Each of the essays listed in the table of contents is denoted with a glyph that categorizes the essay as dealing with feminism, social responsibility, literature, or travel. This categorization gives the reader a good idea of the range of the collection and of Le Guin's interests, which extend far beyond the science fiction genre for which she is most well known.

The quality of the essays is uneven. Some of the travel pieces are soporific ("Places Names," "Along the Platte" and "Over the Hills and a Great Way Off"), although they might be more interesting to readers who have been to the places Le Guin describes. Other pieces seem to suffer from the loss caused by transforming what were originally spoken presentations into writing. The feminist writings in some cases are the victim of changing times. What is useful, however, even in these weaker pieces, are Le Guin's introductions, which provide a useful contextual background that helps the reader understand the import of the essay.

While some of the essays are unremarkable, there also are several exceptional writings that are worth the price of admission. I refer, in particular, to the 1988 essay, "The Fisherman's Daughter," which provides a provocative and interesting discussion of women and writing, a text that follows in the line from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" through Tillie Olsen's "Silences," drawing heavily on both authors for another view of this much discussed literary/feminist theme. I also refer to the essays from 1986, a very good year for Le Guin insofar as the six essays included here from that year all provide interesting and worthwhile glimpses at why her writing is so well regarded. In particular, I enjoyed "Bryn Mawr Commencement Address" and "Text, Silence, Performance," two essays that illuminate the ways in which spoken and written language, and the privileging of certain communicative forms over others, affects the world.

Despite the shortcomings of some of its essays, "Dancing at the Edge of the World" provides a fascinating picture of Le Guin's worldview, successfully painting the "mental biography" of one of America's more interesting and accomplished writers during one decade of her life.

Le Guin's Non-Fiction Pieces: A Mental Biography
I had never read a word of Ursula K. Le Guin until I recently picked up "Dancing at the Edge of the World," a chronologically arranged collection of essays, talks and book reviews written by Le Guin during the period 1976 through 1988.It is a collection that is intended, in the author's words, "[to] provide a sort of mental biography, a record of responses to ethical and political climates, of the transforming effect of certain literary ideas, and of the changes of a mind."

Each of the essays listed in the table of contents is denoted with a glyph that categorizes the essay as dealing with feminism, social responsibility, literature, or travel.This categorization gives the reader a good idea of the range of the collection and of Le Guin's interests, which extend far beyond the science fiction genre for which she is most well known.

The quality of the essays is uneven.Some of the travel pieces are soporific ("Places Names," "Along the Platte" and "Over the Hills and a Great Way Off"), although they might be more interesting to readers who have been to the places Le Guin describes.Other pieces seem to suffer from the loss caused by transforming what were originally spoken presentations into writing.The feminist writings in some cases are the victim of changing times.What is useful, however, even in these weaker pieces, are Le Guin's introductions, which provide a useful contextual background that helps the reader understand the import of the essay.

While some of the essays are unremarkable, there also are several exceptional writings that are worth the price of admission.I refer, in particular, to the 1988 essay, "The Fisherman's Daughter," which provides a provocative and interesting discussion of women and writing, a text that follows in the line from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" through Tillie Olsen's "Silences," drawing heavily on both authors for another view of this much discussed literary/feminist theme.I also refer to the essays from 1986, a very good year for Le Guin insofar as the six essays included here from that year all provide interesting and worthwhile glimpses at why her writing is so well regarded.In particular, I enjoyed "Bryn Mawr Commencement Address" and "Text, Silence, Performance," two essays that illuminate the ways in which spoken and written language, and the privileging of certain communicative forms over others, affects the world.

Despite the shortcomings of some of its essays, "Dancing at the Edge of the World" provides a fascinating picture of Le Guin's worldview, successfully painting the "mental biography" of one of America's more interesting and accomplished writers during one decade of her life.

Great collection, useful for students of SF
This book presents a body of one woman's opinions. This might not sound like much but, given that these are Ursula Le Guin's opinions, it is well worth reading. She writes entertainingly and even though she wants to makeyou think it does not hurt one bit. Given the dearth of decent criticism ofScience Fiction available at student level prices this is an excellentintroduction to the genre for them. It is probably the first time most ofthem will have discovered serious thought behind SF. She also addressesother issues, often concerning her own experiences and the problems ofbeing a woman writer, which would make this a useful text for anyoneinterested in gender studies. To sum up, buy it; it is very good; you willread these essays more than once, guaranteed. ... Read more

Product Description
The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years, and ten of Werel's years are over 600 terrestrial years, and the lonely and dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter, a season that lasts for 15 years, the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches and call the farborns. But hilfs and farborns have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals and eerie preying snow ghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?

Planet of Exile is the second in the Hainish Cycle series. (preceeded by Rocannon's World and followed by City of Illusions.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent Characterization and Culture Depiction
I started reading the Three Hainish Novels on a lark, thinking I'd get some kicks out of seeing what world building here spawned "Left Hand of Darkness".If Rocannon's World was a colt finding out it had four legs, then Planet of Exile is a full grown dog unleashed bolting after a squirrel.This novel was incredibley focused.The characters, though from 3 fictional cultures, were truer than some literary fiction I've read. While I found her depictions of her male heroes be a little...well..heroic? sometimes...infused with too much NPR like soul...the male hero of this was downright arrogant and flawed. A bravura depiction for LeGuin..The world building was subtley executed, and logistically true- a nomadic people preparing their winter harvest,and an exiled group of wordly galactic citizens must defend themselves against a planet's lengthy winter and the resulting barbarian hordes.A love story between members of the two groups threads LeGuin's main sci-fi element: telepathy. I find her recurrent use of these pretty intriguing, and so would anybody else who repeatedly picks up their cell phone one second before the phone rings.
I haven't read many serious reviews of LeGuin's works but a really notable factor here is that time and time again the heros are Earth descendants with black skin.Right on LeGuin. I love when an author takes a second to tweak the details like that, to twist it away from our normal ethnocentric assumptions,espescially when its science fiction.
It's just shocking that this is her EARLY work.It's so spot on.
Definite recommendation.

Uncanny World Building
The Planet of Exile is a masterful piece of fantasy/science fiction world building for Ursula LeGuin spins her story, worlds, cultures, and animosities in flawless fashion.The planet of Werel has 15 year winters and a 60 earth year year.The planets inhabitants are called Hilfs (Highly intelligent life forms) by the humans stranded on the planet (their ship had left in a struggle with mysterious invaders).The Hilfs, before every 15 year winter collect food and build Winter Cities on the ruins of previous cities and prepare to defend themselves from the nomadic raiders who migrate south to avoid the winter and who live by the pillaging and raiding.The humans' population, who have been on the planet for 600 years, is declining and no longer can defend themselves and because of this attempt to enter into an alliance with the Hilfs against the nomads from the north who have without precedent banded together to capture the region.Rolery, a Hilf women, falls in love with the leader of the humans, Agat, and this brings massive tension to the alliance.

What I have always found so amazing about all of LeGuin's work is her world building skills.The culture of both sides can be inferred from gestures, word phrases, actions, and description.She also employs delicately the racial animosities between the groups, again to illustrates the concepts and ideals of each culture, who have remained different despite living in close proximity for 600 years.Without giving away important aspects of the story many ideas of the League (the organization humans that accidentally left the men stranded on the planet)in contacting less technologically progressed races is similar to the rules of first contact in Star Trek.This is primarily a fantasy novel with a science fiction backdrop.The reader is immediately drawn into both societies struggles and deep melancholy befalls you when tragedy strikes.LeGuin's human characters are artfully created and feel and act as humans and her created cultures fill her created worlds perfectly.I can think of no higher praise in the writing of social science fiction.

Not Free SF Reader
A group of humans is left stranded on an alien world.The native inhabitants are not that dissimilar, but genetically different enough that you can't breed hybrids.

Such a small population is suffering a slow decline, and each race minds their own business.A Romeo and Juliet situation and a serious threat causes some upheaval.

First impressions - not always true
This book has been a really remarkable experience for me. I had first herd of Ursula here on Amazon.com when I read through the Hugo and Nebula award listings. As her work was behind a number of those, figured reading some ofit was well worth a try. I picked the planet of exile out, from thelibrary, as it was the thinnest there. I thought it would be enough to justget the taste of Ursula's style of writing. My first impressions were notthat great. As a matter of fact, I found the book to be very boring andhard to read. Of course, I had just finished Clark's "The city and thestars", and my expectations from this other great SF author werepretty much down the sameepic-far-in-the-future-undertakings-using-supreme-technology line ofClark's book. Ursula was far from that. Her work featured much less agadget-full and more of a fantasy-barbaric setting. This was a majorsetback at first, but when I toned down on my expectations and accepted thebook for what it was, and what it had to offer; I found it to be verypleasant and even delightful to read. Ursula talks about a distantfuture in which mankind has reached the stars and united many worlds in anorganization known as the League. The League dispatches colonies onto alienplanets where they judge on the option of entry of the world into theLeague. However, a colony of humans remains stranded on an alien world, asthe spacecraft they came in leaves in haste to aid the League, in a warthat has ensued far away. The planet itself is very peculiar as one Yearlasts 24000 days (c. 65 years), making only one season last 15+ years!Ursula masterfully explores the impact of these awkward time patterns onthe life of local hominoid species. She paints a vivid image of theirculture with a remarkable wholeness, achieved through incorporating varioustraditions and rituals, and even such little things as formal speechpatterns. The same is done with the culture of the humans left on theplanet (christened the "farborn"). Besides delving deep in theparticulars of the two cultures, Ursula also does an excellent job inexploring the interaction between them. In these hypothetical explorationsis her aptness clearly noticeable and they were what I found the mostintriguing and delightful in the novel. Overall a great book that Iliked very much; I warmly recommend "The planet of exile" toanybody that is wondering whether to read it or not. You might not like itat first, but give it a chance. I did, and I can tell you for sure that thenext book I'm taking out of the library is definitely going to be anotherwork by Ursula Le Guin. ... Read more

Product Description
Klatsland, south of Portland, Oregon, represents the best and worst aspects of an American life that has been almost destroyed by fast-food chains and freeways throughout the country. In 12 stories, the reader learns about different individuals and families who occupy these houses near the coast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Outstanding
Searoad: The Chronicles of Klatsand is a collection of short stories set in Oregon.For those who resist even the cream of the Science Fiction genre, these are pure fiction, and serve as a wonderful introduction to Le Guin's work.For previous fans, these are a must-read.The only draw back to the collection is that it has gone out of print- a tragedy for readers.

Unbelievable
This is less of a review than a complaint and expression of disbelief that this book is no longer in print - meaning you have to hunt for it at used bookstores. "Searoad," a collection of short stories set in a small town on the Oregon coast, is a step away from the wonderful SF/fantasy stories that Le Guin normally writes. It is also, in my opinion, Le Guin's absolutely best work, and that's saying quite a bit. With "Searoad" Le Guin proved that she is a master fiction writer in any genre. I can't recommend this book enough - if you can find it. ... Read more

Product Description
Original essays on J.R.R. Tolkien from bestselling fantasy writers George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Terry Pratchett, Harry Turtledove, and many more. To tie in with the release of the first blockbuster film in New Line Cinemas Lord of the Rings trilogy, Meditations on Middle-Earth presents a collection of insightful, original essays by todays top fantasy and science fiction authors on the importance of The Lord of the Rings to their lives and their work. Additional bestselling and award-winning authors include: Raymong E. Feist, Ursula Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Charles de Lint, Poul Anderson, and more! Also included is stunning original art by John Howe, the worlds foremost Tolkien illustrator, who is working closely with director Peter Jackson on the upcoming films. This blockbuster book is an absolute must-have for Tolkien fans.Amazon.com Review
If you remember where you were when you first read The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, then this collection of essays by some of fantasy and science fiction's most popular authors is worth a look.J.R.R. Tolkien's impact on fantastic fiction--and its writers--is explored in contributions that range from intensely personal expressions of the power and beauty of Tolkien's work to more analytical examinations of his style, language, and influences.

Standouts include Michael Swanwick's thoughtful and powerful meditation on heroism and consequences; Ursula K. Le Guin's analysis of narrative rhythm and language in the trilogy; Terri Windling's moving reflection on an escape from abuse fueled by the power of fairy tales; and Douglas A. Anderson's examination of the critical response to Tolkien's work.

This is an uneven collection, with a couple of downright clunkers, but it should appeal to Tolkien aficionados who are interested in the master's influence on those working in the field today. --Roz Genessee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

splendid anthology
I love anthologies where I read *every single* item..I bought this originally for the essay by Diane Duane, one of my favourite authors.I was pleasantly surprised to find I liked every single essay, even the ones with conflicting points of view, even the one by Poul Anderson..(although I did find that one the dryest).That said, these are all by professional authors, so the disease that so often blights academic collections, i.e. wonderful ideas completely killed by inedible prose, is not present.The subjects of the essays vary greatly; there are lots of personal recollections of reading Tolkien for the first time, Esther Friesner talks about how hot people with pointed ears are, Orson Scott Card talks about critical approaches to Tolkien (and it's *fun*!), Ursula K Le Guin talks about rhythmic pattern in Tolkien's prose.There are essays by: Raymond Feist, Poul Anderson, Michael Swanwick (another funny one!), Esther Friesner, Harry Turtledove, Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb, Ursula Le Guin, Diane Duane, Douglas Anderson, Orson Scott Card, Charles de Lint, Lisa Goldstein, Glenn Hurdling (interviewing the Hildiebrant brothers), and Terri Windling, along with two introductions by Karen Haber and George R R Martin (they had to get the author with the most similar name to J R R Tolkien..).Anyway, if you like the fiction of any of these, you'll probably like the essays.

Interesting for reasons beyond Tolkien
This book was clearly published with the expectation that it'd ride the wave of publicityfor the LOTR movies, and perhaps it did. With the movies all on DVD now, maybe it seems less relevant than it once did. As other reviewers have mentioned, the essays in this book vary quite a bit in quality, and they approach the "What Lord of the Rings Means" question from different angles.

However, I think the book is worth reading -- once -- for a slightly different reason than Tolkien or LOTR. If you like Tolkien but aren't fanatical about the subject (not *all* of us feel the need to re-read the trilogy once a year), you may still enjoy many of these essays because you can hear how your favorite authors think, the unique way in which they were influenced by what they read... the author's own voice, in other words, rather than the stories they tell.

I kept imagining that I was attending a panel about "what LOTR meant to me" at an SF convention, and that many of the authors had interesting things to say. If you take the book from that viewpoint, you'll probably enjoy it. And if you're a writer yourself, you should definitely grab a copy.

For instance, Robin Hobb writes about being blown away by Tolkien's ability to create the setting in a novel. ("True setting is far more than descriptive passages about birch trees in winter, or picturesque villages. Tolkien's setting invoked a time and a place that was as familiar as home to me, yet unfolded the wonders and dangers of all that I had always suspected was just beyond the next hill.") Hobb's novels are masterworks of setting, so you see both the influence on the developing writer, and the reason for their impact.

Similarly, Ursula LeGuin sees the books in terms of word rhythms;Charles deLint writes about the impact of the Fairy Story (in the larger, romantic sense). This book gives you a unique view into the minds of the authors you may admire.

It also, alas, shows that not all of them are as skilled at writing an essay as they are with fiction. Esther Freisner does a damned good job (funny, too), but a few of the others wander around aimlessly, forgetting to make a point. Again, it's rather like a panel at an SF Con.

You shouldn't feel compelled to acquire a copy of this book, but don't pass it by, either. Good library fodder, or perhaps a read-and-pass-on book.

An almost-perfect celebration of Tolkien
Mostly good, this collection did have some serious downfalls. For the positives first, in general this was a great celebration of Tolkien's enduring effect on the fantasy field, and of his works. Most of the contributers to this wanted to share their experiances and debts to Tolkien's works, but a few seemed just as happy to grab their own fame out of this enterpriese. An essay-by-essay review in the order that they appear...

George R.R. Martin: Unfortunatly stuck with the intro, Martin discusses Tolkienesque and epic fantasy, the latter being his main style. Engaging and interesting, and much too short.

Raymond E. Fiest: So-so essay, entertaining but not overly informative or interesting.

Poul Anderson: I remember nothing of this one save that it was the only essay that I couldn't finish...and it wasn't even that long.

Michael Swanwick: My memory of this one is sketchy as well, but a wonderfully tied-together essay that was much more united than many of these, and inspiring. A new author to me, this essay impressed me with his style and appriciation and understanding of Tolkien's works.

Esther M. Friesner: Not very on-topic, but it made me laugh...different style, but good enough.

Harry Turtledove: Never did get the point he was trying to make, I don't think he did either. Rambling and random, but not boring at least.

Terry Pratchett: Pratchett was a bit condesencing (or more than a bit) in his essay, and it appeared to me that he came into the deal just to help sell the book with his popular name. No insights in this, and his lack of passion for Tolkien is apparent.

Robin Hobb: A refreshingly fluid essay, sharing her personal experiances and thoughts about the books. Loved this one, and I agreed with her on almost everything she said. Respectful of Tolkien in the way that I am...not forceful, but deeply passionate in a quiter way.

Ursula K LeGuin: Took me awhile to finish this one, but left me with a much better understanding of Tolkien's styles in prose. If you're shooting for new but not radical ideas and thoughts, this is worth the price of the book!

Diane Duane: More of a personal experiance essay, okay and entertianing enough, but not much substance.

Douglas A. Anderson: He said some things I didn't agree with, but his essay was excellent and informative, while being engaging. A nice history of Tolkien both personal and historical, nicely done.

Orson Scott Card: A bit rambling, but, though some of his ideas were questionable for me, very good. Card once again demostrates his understanding of the genre and its history and mechanics, conveying this in his usual intimate, sometimes sarcastic, fast-moving and informative fashion that I love so much.

Lisa Goldstien: Never heard of her, but a nice essay on why Tolkien was so different, important, and nessecary to our world.

Charles De Lint: I feel that he has seriously mis-interpretted certain bits of the book, seeing it as a bit too allegorical, and only grasping the points of it that he wants to understand. Poltically correct, this essay started good and went bad.

Hildebrant brothers: Can't say enough bad about them. They did this just for their own publicity, and I got very, very tired of hearing about how wonderful they were, and how perfect their interpretations were, and how much fun it is to illustrate...bleh. They are arrogant, concieted, and condecending, trying to compare themselves to Tolkien, and getting all upset over the lack of feminism in the books. Good for Tolkien, I say! I'm a woman, it doesn't bug me, and I don't need a bunch of guys looking out for my best intrests. I can do that myself! Burn this conversation, folks. It was awful.

Terri Windling: Nice conclusion to the book, inspiring and hopeful, and very touching. A bit feministic for my tastes, but a true tribute to Tolkien.

Overall, nice essays in general. If you're wondering, buy it. It's good light reading. But if you're looking for a serious academic study of Tolkien, buy Tom Shippey's "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" instead.

Brings out my own memories
This book really brought back some great memories. And not really in the vein of Tolkien amazingly enough. ( I am a major FAN of Tolkien). No, I was shockedthat when reading these essays I was quickly thrown back into my teenage years where I would read nothing but sci-fi/fantasy. I had almost forgotten how most of these authors had written in a basic, easy to read style that appealed to a young lad caught up in an adventurous, romantic mind set. I read these books as if I were love starved housewife needing my "Fabio on the cover" fix.
The good news is that I eventually outgrew this fixation, learning to read books that weren't written in under a month. But this book made me want to read some of their newer works, and, (gasp), reread some of them.
But seriously, this book is well worth the read. Some of the authors aren't all that great at writing non-fiction, (or even fiction for that matter), but it is nice to see them rahpsodizing about Tolkien. It is is also very nice to see John Howe's sketches scattered throughout, and his artwork on the cover was one of my favorite pictures long before I ever heard his name. He is an excellent artist, and I am so glad they used him as a conceptual designer on the LOTR' movies.
I give here a brief review of half the essays.
Karen Haber- Even though she was the editor of this book, her preface wasn't anything to write home about. Okay, I'll say it. It was DUMB.
George R.R. Martin- Martin, being stuck with the introduction, gives a short, concise read of what fantasy is and how Tolkien changed it. Well written and likable.
Michael Stanwick- I have never had the pleasure of reading Mr. Stanwick, but this gives me the desire to. He relates his experiences reading LOTR, gives a very nice piece on some of the dynamics of the characters, and talks of Tolkien's thoughts on allegory. He then finishes with a wonderfully heartwarming rendition of him reading the books to his young son, and how much more Sam's last words "Well, I'm back." meant to him then.
Esther Friesner- This essay was just plain funny. That is all I really remember. She didn't seem to have much to convey, but she did make me laugh.
Terry Pratchett- In true Brittish style, Pratchett brings real comic relief to this book. Just reading a short work as this brings to mind Monty Python, Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and his very own Discworld. This time he jumps headlong into the question" why is LOTR's still considered a cult classic, when it is the most popular book of the twentieth century?".He answers this in a way that would make Terry Gilliam or John Cleese proud to have written, showing how Mona Lisa and Pride and Prejudice fit into the equation. Bravo.
Ursula K. LeGuin- This was probably the best written of the bunch. Bypassing the "this is how I was first introduced to Tolkien's work" that pervades this book, Ursula gives a nice review of how Tolkien wrote his prose almost in a poetic metre. Taking one chapter of the fellowship, she shows how the different beats of action all corelate into a masterful work. Wish I had wrote it.
Orson Scott Card- The first page or two was alright, but after that it quickly detiorated into a study of "serious" vs. "escapist", that lost me in almost every paragraph. While making a few interesting points, it seemed mostly like he was just writing at random, and then forgot to put it into a cohesive format. All I can say is that Card should stick to writing fiction.
Hildebrandt Brothers- Before I write anything else, let me say this. I have never liked the brothers art. Sorry, but my bias will probably show in this one. Personally, I don't think that this should have been included in the book. Why not have John Howe or Alan Lee write something instead of this (rather lame) interview. Mostly they just banter back and forth about how skilled they are, talking about all their various projects, and occasionally thanking Tolkien for giving them the source material that made them famous. Pass.
Terri Windling- More so than all the others, this essay truly moved me. It recalled the wondefully romantic (in the classical sense of the word) thoughts, ideas, and feelings that I have always ascoiated with Tolkien, Indeed all fantasy in general. Interestingly enough, it wasn't the LOTR's that made her feel this way, But Tolkien's excellent lecture "On Fairy Stories", a beautiful work on the role of fantasy in the adult life. She also makes some great points about how Disney has changed the way we look at fairy tales, making them something just for children. Placing this essay at the end of the book definatly makes it feel as if they left the one of best for last.

Should you read this book? If you are a fan of tolkien, and don't mind a little light-hearted writing about him, then yes. If however you just happen to like a particular contributer, then you should probably shy away from this one.

Insightful collection of essays
MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE EARTH is a collection of essays focusing on J.R.R. Tolkien's works, especially the Middle Earth saga.Some of the more renowned fantasy authors of today evaluate the series that made fantasy a household name.Surprisingly, though everyone agrees that Professor Tolkien opened up the genre to the middle class, not all of the contributors are fans of the actual novels.Insightful and entertaining, each essay is well written with the writer's particular spin.However, this anthology will be loved by those readers analyzing the various cultures in a way that cultural anthropologists would envy or by those fans who cherish Beowulf, which Tolkien felt is the forefather of the genre.

Harriet Klausner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A rich, original story
"The Left Hand of Darkness" is the story of a man named Genly Ai, the first envoy from the Ekumen of Worlds to the icy planet of Gethen. The story follows the envoy on his mission: to commence diplomatic relations between the Ekumen and the Gethenians. His quest takes him through the nations of Karhide and Orgoreyn on Gethen.

In Karhide, the people are welcoming and curious, but the ruler is wary of the Ekumen and worries that relations with aliens would decrease his own power. By contrast, Orgoreyn is a more secretive, repressive society where the envoy's existence are not made public. The political intrigue that the envoy gets caught up with in these two nations, and the contrast between the two nations is quite well-developed in this novel.

Another big theme of the novel involves gender roles. The natives on Gethen are nonsexual except during certain periods when they are in "kemmer", or heat, and take on male or female characteristics for the purpose of mating. The envoy goes through a certain amount of difficulty to conceptualize a person without innate gender.

On the whole, this novel was a very interesting read. The story has some gripping twists, and it deals with some weighty subjects in the process. Even 40 years after it was first published, the story does not really seem dated at all. I think its Nebula and Hugo awards are well deserved. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Ursula Le Guin, the much-honored author of 16 novels, 80 short stories, 10 books for children, several volumes of poetry, and numerous screenplays once again demonstrates her virtuosity and versatility in this superb collection of short stories. Written over a span of 12 years, and previously published in such prestigious publications as The New Yorker, Harpers, Omni, and Playboy, these stories are connected in the way they approach reality while diffusing the traditional boundaries of realism, magical realism, and surrealism. In each, Le Guin finds the detail that reveals the strange in everyday life, or the unexpected depths of an ordinary person. Written with wit, zest, and a passionate sense of human frailty and toughness, Unlocking the Air and Other Stories is superb fiction by a beloved storyteller at the height of her power. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Hit and Miss Collection
I have never read any of Ursula Le Guin's other writing;I understand she is a gifted fantasy writer.Her short stories, however, were hit and miss.My favorite was "Standing Ground" about a teenage daughter and her pregnant, retarded mother.Reading this collection of stories was not enough to drive me to look for more from her, gifted or not.

Experimental and Jarring - LeGuin Is A Phenomenal Talent!
Ursula K. Le Guin proves with Unlocking the Air that she's talented across multiple genres. While this collection may not be composed of Speculative Fiction, the stories are surreal, filled with magical realism, and fantastical events that border, and sometimes cross into, the supernatural.

There's a total of 18 previously published stories that, for the most part, left me feeling like I couldn't interpret them even if I tried, but were beautifully expressive in ways only Le Guin can manage. She plays with themes of location and place, belonging, relationships, family, perspective, and socially conscientious issues (homosexuality, abortion). Her writing is always delicate and insightful. There wasn't a single story I didn't like, only stories I like better than the others. And the fact that she veers willingly into the mysticism of dream-like situations reminds me her strengths are in toying with our sense of reality. Being a fan of her writing, I don't think I'll ever mind that.

I did have some favorites that I wanted to share my thoughts on. It's always hard for me to write about a collection without going into some detail on the stories themselves--the following stuck out in my mind the most:

"Half Past Four" is a story of perspective; the same characters play different roles with each other, revisiting the same time of day from other planes of existence in which a daughter can be a mother in one dimension and a sister in another.

"The Professor's Houses" is an exercise in the illusions created to separate the stresses of our daily lives from the escape of daydreams; "Limberlost" tells of a novelist who finally discovers what she's been looking for on a writer's retreat as she's leaving; "The Creatures On My Mind" projects the narrator's guilt as literal and metaphoric in the poor, wounded animals and insects she/he finds in the everyday of life; "Ether, OR" (a dedication "For Native Americans") is told from the voices and different perspectives of the townsfolk who live in a city constantly on the move; "Unlocking the Air", the title story, seems to be about an Eastern European Civil War or protest that is touching despite not knowing the real politics; "A Child Bride" is a Persephone tale from the confused perspective of a daughter unsure whose decision her marriage was; in "Olders" a husband begins an arboreal transformation--issues of nature vs. humanity are brought up, trees are given emotions (jealousy, anger), and made sympathetic in this way; and "The Poacher" is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty that vilifies the fairy tale as an exercise in belief of the dream that happy endings can only exist as such: dreams.

Unlocking the Air is a cohesive collection of stories ranging from the experimentally poetic ("Sundays in Summer in Seatown") to the jarringly real ("Standing Ground"); all are lyrical. I think in particular, what all the stories share is a warning to remember those who we might least think of, or think the least of. Together, they are a plea to always consider another perspective, to make the effort to understand one another, lest we, and others, fall victim to memories, dreams, and intentions.

The Jingling of Keys
Le Guin's recent collection of stories take place in a wide range of her personal territories, from fantasy worlds to the Pacific Northwest to her fictional country of Orsinia.

The title story is in my opinion among the most powerful and moving of all of Le Guin's short stories.I read it five times and each time it brought tears to my eyes.It draws on real events from the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, to bring up to date the vital interactions within the family of Stefan Fabre, who with his ancestors was one of the chief protagonists in her earlier Orsinian Tales.In doing so she reminds us of the difficulty and ambiguity of the continuing struggle for a just society, a struggle in which stones take on power as they are thrown as weapons, rutted by tanks, and sometimes run red with blood.

In the real Prague of 1989, protesters and their leaders (Vaclav Havel among them) jingled their keys as a sign of protest and to symbolize the opening of hitherto locked doors.Le Guin's story ends:

This is the truth.They stood on the stones in the lightly falling snow and listened to the silvery, trembling sound of thousands of keys being shaken, unlocking the air, once upon a time.

a real master of her craft
Unlocking the Air is an interesting collection of stories that crossesover genres in LeGuin's style of bridging the misty realm of dreams withthe sun-bright daytime world of movement and activity.To me she is anabsolutely amazing artist.

America's greatest living writer
No one can claim more breadth of talent that Ursula K. Le Guin.She's known to science fiction for her brilliant social-science fiction and to the fantasy world for her world of Earthsea, making her one of the fewtruly original writers in each of those fields. But here she proves thatshe is not limited by the stereotypes and discriminations of genre writing. They might call this "mainstream" compared to her other writing: it generally doesn't involve other worlds; but Le Guin is entirelyincapable of doing anything "mainstream;" it's still her, andshe's still the best. These stories are beautiful to read.They are nevertoo light, never too serious:always playful, always pointed.She flirtswith ideas of reality, throwing the traditional existential questions outthe window. "Ether, OR" tells the story of a town in Oregon thatmoves from place to place from multiple perspectives."Unlocking theAir" is about wars and rumors of wars in a small, nonexistent Europeancountry (the same Orsinia from "Orsinian Tales" and"Malafrena")."Sunday in Summer in Seatown" is asimple prose poem.She's always pushing the edge, pushing herself.Itseems that she's succeeded again. ... Read more