Reviews

Le Monde de Rocannon (Le Cycle de Hain, Tome 1) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Only show reviews with written explanations

outcolder's review against another edition

5.0

I devoured this one afternoon, a few days after Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize for Literature so there was this voice in my head the whole time: "Ursula K. Le Guin should get the Nobel Prize for Literature" because she should. The best stuff is always when the Daoism comes poking through, right? There was a line in here about the guards being the prisoners of the prisoners... I love stuff like that. And weird bits about refusing to name things. There was a nod to the Book of Daniel, I think, and the influence of Tolkien of course and maybe something about the Vietnam War if you squint.

Yahan, who is good with a lute, says something like "They say I am a slave but I would rather be a man serving men than a beast hunting beasts... " is maybe a misstep on the path to revolutionary consciousness. It is an interesting contrast to the people of the "the Dispossessed" and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Olemas." But for me, it gets at something that pisses me off but that I hear a lot: people talking about how they would just quit a job they didn't like. That always pisses me off. It must be nice to have that choice. Like Yahan, I would rather stay and I would rather fight, (he does disobey his master) then run (or walk) away like the 70s Le Guin stories I just mentioned. And I think, and this is going to sound messed up maybe, that Le Guin might have been thinking about the Civil Rights Movement... the book came out in 1966, right? "Love it or leave it" but why should you have to? Leaving America doesn't necessarily make you "a beast hunting beasts" but I mean, it's a fantasy novel, she can up the stakes. Well, I'm spilling a lot of digital ink about something that was just one line in a hundred plus page fantasy novella so let me back off of it now.

I actually read this in the first edition Ace Double but since I have no intention of reading Avram Davidson "the Kar-Chee Reign" I decided to use this edition here on goodreads. Those Ace Doubles are amazing. They have a whole lot of them, maybe all of them, at the Villa Fantastica which is a science fiction and fantasy library in Vienna, Austria. The covers are like Whaaaat? And then the price: 50 cents... the whole thing makes me think about the people who actually read these back then, when nerds got no love.

gemgem18's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

kivt's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I started this book after abandoning Tanith Lee's The Birthgrave, so I probably made more comparisons between the two than they warrants. This was the more interesting "planet full of curious societies with varying levels of technology, explored by a mysterious and powerful outsider" story to me, though I liked The Birthgrave's nameless protagonist more than Rocannon for about half of Rocannon's World. I felt LeGuin's exploration of fantasy trope masculinity was more thoughtful, though possibly I just mean less bleak. I appreciated how she handled Rocannon's relationships with the community he forms on-planet, his colonial government, & his role as an ethnologist. All that given, it still wasn't a very interesting book to me til about 3/4 through. Doubt I'll read it again, but worth reading once.

emgici's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

futurejake's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous reflective slow-paced

4.0

pineapplesurvivor's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

angus_mckeogh's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

My first LeGuin book. Sort of a mishmash of serious science fiction and fantasy. Overall it was pretty good but ultimately maybe not my kind of thing. I’ll certainly try a different book by LeGuin at a later date.