You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
challenging
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I liked the concepts and the idea but I don’t usually read a lot of fantasy and this is why. Yes this is sci-fi but much like a fantasy book it’s got a lot of new worlds/concepts all with complicated names and languages. Found myself losing track of who’s who and ultimately stopped caring.
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
i do not get the hype
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Three stars for plot, as well as ease and enjoyment of reading, four stars for the enduring relevancy of the subtext. (Waffling between whether I should give three or four stars, so I decided to average it out - but might come back and change it later.)
Most of this flew right over my head I'm guessing, but the parts that I understood were enjoyable. I found the societal structure (and the commentary on it) particularly interesting, though the narrator's interpretations are inaccurate, in my estimation. This seems (to me) to stem from his lack of knowledge on women, serving to highlight his close-mindedness due to his inexperience in a woman's body; unlike the planet he's visiting, they've all experienced femininity/womanhood and therefore have no need (or desire) to establish a hierarchical social structure.
He fails to realize that it's less gender that influences his attitude and far more socialization: the expectation that if you're really a man, you'll be xyz*. And because they see women as lesser, then of course if you aren't xyz, you feel inadequate, emasculated, feminine, and therefore lesser - despite xyz being a social value, and not something inherent and exclusive to men.
His character may or may not have developed and matured towards the end of the book, I honestly couldn't tell you. I was too wrapped up in the storyline by that point, and wasn't paying attention to any underlying message (not to mention the writing is hard for me to understand, being stupid).
There's a passage in the book that sums it up well:
Most of this flew right over my head I'm guessing, but the parts that I understood were enjoyable. I found the societal structure (and the commentary on it) particularly interesting, though the narrator's interpretations are inaccurate, in my estimation. This seems (to me) to stem from his lack of knowledge on women, serving to highlight his close-mindedness due to his inexperience in a woman's body; unlike the planet he's visiting, they've all experienced femininity/womanhood and therefore have no need (or desire) to establish a hierarchical social structure.
He fails to realize that it's less gender that influences his attitude and far more socialization: the expectation that if you're really a man, you'll be xyz*. And because they see women as lesser, then of course if you aren't xyz, you feel inadequate, emasculated, feminine, and therefore lesser - despite xyz being a social value, and not something inherent and exclusive to men.
His character may or may not have developed and matured towards the end of the book, I honestly couldn't tell you. I was too wrapped up in the storyline by that point, and wasn't paying attention to any underlying message (not to mention the writing is hard for me to understand, being stupid).
There's a passage in the book that sums it up well:
Consider: Anyone can turn his hand to anything. [I]ts psychological effects are incalculable. The fact that everyone [...] is liable to be "tied down to childbearing," implies that no one is quite so thoroughly "tied down" here as women elsewhere are likely to be - psychologically or physically. Burden and privilege are shared out pretty equally; everybody has the same risk to run or choice to make. Therefore nobody here is quite so free as a free male anywhere else.
and:
You cannot and must not do what a bisexual naturally does, which is to cast him in the role of Man or Woman, while adopting towards him a corresponding role dependent on your expectations of the patterned or possible interactions between persons of the same or opposite sex. Our entire pattern of socio-sexual interaction is nonexistent here. They cannot play the game. They do not see one another as men or women. [On this planet] one is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.
Most of his observations and suppositions are sexist, if not misogynistic, which makes for interesting commentary on both their [fictional] society and our [nonfictional] society today. While always changing, an aspect of society that persists is a lack of understanding** extended to women, and I find that particularly fascinating.
There are also multiple remarks in this book that are still applicable to the 21st century, some of which reminded me of the current administration (and, I'm sure, others that will inevitably come after him):
Argaven was not sane; the sinister incoherence of his mind darkened the mood of his capital; he fed on fear. All the good of his reign had been done by his ministers.
[He] spoke on the radio a good deal. Estraven when in power had never done so, and it was not in the Karhidish vein: their government was not a public performance, normally; it was covert and indirect. Tibe, however, orated.
His speeches were long and loud: praises of Karhide, disparagements of Orgoreyn, vilifications of "disloyal factions," discussions of the "integrity of the Kingdom's borders," [...] all in a ranting, canting, emotional tone that went shrill with vituperation or adulation. He talked much about pride of country and love of the parentland.
He wished to rouse emotions of a more elemental, uncontrollable kind. [...] He wanted his hearers to be frightened and angry. His themes were not pride and love at all, though he used the words perpetually; as he used them they meant self-praise and hate.
[T]he way to make [the country stable and unified] was not by sparking her pride, or building up her trade, or improving her roads, farms, colleges, and so on; none of that; that's all civilization, veneer, and Tibe dismissed it with scorn. He was after something surer, the sure, quick, and lasting way to make people into a nation: war.
For the practical and far-reaching applicability of her book, I applaud Ms. Le Guin and add one star to my otherwise three-star review.
-
*xyz being anything that isn't specific to either gender, and can be performed or reflected by both.
**or even an interest in understanding.
reflective
tense
medium-paced