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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(audiobook)
High(er) tech League of Worlds settlers must team up with more primitive natives to defeat an oncoming horde. Sounds fun! But the plot resolved in a deus ex machina. And I wasn't a big fan of the insta-love, which was a fairly major plot point. As a whole though, this book is much more of an anthropological exploration in the guise of sci fi than anything else, and I enjoyed it.
High(er) tech League of Worlds settlers must team up with more primitive natives to defeat an oncoming horde. Sounds fun! But the plot resolved in a deus ex machina. And I wasn't a big fan of the insta-love, which was a fairly major plot point. As a whole though, this book is much more of an anthropological exploration in the guise of sci fi than anything else, and I enjoyed it.
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I took a break from Brandon Sanderson's [b:The Final Empire|68428|The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437254833s/68428.jpg|66322], to read someting good and short.
It's amazing how much world building, upheaval and and change Leguin can pack into 4 hours of audiobook.
Sanderson is still stuck training his heroin in the elaborate magic system and I still don't care about this empire and know little about the world it spans.
It's amazing how much world building, upheaval and and change Leguin can pack into 4 hours of audiobook.
Sanderson is still stuck training his heroin in the elaborate magic system and I still don't care about this empire and know little about the world it spans.
From all Ursula K Le Guin's books that I've read, this one is the one with the most action and one of the easiest to read.
"She the stranger, the foreigner, of alien blood and mind, did not share his power or his conscience or his knowledge or his exile. She shared nothing at all with him, but had met him and joined with him wholly and immediately across the gulf of thier great difference: as if it were the difference, the alienness between them, that let them meet, and that in joining together, freed them."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, Planet of Exile
I'm making my way through Library of America's recent Le Guin Box Set. While the books don't have a specific order, I'm letting LOA chose the path. I guess that makes as much sense as anything. I have, however, already read [b:The Dispossessed|13651|The Dispossessed|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353467455s/13651.jpg|2684122], so I guess I'm not reading them in EXACT Library of America order. Oh, well.
'Planet of Exile' is the second book in LOA's [b:Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories, Vol. 1|33533490|Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Novels and Stories, Vol. 1|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1498885691s/33533490.jpg|54298767]. It was originally published in 1966, Le Guin's second published novel (I believe). I love the prose. I love the spareness. I love the empathy of Le Guin's writing. Themes of foreigness, language, exile, belonging, family, history, surge and bubble througout this series. There is always a bit of an imbalance too in these books (I mean so far, I've only read 3 now).
There are usually those who have more knowledge, history, and perspective than other tribes of men. It is how that chasm gets crossed, fused, and understood that is key. This is where (I believe) much of Le Guin's genius lies. Yes, she is creating her own SciFi universe, but she is doing way more. She is unlocking OUR universe. Ultimately this isn't a Hainish story, this is a story of mankind, told in the form of a fable or tale.
― Ursula K. Le Guin, Planet of Exile
I'm making my way through Library of America's recent Le Guin Box Set. While the books don't have a specific order, I'm letting LOA chose the path. I guess that makes as much sense as anything. I have, however, already read [b:The Dispossessed|13651|The Dispossessed|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353467455s/13651.jpg|2684122], so I guess I'm not reading them in EXACT Library of America order. Oh, well.
'Planet of Exile' is the second book in LOA's [b:Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels and Stories, Vol. 1|33533490|Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Novels and Stories, Vol. 1|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1498885691s/33533490.jpg|54298767]. It was originally published in 1966, Le Guin's second published novel (I believe). I love the prose. I love the spareness. I love the empathy of Le Guin's writing. Themes of foreigness, language, exile, belonging, family, history, surge and bubble througout this series. There is always a bit of an imbalance too in these books (I mean so far, I've only read 3 now).
There are usually those who have more knowledge, history, and perspective than other tribes of men. It is how that chasm gets crossed, fused, and understood that is key. This is where (I believe) much of Le Guin's genius lies. Yes, she is creating her own SciFi universe, but she is doing way more. She is unlocking OUR universe. Ultimately this isn't a Hainish story, this is a story of mankind, told in the form of a fable or tale.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think that it's interesting seeing these broad, intergalactic struggles happen throughout the Hainish books from the perspectives of the people who have little to nothing to do with creating them. The initial colonizers in the Planet of Exile came to the planet hundreds and hundreds of years prior, only to have been left stranded when the war the League was preparing for in the previous book destroyed their hope of returning home. And you see that the people feel so very lost, but it's also hard to forget that they were invaders, and that the distrust between them and those indigenous to the planet continues and (from brief mentions) was likely fueled by conflict. I think it poses some interesting questions about how long you must physically occupy a space before it becomes your home. When do the alien invaders accept and are accepted as living in this "new" world of theirs. Again, as an earlier work of Le Guin, I think some of the ideas could have been pursued further, the critique of colonialism could have been stronger, but overall it's a really interesting read. And it somehow made siege warfare vaguely interesting to me, so there's that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
This is a pretty forgettable little book, but it's also kind of amazing when you look at it compared to the other science fiction that was being published in 1966.
You can definitely tell that Le Guin was the child of anthropologists--all the things she pays attention to are so different than the laser gun/alien monster books that were a large part of the genre. Not to mention how the perspectives and actions of old people/women/other races are important and real.
You can definitely tell that Le Guin was the child of anthropologists--all the things she pays attention to are so different than the laser gun/alien monster books that were a large part of the genre. Not to mention how the perspectives and actions of old people/women/other races are important and real.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As with Rocannon's World; these Exile is so short! They seem more like studies for a story rather than an actual completed story itself. Make no mistake, LeGuin's Hainish Cycle is always worth the read (and in my case, the effort it took to track this book down)...but I must confess some disappointment to tear open the packaging, and find this book more the size of a pamphlet.