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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Discursive anarchist theory and discourse 'disguised' as an excellent science fiction novel. I kept trying to get the various leftist sociopolitical groups I was involved with during my teenage years and twenties to read this novel instead of yet another theory work but was never successful.
I love Le Guin as an extremely talented author, but this book is more important to me for what it describes. It asks us to consider how an anarchist utopia (one primarily based on Murray Bookchin's seminal anarchist work 'Post-Scarcity Anarchism' as well as the then-emerging current of postmodern feminism and race, gender and sexual identity politics) would continue to function after decades of consensus-based direct democracy. Unsurprisingly, it is starting to resemble the society it sought to rebel against over two hundred years prior, and the protagonist Shevek finds themselves caught between various currents of political thought.
What makes this one of my favorite works of fiction is the fact that Le Guin discusses the various issues that anarchists (and truthfully any significant political movement) should constantly be asking themselves, which is whether or not an idealized form of socity is possible and whether that form can be dynamic and robust enough to deal with new ideas and the ability to implement them.
I first read this back in '01 but I have reread it a couple times since then.
I love Le Guin as an extremely talented author, but this book is more important to me for what it describes. It asks us to consider how an anarchist utopia (one primarily based on Murray Bookchin's seminal anarchist work 'Post-Scarcity Anarchism' as well as the then-emerging current of postmodern feminism and race, gender and sexual identity politics) would continue to function after decades of consensus-based direct democracy. Unsurprisingly, it is starting to resemble the society it sought to rebel against over two hundred years prior, and the protagonist Shevek finds themselves caught between various currents of political thought.
What makes this one of my favorite works of fiction is the fact that Le Guin discusses the various issues that anarchists (and truthfully any significant political movement) should constantly be asking themselves, which is whether or not an idealized form of socity is possible and whether that form can be dynamic and robust enough to deal with new ideas and the ability to implement them.
I first read this back in '01 but I have reread it a couple times since then.
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Highly recommend. A challenging but extremely relevant book. Must read for those puzzling over political situation of 2022.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
My recollection, from reading this book years ago, was that it was one of the best books I had ever read. Having just reread it, I still feel the same. This is a beautiful, thoughtful, difficult, honest and hopeful book. I don’t know that I have ever encountered a better examination of freedom, and of responsibility.
Incredibly engaging and well written, the world building done by Le Guin is unmatched
4! maybe even 4.5. i really really really liked this, and im glad i read this as my first le guin book since im in my sci fi phase, instead of forcing myself to read earthsea.
i dont know what to say to really do this book justice. it was my first “utopic” sci fi. reading about anarres was so fascinating. the flaws present in that society make it all the more realistic which as someone with far left leanings-though not quite anarchist-it really did reignite something inside me. so many wonderful and heartbreaking insights in this book.
“They say there is nothing new under the sun. But if each life is not new, each single life, then why are we born?”
“Loyalty, which asserts the continuity of
past and future, binding time into a whole, is the root of human strength; there is no good to be done without it…The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts.”
“If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.”
“He had always feared that this would happen,
more than he had ever feared death. To die is to lose the self and rejoin the rest. He had kept himself, and lost the rest.”
Etc.
The whole thing is just a thoughtful study of humanity and freedom and sacrifice and the effects of the society one grows up in and I really recommend.
i dont know what to say to really do this book justice. it was my first “utopic” sci fi. reading about anarres was so fascinating. the flaws present in that society make it all the more realistic which as someone with far left leanings-though not quite anarchist-it really did reignite something inside me. so many wonderful and heartbreaking insights in this book.
“They say there is nothing new under the sun. But if each life is not new, each single life, then why are we born?”
“Loyalty, which asserts the continuity of
past and future, binding time into a whole, is the root of human strength; there is no good to be done without it…The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts.”
“If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.”
“He had always feared that this would happen,
more than he had ever feared death. To die is to lose the self and rejoin the rest. He had kept himself, and lost the rest.”
Etc.
The whole thing is just a thoughtful study of humanity and freedom and sacrifice and the effects of the society one grows up in and I really recommend.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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:
Complicated
I love the worlds Le Guin has created here, such a dark and yet hopeful reflection and satire of our world. It’s exactly what I want from this kind of Sci-Fi and in general one of her strengths. There are so many quotable little comments and observations and the framework of going through the main character’s life in two different time periods, slowly realising how things came to be works great and it has a satisfying ending.
