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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Shit this book was good
This book was short but dense, informative, and soul-crushing. I have a highlight on nearly every page. I would describe this as a sci-fi / speculative fiction about climate change and colonialism.
I don’t have much else to say besides that which has been said many times before: Ursula K Le Guin is masterful. She is a genius in storytelling and philosophy, in making observations about the world and translating those observations into tales that demand your attention. Her writing feels almost uncanny valley at times due to its brevity and bluntness, but the messaging cuts through like a knife. Highly re-readable, and, though it was published in 1972, still ever relevant today.
This book was short but dense, informative, and soul-crushing. I have a highlight on nearly every page. I would describe this as a sci-fi / speculative fiction about climate change and colonialism.
I don’t have much else to say besides that which has been said many times before: Ursula K Le Guin is masterful. She is a genius in storytelling and philosophy, in making observations about the world and translating those observations into tales that demand your attention. Her writing feels almost uncanny valley at times due to its brevity and bluntness, but the messaging cuts through like a knife. Highly re-readable, and, though it was published in 1972, still ever relevant today.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this is one of the most satisfying sci-fi stories i’ve read, sharp and beautiful writing, meaningful (if a little overt) themes, hopeful arc of indigenous resistance. very clear parallels to US colonial wars plus lots of interesting ideas about madness/insanity, what it can look like to take action as a member of an oppressive force, and of course death. i loved watching Davidson’s downfall.
dark
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I hate this book because its perfect. Rarely does something come along and blow me out of the water in less than 200 pages. Normally books I consider "perfect" are long, slow, maybe even tedious epics like Ulysses or The Recognitions. Books that will reference a potato, once, 300 pages ago and not forgive you for forgetting the main character indeed has a shriveled up potato in his pocket.
Instead, in less than 200 pages Ursula swiftly, almost all too briefly, explores a species of pacifist humanoids that become something altogether new when exposed to the ruthless violence of humans. Many people have compared Avatar to this book, and those people miss the point of both pieces of media. Avatar is a relatively straight forward anti-colonialism tale, a story of a soldier fetishing the local "noble savage." The Word for World is Forest asks "who or what is left of group that has been permanently altered by violence." Certainly colonialism is an angle in the story, one worth exploring, but its not as rich as the characters and the actual people effected within the story and how they have changed by the end.
Instead, in less than 200 pages Ursula swiftly, almost all too briefly, explores a species of pacifist humanoids that become something altogether new when exposed to the ruthless violence of humans. Many people have compared Avatar to this book, and those people miss the point of both pieces of media. Avatar is a relatively straight forward anti-colonialism tale, a story of a soldier fetishing the local "noble savage." The Word for World is Forest asks "who or what is left of group that has been permanently altered by violence." Certainly colonialism is an angle in the story, one worth exploring, but its not as rich as the characters and the actual people effected within the story and how they have changed by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Xenophobia, Murder, War
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Le Guin is always worth reading, but this was just a bit too polemical for me. You can tell she was angry when she wrote this in 1972 - she's drawing on the Vietnam War (lots of fire bombing of forests) to tell a tale of an indigenous people who fight back against the colonists who have enslaved them and are destroying their forested lands.
Something I was impressed by is the way she presented us with a lantern-jawed swaggering protagonist in the first chapter who in any other 1970s sci-fi novel would be our hero/antihero. But who through the course of the book becomes an outright villian.
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes