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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
La reseña completa en http://inthenevernever.blogspot.com/2023/01/el-mundo-de-rocannon-de-ursula-k-le-guin.html
«¿Cómo distinguir la leyenda de la realidad en estos mundos que se encuentran a tantos años luz de distancia? Planetas sin nombre, a los que sus habitantes llaman simplemente El Mundo, planetas sin historia donde del pasado se ocupan tan solo los mitos y el viajero que regresa descubre que sus actos de pocos años atrás se han convertido en gestos de un dios».
No sé cómo lo hacen ustedes, pero yo siempre me guardo una lectura especial para comenzar el año. Mi 2023 empezó con una historia de una de mis autoras favoritas. O siendo más específica, con la primera novela que publicó en 1966, recuperada ahora en la biblioteca de autor que edita Minotauro con la traducción de Rafael Marín. Se trata de El mundo de Rocannon, de Ursula K. Le Guin. El primer libro del Ciclo de Hainish, esa serie de ciencia ficción en la que la autora estadounidense ambientó muchas de sus novelas (y que también se conocen como Ekumen, el nombre de la confederación galáctica de mundos habitados por seres humanos que vamos a ir descubriendo libro a libro).
«¿Cómo distinguir la leyenda de la realidad en estos mundos que se encuentran a tantos años luz de distancia? Planetas sin nombre, a los que sus habitantes llaman simplemente El Mundo, planetas sin historia donde del pasado se ocupan tan solo los mitos y el viajero que regresa descubre que sus actos de pocos años atrás se han convertido en gestos de un dios».
No sé cómo lo hacen ustedes, pero yo siempre me guardo una lectura especial para comenzar el año. Mi 2023 empezó con una historia de una de mis autoras favoritas. O siendo más específica, con la primera novela que publicó en 1966, recuperada ahora en la biblioteca de autor que edita Minotauro con la traducción de Rafael Marín. Se trata de El mundo de Rocannon, de Ursula K. Le Guin. El primer libro del Ciclo de Hainish, esa serie de ciencia ficción en la que la autora estadounidense ambientó muchas de sus novelas (y que también se conocen como Ekumen, el nombre de la confederación galáctica de mundos habitados por seres humanos que vamos a ir descubriendo libro a libro).
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The storyline of this book, which mixes in a heavy dose of fantasy, is not that complex. It does hint again and again to a vast and epic-rich universe surrounding it, both in space and time.
Makes me want to read the next book of the series.
Makes me want to read the next book of the series.
adventurous
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
hat sich perfekt zwischen graeber und interstellar eingefügt. ansonsten fand ich’s zwar gut und schnell zu lesen, so richtig mitgerissen hat mich aber leider nichts. dafür war’s vielleicht einfach auch zu viel handlung auf zu wenigen seiten.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This leans more in the direction of fantasy compared to other Hainish cycle books. As always, I adore Le Guins worldbuilding. The story itself carries less weight and meaning for me (it is an enjoyable adventure, however). There is also much less focus on politics and outer-world relationships than in other books (aside from the overall premise).
I really liked the diversity and exploration of races on the planet. I especially liked the notion of the half-people and the danger of only remembering the good. Another really interesting aspect was the ethnologists bias when he assumed that a race with very elaborate/modern architecture must be “civilized” and “good” (whatever civilized means though). The pacing of the story went from kinda slow/medium in the beginning to quite fast in the end.
I really liked the diversity and exploration of races on the planet. I especially liked the notion of the half-people and the danger of only remembering the good. Another really interesting aspect was the ethnologists bias when he assumed that a race with very elaborate/modern architecture must be “civilized” and “good” (whatever civilized means though). The pacing of the story went from kinda slow/medium in the beginning to quite fast in the end.
I believe this was le Guin's first published novel, and I think it shows - it shares some themes with later novels, but the action is a bit jerky and occasionally confusing. (Also, the front cover makes it look a little bit too Masters of the Universe.) Nonetheless, it's the first of the Hainish cycle which I generally adore, and I did enjoy it.
The book opens with the tale of Semley, who marries away from her family and comforts into an ancient but impoverished noble family. She determines to find an ancient necklace of the family, to restore some honour to them, and in doing so must have dealings with another, humanoid, race on her planet. To find the necklace they take her on a great adventure - to another world, although she doesn't realise it - but her return is met with grief.
All of this is a prologue, and could easily pass as a short story in itself. Semley reminded me somewhat of Arwen, from LOTR, of what a continuation of Arwen's story could have been. There's certainly a LOTR/Celtic mythology feel to the different humanoid races on this world, and some of their interactions.
The rest of the story is about Rocannon, one of the people Semley met on her journey, and who is now directing an Ethnographic Survey on her home planet, many years later. Things go badly however when his ship is destroyed by unknown assailants, and all of a sudden he's stuck on (to him) an exceedingly backward planet that might just have become the front line in a war the League has been anticipating for some time. He therefore has to deal with potential baddies being on this world as well as being cut off from all contact with his own people. This is, naturally, a difficult position to be in.
There's action, there's angst, there's discoveries about some of the truths about the different humanoid races on the planet. Rocannon learns much about himself, as a leader and as a stranger and, most humbly, as a frail human who can actually learn things from seemingly backwards people.
It's not as disturbing and earth-shattering as something like The Word for World is Forest, and I can imagine that an older le Guin might have added some more meaty stuff about gender or colonisation into the mix, which are just barely hinted at here. Still, like I said it's an enjoyable enough story, and it's largely very well written - there's some beautiful prose. Interestingly this is one of the differences I noticed; this novel feels a bit more... poetic, perhaps, than many of her later novels, which while beautiful tend (to my mind) a bit more towards the sparse.
The book opens with the tale of Semley, who marries away from her family and comforts into an ancient but impoverished noble family. She determines to find an ancient necklace of the family, to restore some honour to them, and in doing so must have dealings with another, humanoid, race on her planet. To find the necklace they take her on a great adventure - to another world, although she doesn't realise it - but her return is met with grief.
All of this is a prologue, and could easily pass as a short story in itself. Semley reminded me somewhat of Arwen, from LOTR, of what a continuation of Arwen's story could have been. There's certainly a LOTR/Celtic mythology feel to the different humanoid races on this world, and some of their interactions.
The rest of the story is about Rocannon, one of the people Semley met on her journey, and who is now directing an Ethnographic Survey on her home planet, many years later. Things go badly however when his ship is destroyed by unknown assailants, and all of a sudden he's stuck on (to him) an exceedingly backward planet that might just have become the front line in a war the League has been anticipating for some time. He therefore has to deal with potential baddies being on this world as well as being cut off from all contact with his own people. This is, naturally, a difficult position to be in.
There's action, there's angst, there's discoveries about some of the truths about the different humanoid races on the planet. Rocannon learns much about himself, as a leader and as a stranger and, most humbly, as a frail human who can actually learn things from seemingly backwards people.
It's not as disturbing and earth-shattering as something like The Word for World is Forest, and I can imagine that an older le Guin might have added some more meaty stuff about gender or colonisation into the mix, which are just barely hinted at here. Still, like I said it's an enjoyable enough story, and it's largely very well written - there's some beautiful prose. Interestingly this is one of the differences I noticed; this novel feels a bit more... poetic, perhaps, than many of her later novels, which while beautiful tend (to my mind) a bit more towards the sparse.
Interesting to see this early Le Guin. In it I hear her words so much more loudly than in some of her later works. It's sort of like this book has a stronger accent. This is an interesting blend of all sorts of things Le Guin seems to have spent her career pondering and the sort of action adventure story so popular in the '60s.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-The Le Guin-iness of it. Even though I would say this is not her most polished work, it has all the seeds of what I have come to associate with her--the poetry of the words, the inability to have a character show up "on stage" without giving us something to see in them and connect with.
-The seeds of later ideas. I feel a lot of Ged in this, and the ideas that became Wizard of Earthsea. Of course it's the first Hainish novel, too, so there's a lot of background into how all of that business got started.
-The genre-bending elements. This is a classic example of two great tastes that taste great together. Like scifi? Awesome, we've got space ships and laser guns and alien species and telepathy! Like fantasy? Cool, the aliens are basically analogs for elves, dwarves, gnomes, fairies and gryphons!
-Fast paced. There's always fights and ladies and mystical beings just dropping out of the sky!
Things that weren't my favorite:
-Scifi travelogue. This felt very Andre Norton-y to me. I liked it more because it's still got Le Guin's trademark style, but it is very much that 60's "explorer man goes to unknown world;has adventures" sort of story that's just...I dunno. I haven't ever felt a strong appeal for it.
-A bit trope-y. While this idea was likely a bit fresher then, it's stale now, and the concepts of the races and so on are dated. Not as problematically as many of her peers, but still, it's hard to rekindle that feeling of finding a new idea for the first time, and this wasn't my favorite of its sort.
It's still a strong story and a quick one. I definitely recommend this for completion's sake and also as an enjoyable jaunt into a neat world with a brilliant wordsmith as our guide.
Note on the audio: It was decent but make sure you can speed it up because this guy talks sloooowly.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Spoiler
loss of loved one, loss of child, violence/war.Things to love:
-The Le Guin-iness of it. Even though I would say this is not her most polished work, it has all the seeds of what I have come to associate with her--the poetry of the words, the inability to have a character show up "on stage" without giving us something to see in them and connect with.
-The seeds of later ideas. I feel a lot of Ged in this, and the ideas that became Wizard of Earthsea. Of course it's the first Hainish novel, too, so there's a lot of background into how all of that business got started.
-The genre-bending elements. This is a classic example of two great tastes that taste great together. Like scifi? Awesome, we've got space ships and laser guns and alien species and telepathy! Like fantasy? Cool, the aliens are basically analogs for elves, dwarves, gnomes, fairies and gryphons!
-Fast paced. There's always fights and ladies and mystical beings just dropping out of the sky!
Things that weren't my favorite:
-Scifi travelogue. This felt very Andre Norton-y to me. I liked it more because it's still got Le Guin's trademark style, but it is very much that 60's "explorer man goes to unknown world;has adventures" sort of story that's just...I dunno. I haven't ever felt a strong appeal for it.
-A bit trope-y. While this idea was likely a bit fresher then, it's stale now, and the concepts of the races and so on are dated. Not as problematically as many of her peers, but still, it's hard to rekindle that feeling of finding a new idea for the first time, and this wasn't my favorite of its sort.
It's still a strong story and a quick one. I definitely recommend this for completion's sake and also as an enjoyable jaunt into a neat world with a brilliant wordsmith as our guide.
Note on the audio: It was decent but make sure you can speed it up because this guy talks sloooowly.
(3.25/5) Pretty solid for a first novel, albeit a little short. I really enjoyed how she blended tropes from both fantasy and sci-fi to create a unique spin on the classic “epic high fantasy quest” story. The ending felt very rushed and anti-climactic, which was disappointing, but I still found the journey of Rocannon and his crew across Formalhaut II/Rokanon to be incredibly well-written and engaging.