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leifalreadyexists 's review for:
Rocannon's World
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A brilliant science-fiction novella crafted in the mold shared by other writers from the late 1960s such as Jack Vance - which is to say, traditionally-minded and masculinist, and diplomatically focused on the work of colonial imagination - but with an explosively thoughtful and exquisitely tragic transformation that begins to make that space more hospitable. Le Guin's genius lies in her ability to turn the ethnographic gaze on tired, careworn tropes that characterize the remains of the epic's legacy to adventure stories. In doing so, she enlivens them, and finds the pathos in heroism, the joy in communion, and the sweet sadness of achievement's cost.
Here, Rocannon the explorer finds that the work of being an outsider lies in understanding others, even and especially the enemies of his people, and that this is both desirous and life-changing. In the background there is a war - 1960s, remember - and this forms the major dramatic pinnacle of the story. But along the way, as Rocannon journeys with a slowly changing group of planet-side natives drawn from the diversity of species on the planet, the real joys and terrors are found in dramatic rescues, unfortunate turns, and the usual fare of science fiction adventure. Special mention must go to the prologue, which is written as an elegant myth that foregrounds the body of the story the way a sketch might outmaster in pure beauty the painting that follows it.
Le Guin.
Here, Rocannon the explorer finds that the work of being an outsider lies in understanding others, even and especially the enemies of his people, and that this is both desirous and life-changing. In the background there is a war - 1960s, remember - and this forms the major dramatic pinnacle of the story. But along the way, as Rocannon journeys with a slowly changing group of planet-side natives drawn from the diversity of species on the planet, the real joys and terrors are found in dramatic rescues, unfortunate turns, and the usual fare of science fiction adventure. Special mention must go to the prologue, which is written as an elegant myth that foregrounds the body of the story the way a sketch might outmaster in pure beauty the painting that follows it.
Le Guin.