You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
fairymodmother 's review for:
Rocannon's World
by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.