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A review by iam
The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
dark
informative
reflective
sad
3.5
Impactful Sci-Fi novella about imperialism, colonialism, and the price of resistance.
Content warnings include: violence, murder, colonialism, slavery, rape, torture, racism.
As a SciFi book, this lacked a bit of depth to me. I wanted more about the alien, the Athshean, culture, and more direct action from the characters, rather than hearing about what happens second hand from the character narrating about it after the fact. This created a bit of separation for me and I didn't entirely get as emotionally invested as I could have.
On the other hand, this was still impactful and heavy hitting, emotionally, plus I guess with at least one character I was glad to feel a bit more removed from him.
As a social commentary, specifically about the Vietnam war, this was very effective. Particularly its depiction of how the act of resistance, while entire right and justified, forever changes those resisting, and not solely in a good way. It's something I haven't come this blatant and centrally in media before, and at least to me it definitely feels relevant.
There were three POV characters: Selver, one of the oppressed Athsheans who takes and leads the first steps of violent resistance against his kinds' peaceful nature. Lyubov, a yuman scientist who tries to learn as much as possible about the Athsheans and sympathises with them. And Davidson, a Colonel who is pretty much the posterchild for toxic masculinity, and such a vile person that being in his head, following his reasonings and justifications, made me feel disgusting.
I think what I enjoyed most was the relationship (I hesitate to call it friendship) between Selver and Lyubov. Unfortunately their interactions came up pretty late in the book, and I think that did it a disservice. There also generally was very little dialogue - most of the book is told in general, a character describing or musing over things that have already happened, rather than directly being in the middle of events.
This aided in worldbuilding, though not in creating engagement, and the worldbuilding was well done, if very subtle. We only see the world through the characters' eyes, and their prejudices and what the find important, which isn't always what may be important to the reader, or at least for me. As such I am sure I missed some things here and there, though.
There are two forewords, and those definitely help with interpreting the story. I don't engage much with classical or social commentary, so I appreciated them, though I would have preferred it more to read after reading the book (as it was I just read them again after).
Content warnings include: violence, murder, colonialism, slavery, rape, torture, racism.
As a SciFi book, this lacked a bit of depth to me. I wanted more about the alien, the Athshean, culture, and more direct action from the characters, rather than hearing about what happens second hand from the character narrating about it after the fact. This created a bit of separation for me and I didn't entirely get as emotionally invested as I could have.
On the other hand, this was still impactful and heavy hitting, emotionally, plus I guess with at least one character I was glad to feel a bit more removed from him.
As a social commentary, specifically about the Vietnam war, this was very effective. Particularly its depiction of how the act of resistance, while entire right and justified, forever changes those resisting, and not solely in a good way. It's something I haven't come this blatant and centrally in media before, and at least to me it definitely feels relevant.
There were three POV characters: Selver, one of the oppressed Athsheans who takes and leads the first steps of violent resistance against his kinds' peaceful nature. Lyubov, a yuman scientist who tries to learn as much as possible about the Athsheans and sympathises with them. And Davidson, a Colonel who is pretty much the posterchild for toxic masculinity, and such a vile person that being in his head, following his reasonings and justifications, made me feel disgusting.
I think what I enjoyed most was the relationship (I hesitate to call it friendship) between Selver and Lyubov. Unfortunately their interactions came up pretty late in the book, and I think that did it a disservice. There also generally was very little dialogue - most of the book is told in general, a character describing or musing over things that have already happened, rather than directly being in the middle of events.
This aided in worldbuilding, though not in creating engagement, and the worldbuilding was well done, if very subtle. We only see the world through the characters' eyes, and their prejudices and what the find important, which isn't always what may be important to the reader, or at least for me. As such I am sure I missed some things here and there, though.
There are two forewords, and those definitely help with interpreting the story. I don't engage much with classical or social commentary, so I appreciated them, though I would have preferred it more to read after reading the book (as it was I just read them again after).