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A review by yevolem
The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.0
These stories are about sex, relationships, and society.
Please read Paradises Lost, the story at the end. Thank you.
Although this says Hainish Cycle #9 it can be read on its own without having read anything else.
Coming of Age in Karhide (1995)
On the planet Gethen, the setting of The Left of Hand Darkness, the people are sequentially hermaphroditic. This story provides details about kemmerhouses, which is where many orgies occur when they're in their monthly heat. The protagonist is anxious about having reached the age where it's time for their first visit.
Enjoyable
The Matter of Seggri (1994)
Women outnumber men 16:1 and control everything. Men are relegated to their castles and are only allowed out to visit fuckeries. In the fuckeries men are paid by women in the hopes they will be impregnated. Men are not allowed to do anything else, as it is believed that education would drain the blood from their testicles to their brain and they would become impotent. A man who cannot impregnate a woman is a living sex toy. A man is for sex only, as love can only happen between two women. Adult men having sex with other adult men is disallowed.
Highly Enjoyable
Unchosen Love (1994)
On Planet O marriages are between four people, two men and women from each part of their bipartite society. They're all married to each other, four pairs, two heterosexual and two homosexual. All four must be in a marriage for it to be valid, though others can be added on. The protagonist wants to marry his lover, but has no feelings for the other pair.
Enjoyable
Mountain Ways (1996)
This is also Planet O. Everyone is expected to be bisexual for the marriages to work properly and it's strongly frowned upon to be exclusively hetero or homo sexual. A homosexual and heterosexual pair plot to trick everyone and marry each other with no intention of being anything more than monogamous and having sex with only their preferred partner which goes against everything their religion and society stand for.
Enjoyable
Solitude (1994)
While I am someone who enjoys solitude, the version they practice in this anarcho-primitivist society would be intolerable, if only because of the societal limitations it imposes. The women and children live near each other and each adult man lives by himself in his claimed territory that he must constantly defend for breeding privileges, because without a static location however will the women know where to find him?
Ok
Old Music and the Slave Women (1999)
Old Music is one of his names, but he primarily goes by Esdan. A civil war over slavery is underway and he's bored because he's been in the embassy for far too long with nothing to do. So, he leaves its sanctity and quickly discovers the difference between imagined and actual experience. It doesn't go well for him. The story explores the limitations of both pacifism/non-intervention, the Rwandan Genocide was contemporaneous, and violent revolution, which seems prescient about the outcome of the Arab Spring. This story also seems to be in part a commentary on Iran at the time, though it's still relevant today. It's also strongly against the US "liberating" and "bringing democracy" to other countries.
Enjoyable
The Birthday of the World (2000)
Brother-sister marriage, civil war, and aliens.
Meh
Paradises Lost (2002)
This standalone novella is about the the voyage of a 200 year generation ship and the daily lives of its people. I wasn't initially impressed, but by the end I was astonished. It's one of the best novellas I've ever read. Many of the novellas I've read aren't shelved in my profile because they're in magazines, collections, or anthologies. I'm certain that if I read all of Le Guin's work this would be among the best. This needs to be read.
Highly Enjoyable
Please read Paradises Lost, the story at the end. Thank you.
Although this says Hainish Cycle #9 it can be read on its own without having read anything else.
Coming of Age in Karhide (1995)
On the planet Gethen, the setting of The Left of Hand Darkness, the people are sequentially hermaphroditic. This story provides details about kemmerhouses, which is where many orgies occur when they're in their monthly heat. The protagonist is anxious about having reached the age where it's time for their first visit.
Enjoyable
The Matter of Seggri (1994)
Women outnumber men 16:1 and control everything. Men are relegated to their castles and are only allowed out to visit fuckeries. In the fuckeries men are paid by women in the hopes they will be impregnated. Men are not allowed to do anything else, as it is believed that education would drain the blood from their testicles to their brain and they would become impotent. A man who cannot impregnate a woman is a living sex toy. A man is for sex only, as love can only happen between two women. Adult men having sex with other adult men is disallowed.
Highly Enjoyable
Unchosen Love (1994)
On Planet O marriages are between four people, two men and women from each part of their bipartite society. They're all married to each other, four pairs, two heterosexual and two homosexual. All four must be in a marriage for it to be valid, though others can be added on. The protagonist wants to marry his lover, but has no feelings for the other pair.
Enjoyable
Mountain Ways (1996)
This is also Planet O. Everyone is expected to be bisexual for the marriages to work properly and it's strongly frowned upon to be exclusively hetero or homo sexual. A homosexual and heterosexual pair plot to trick everyone and marry each other with no intention of being anything more than monogamous and having sex with only their preferred partner which goes against everything their religion and society stand for.
Enjoyable
Solitude (1994)
While I am someone who enjoys solitude, the version they practice in this anarcho-primitivist society would be intolerable, if only because of the societal limitations it imposes. The women and children live near each other and each adult man lives by himself in his claimed territory that he must constantly defend for breeding privileges, because without a static location however will the women know where to find him?
Ok
Old Music and the Slave Women (1999)
Old Music is one of his names, but he primarily goes by Esdan. A civil war over slavery is underway and he's bored because he's been in the embassy for far too long with nothing to do. So, he leaves its sanctity and quickly discovers the difference between imagined and actual experience. It doesn't go well for him. The story explores the limitations of both pacifism/non-intervention, the Rwandan Genocide was contemporaneous, and violent revolution, which seems prescient about the outcome of the Arab Spring. This story also seems to be in part a commentary on Iran at the time, though it's still relevant today. It's also strongly against the US "liberating" and "bringing democracy" to other countries.
Enjoyable
The Birthday of the World (2000)
Brother-sister marriage, civil war, and aliens.
Meh
Paradises Lost (2002)
This standalone novella is about the the voyage of a 200 year generation ship and the daily lives of its people. I wasn't initially impressed, but by the end I was astonished. It's one of the best novellas I've ever read. Many of the novellas I've read aren't shelved in my profile because they're in magazines, collections, or anthologies. I'm certain that if I read all of Le Guin's work this would be among the best. This needs to be read.
Highly Enjoyable