3 ms·

I had a similar experience -- I did enjoy it, and some parts genuinely moved me, but the last quarter or so was a bit of a slog. I will say that I enjoyed her

I had a similar experience -- I did enjoy it, and some parts genuinely moved me, but the last quarter or so was a bit of a slog. I will say that I enjoyed her short stories a lot more! They are fairly deep but entertaining, with great twists and surprises The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a good anthology -- in that one, I liked The Rule of Names, Semley's Necklace and The Word of Unbinding. In another anthology (I think), Direction of the Road -- phenomenal. Most of these can be found standalone online The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas I enjoyed less, but it's a short read and fairly important culturally. NK Jemisin, who wrote the Broken Earth trilogy (highly recommend it), wrote a sort of tongue-in-cheek short-story in response to it called The Ones Who Stay and Fight -- also worth reading.

franek 3y ago
I fully support the recommendation of Le Guin's short stories! Too bad they are easily forgotten over her novels. (I guess a novel, as a product, is easier to review and to advertise?) My favourite collection is "The Birthday of the World", especially the stories "Solitude" and "Paradises Lost". (Maybe skip "Old Music and the Slave Women". It builds on other books and is incomprehensible without them; or at least it was to me.)
- shiroiushi 3y ago
  I've only read two works from her, both short stories: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", and "The Building" (in the "Redshift" anthology). Both were absolutely terrible, shockingly so. I really don't get why people like her work so much.
timvdalen 3y ago
The whole reason I started the novel was because I listened to The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas on Levar Burton Reads. I'll give the other short fiction a shot, thanks for the suggestions!
joeblubaugh 3y ago
I had a really different response to that Jemisin story. If you’re going to invoke comparisons with another work, your work should be on the same level. For me it was a bit like Sharknado making a Jaws reference.

franek 3y ago

I fully support the recommendation of Le Guin's short stories! Too bad they are easily forgotten over her novels. (I guess a novel, as a product, is easier to review and to advertise?) My favourite collection is "The Birthday of the World", especially the stories "Solitude" and "Paradises Lost". (Maybe skip "Old Music and the Slave Women". It builds on other books and is incomprehensible without them; or at least it was to me.)

shiroiushi 3y ago
I've only read two works from her, both short stories: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", and "The Building" (in the "Redshift" anthology). Both were absolutely terrible, shockingly so. I really don't get why people like her work so much.

timvdalen 3y ago

The whole reason I started the novel was because I listened to The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas on Levar Burton Reads. I'll give the other short fiction a shot, thanks for the suggestions!

joeblubaugh 3y ago

I had a really different response to that Jemisin story. If you’re going to invoke comparisons with another work, your work should be on the same level. For me it was a bit like Sharknado making a Jaws reference.