Bir Le Guin kitabından bekleyeceğiniz üzere çok güzeldi. Özellikle "Newton'un Uykusu" -bir Black Mirror bölümü dahi çıkar bu öyküden- ve "Bir Başka Masal ya da İçdeniz Balıkçısı" -Omelas ile beraber okuduğum en iyi Le Guin öyküsü- isimli öyküler şimdiye kadar okuduğum öyküler içerisinde en iyiler listesine rahatlıkla girerler. Ursula K. Le Guin'in öldüğünü öğrenince bu kitabı okumaya başlamıştım ve şimdi bitirince diyebiliyorum ki Le Guin gerçekten de yazdıklarıyla her daim bizi etkileyecek, bizimle beraber olmaya devam edecek. Yoksa İçdeniz Balıkçısı isimli öyküyü günlerce hatırlayacak olmamı, dönüp dolaşıp tekrar okuyacak olmamı başka nasıl açıklayabiliriz ki?

Containing seven stories of Hain written in the early 90s, these are explorations of science fiction concepts alongside social or anthropological studies. The first three stories, 'The Shobies' Story', 'Dancing to Gardam' and 'A Fisherman of the Inland Sea' all deal with what Le Guin calls 'cherting': the ability to travel instantaneously across space (like the wrinkle in L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time). The first two are "harder" SF than Le Guin usually writes, with a focus on understanding cherting and what it might mean for our consciousness to go from one place to another in an instant. 'A Fisherman of the Inland Sea', the longest of the three, gives a more considered character study, set on the planet O, from which Hideo travels light-years away to study, and comes to regret it. This is an atmospheric, moving story, that untangles a number of different SF concepts.

The following two stories also take place on O, 'Unchosen Love' and 'Mountain Ways', dealing with Le Guin's four-way marriage system, and how these marriages work over time and from different perspectives. These stories are playful and atmospheric, and also function as a study of gender, and the arbitrary way in which we determine what gender means. They also embrace homosexual love in a radical and gentle way, which would have seemed much more unusual when they were published but now makes them feel very modern. The final two stories in the collection, 'The Matter of Seggri' and 'Solitude' are both social studies. 'Seggri' is an unabashedly feminist story, set on a world in which women outnumber men 16:1, and in which men have absolutely no power and no opportunities. This reimagining of gender inequality demonstrates the ways in which misogyny has damaged our societies, and also functions as a powerful, emotional and devastating story about injustice. It's one of her best and most memorable: highly recommended. 'Solitude' is an entirely different kind of story, set on a world of introverts, in which speech is restricted and relationships are kept at a remove. Its main character is from Hain and is brought to the planet as part of an anthropological study, but finds she cannot leave because she has embraced the principles of silence and meditation too deeply. A lovely piece of escapism.

A very interesting collection, demonstrating Le Guin's range of interests as well as her sensitivity and radical thought.

Best: The Shobies' Story, Dancing to Ganam, A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
Worst: The Ascent of the North Face

This collection didn't set me on fire the way Four Ways to Forgiveness did--but then, that was composed of interconnected novellas, and this was a grab bag, many of which I simply didn't like.

The star of the show is definitely the titular novella, which I enjoyed--a story combining second-chance romance, alien anthropology, time travel, and a smidgen of Japanese culture. It's rare in the Hainish Cycle works that Terra gets more than a mention, so having a Terran character at all is fantastic, and working a bit of her home country into the narrative as the fable, which the novella is an inventive future-retelling of, was brilliant.

This book was really close to being a 4 star read for me, but ultimately, it felt like something was lacking. I didn't connect with the characters, and some of the stories were a bit too weird for my taste. I read some strange books and short stories, but this was next-level weirdness. The made-up names were so bizarre they were hard to remember, and that often made it difficult to follow what was going on in the story.

The pacing was languid- it felt like you were continually waiting for something to happen, though there wasn't much plot to move the stories along. The slow pace almost gave it a nostalgic feel, since it was so sleepy.

All in all, an interesting collection. I really enjoyed a handful of the stories, while the other ones just missed the mark. I'm glad I gave Le Guin a try, but I may end up sticking with [a:Margaret Atwood|3472|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282859073p2/3472.jpg] when I reach for a book in this genre again.

My 3rd UKLG book! Hurrah!

The stories I liked most in this collection we're:

- "The Rock That Changed Things" (a thoughtful little throwing-off-ones-oppressors type story)
- The three churten theory stories: "The Shobies' Story," "Dancing to Ganam," and "Another Story/A Fisherman of the Inland Sea."

The last story – the one that gave this book its title – was just... man. Stirring, human, thought-provoking. Like all her stories, but this one stood out to me the most.

The last story also illustrated just how weird her "churten theory" technology is, and I'm feeling quite glad such a thing doesn't exist, and hoping no one ever invents it, because I was noping out quite a bit there. Too weirdddd. Too disconcertingly paradoxical.

Perhaps it's better that humans travel in more natural ways. But then again, as this story so poetically and emotionally demonstrates, that creates all sorts of trouble for space travel and its incomprehensible distances.

See what I mean... this is good stuff to think about.

dude... the reading slump this put me in... short stories should...not be connected to each other...because if i hate one... i want to be able to move on.... im not really a sci fi fan though so not sure what i expected going into this. but guin's intro really did well to make me appreciate its merits