Without proper exposition it just reads as a month python sketch, interesting none the less.

Merged review:

"The First Contact with the Gorgonids" 2 this one feels really out of place for me in the context of the rest of the book and just Ursula's work. She writes these alien cultures so distant to our own with so much humanity, I don't understand how these people feel like set dressing to me.
I'm going to seek out some more of her real world fiction.

"Newton's Sleep" 4 my favourite , wanted more if anything really interesting ideas just not a great ending , very out of character for Ursula, even when I don't love a book of hers the ending still usually feels like a perfect fit.

"The Ascent of the North Face" 2 not enough exposition to understand who our explorers are or what they are.

"The Rock That Changed Things" 5 interesting idea simply explained.

"The Kerastion" 3 just fine.

"The Shobies' Story" 3.5 outside of getting to see the cultures we've come accustomed to interact and come together to form this sweet ship family its it's really just a bit explanation for the latter two stories.

"Dancing to Ganam" 5 the anomalous perception works better in this one I think.

"Another Story" or "A Fisherman of the Inland sea" 4.5 brilliant but we really don't get an explanation and that kills me.


I'd say that all but the first story are worth a read including the introduction.

Beautiful collection.

The First Contact with the Gorgonids

Dystopian futures are a dime a dozen in SF, and while there are some brilliant exceptions (MaddAddam) most of them are unoriginal variations on 1984, and various kinds of nuclear apocalypses. LeGuin, however is one of the few writers who defies the happy utopias are all alike dictum, with her wealth of diverse worlds and societies, most of which seem to have things figured (or at least have a much better handle on how to be a society than we in the real world do).

Of course if I'm listing why you should read LeGuin, I could go on with the laundry list of poetic prose, wonderful world building, nuanced cultures, representatively diverse protagonists, well developed characters which is refreshing in well researched and coherent SciFi ... all of this suffused with humour.

I also love the fact that there's no set order to read the books in Hainish cycle, because they're all interlinked and you really have to re-read everything in a few(several?, all?) different orders to fully glean everything, makes it all feel so much more like real history or mythology, than well ordered trilogies, and series. Though this collection stands out pretty well as a stand-alone anthology by itself.

A very sweet time travel story, also the introduction to the sedoretu which, as a concept, thrills me.

I love the way that some of these stories built on others– like a condensed version of how her Hainish Cycle works. The stories still work independently, but as you continue to read you gain more context into the universe and relations.