Ursula K. LeGuin: Paperbacks

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. LeGuin. Mr. Daryl Fleming, in middle school, introduced me to these books, since I enjoyed Tolkien so much. I must admit I was a little wary at first, being rather jealous of my new-found Mentor’s position and worried that I might seem disloyal by paying any attention elsewhere. I needn’t have worried; Tolkien was still streets ahead in my affection, no matter how good and engaging LeGuin’s work. I liked the fact that the three little pictures on the trilogy’s (for so it was then) spine made up one fish. The spells in this book went right into my spiral ‘lore book’. These Bantam editions have the old Pauline Ellison covers. The best of the wizard Ged’s adventures, and Roke is better than Hogwarts. I must say that Earthsea has been rather unfortunate in its film adaptations, though. Ranking: Essential File Code: Fantasy. Paperback.

The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. LeGuin Book Two in the original ‘trilogy’. I could really empathize with Tenar, trapped in a false religion, serving dark gods, and stuck inside a sterile narrow social system. This is no sophomore slump, but a dynamic book on its own. LeGuin’s perception of magic as a spiritual, philosophical system is a metaphor, and not simply a kind of pageant effect for the ‘Fantasy’, a genre term she had some quarrels with. Ranking: Essential File Code: Fantasy. Paperback.

The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. LeGuin. Book Three in the original ‘Earthsea Trilogy’, and for many years a fitting end. Book One Ged finds his magic, Book Two he uses his magic, Book Three he must give up his magic. A lovely, rounded story. Lots of fantasy series ended this way for a while: the magic fades away and people must face the work-a-day world. I think this may have happened so authors could dodge the criticism that they were writing mere escapism, and that there was a serious message underneath it all. LeGuin, I think, uses it as a metaphor for how creative people must face the decay of their powers and lay it down before it turns to purely selfish goals. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Fantasy. Paperback.

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, by Ursula K. LeGuin. The cover is by the same artist as the Earthsea Trilogy, and the twelve stories within are notable to me for two tales, precursors to the Earthsea books, ‘The Rule of Names’ and ‘The Word of Unbinding’. I remember seeing the latter illustrated in a magazine in Mrs. Rowley’s drama class and wanting to steal it. The first story, ‘Semley’s Necklace’, is an interesting look at how a sci-fi setting could be interpreted as magical, depending on your character’s point of view. Elves, dwarves, and the time shifts of Faerie are all explained in another context. Perhaps someday, after these 35 years or so, I’ll read the other stories. Ranking: Essential for those two Earthsea stories. File Code: Fantasy. Science Fiction. Short Stories. Paperback.

Orsinian Tales, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I can tell nothing about this book except the cover is by the same artist as the Earthsea Trilogy; that is the main reason I bought it. I have never been able to find my way into it in forty years. Ranking: Expendable. File Code: Short Stories. Paperback.

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Leguin. An old second-hand paperback, with considerable stains, as if something had spilled on it, like soda. Science fiction in LeGuin’s Gethenian stories, about contact with a planet where the humans that colonized it have changed into people who can be either sex, depending on the balance of hormones when they go into heat (‘kemmer’). An examination of the roles of male and female. Ranking: Expendable, nearly recyclable. File Code: Science Fiction. Novel. Paperback.

The Beginning Place, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I remember almost nothing about this novel except that a boy and a girl from Earth, but from quite different cultures, meet in a magical land. Possibly worth trying it again, but at my age, do I have the time or energy? Ranking: Meh. File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.

Always Coming Home, by Ursula K. LeGuin. This book is more like an anthropological report than a novel. As LeGuin says at the beginning, “The people in this book might be going to have lived a long, long time from now in Northern California.” Part Native American, part Zen, part eco-hippie, the stories, songs, and traditions are recorded in this future history as if by a present-day scholar. The ‘Archaeology of the Future’ is uncovered bit by bit; did the culture described arise after some catastrophic disaster or was it just a change in the way of life? This sounds like it might be deadly dull, but it is a fascinating exercise in world-building from a master (mistress?) of the art. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Science Fiction. Paperback.

The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, by Ursula K. LeGuin A collection of cogent essays where LeGuin explains and defends the uses of fantasy and gives advice on how to write it. Contains the brilliant “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie”. I cannot stress enough how useful this is for a fantasist to read. “The Staring Eye” talks about her ‘encounter’ with and the influence of Tolkien through his books. I remember reading this paperback compulsively at Gatti’s back in the early 1980’s. Ranking: Essential File Code: Essays. Fantasy. Paperback.