I love Ursula K. Le Guin

This was a diverse and surprising compilation of her stories. The chapters didn't really make sense with the individual stories and the chapters within the stories. It was a bit confusing. I couldn't choose a short story to listen to.

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3 people found this helpful

Le Guin doesn't disappoint, but the format . . .

Ursula Le Guin was a genius. Anyone who considers her work genre and thus dismisses it has not read it. This collection in particular illuminates so many flaws in the human condition, which is what science fiction has always done. It also reveals her incredibly sharp eye and intellect and brilliance in illuminating who and what we are as a species. If only more people would recognize her and learn from her work. And enjoy it! She writes so beautifully, so deeply. I cannot say enough about how I respect her as a writer, and her work.
This collection is also well narrated. But it is so poorly organized, that I longed for an option for commenting on that beyond 'performance.' There is no titling of stories/novellas. They come in chunks that blur them together. It is incredibly annoying. I want a title at the beginning of each new story/novella and for it to be clear in the table of contents to which story/novella each 'chapter' belongs. Imo, this was sloppy on the part of Audible. It would also take not a lot of work to remedy. Hint hint. Because this is a collection I intend to re'read' many, many times, but I groan at the thought of doing so with it in its present condition. There are stories I wish to seek out, rather than struggle to find.

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10 people found this helpful

Annoying Tiresome Preachy

You might think this book is a collection of short stories. Unfortunately, this is not the case, as it is just one preachy annoying long story that takes place in Ursula Leguin's Ekumen universe.

Don't be misled by the first chapter, which plays out like an interesting monster-of-the-day, with a sci-fi theme, conflict and structure. The rest of the book is tireless, tedious, endless and weird.

It almost seems like Le Guin is attempting to derive some interesting points about sociology from some of the stories. For example, one story involves a planet where all men are seperated from women, living in large compounds. This creates an interesting setting to explore human psychology, but unfortunately all the characters are wooden and contemptible. It's sort of like in the new Star Wars movies how you're kind of rooting for Rei and Finn to get blown up or something because then maybe new more interesting characters would appear.

In conclusion, this book is not meritless as it does have some interesting cultural and social themes. However, it is so boring that it is hard to get through it even when the only criteria for doing so is sitting still while a recorded voice recites it to you.

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Ursula K Le Guin is incredible.

This is a great collection of stories, and the narrators upon further listening are quite good.

I, like all other reviewers, am annoyed by the stupid way they layed out chapters. What were you thinking?

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