The Word for World is Forest (Hainish Cycle)

by Ursula K. Le Guin
(1972 | 189 p)

In a far distant future the resources of Earth have been exhausted. To survive humans must travel to other planets, gathering necessary resources and shipping them light years back to their overpopulated home world. This story is about what happens when the materialistic and militaristic Earth humans encounter an indigenous population quite contrary to what they know.

This is only the second book that I've read from the Hainish Cycle but I already know I'm going to enjoy the whole series. I studied anthropology in college and the anthropological context of these novels alone is enough to keep me hooked. In The Dispossessed we learn about the cultures on Urras and Anarres. Anarres is a colony of utopian anarchists who fled the materialistic (very Earth-like) culture of Urras. In The Word for World is Forest we meet the Athsheans, who seem to resemble little green Ewoks. They are a loosely organized population of tribes with no central government. They're pacifists, knowing nothing of war or murder, until the human colony comes with their gift of death.

The Word for World is Forest follows the same archetype as Avatar or Fern Gully, short-sighted man exploits and nearly destroys an untainted world that they can't understand. No matter how many ways I hear that story it always kicks me in the gut and makes me want to go hug a tree.

Rosemary and Rue (October Daye: 1)

by Seanan McGuire
(2009 | 358 p)

October (Toby) Daye was an up-and-coming private investigator with a husband and young daughter at home counting on her to come back in one piece. And things were going well enough until she ran into a bad guy that put her out of commission for 14 years. Finally back on her own two feet, Toby's left with a new reality where her husband and daughter want nothing to do with her. Disillusioned with her old life, Toby's turned her back on the P.I. business and is barely making a go of it as an overnight cashier at the local convenience store. That is until Evelyn Winters, an old friend, is brutally murdered and it's up to Toby to find out who's responsible.

This sort of sounds like any other tough lady detective story, but Rosemary and Rue offers up a twist. Toby isn't just any other P.I., she's a changeling. Her mother was a pureblood fairy who decided to play housewife with a mortal man. The baddie that knocked her out of the loop for so long wasn't a standard villain, he was a pureblood who thought it would be amusing to turn Toby into a fish. She spent those 14 years in a koi pond with no recollection of who or what she truly was. Evelyn Winters was thousands of years old and, knowing her murder was coming soon, placed a curse on Toby. Toby is now compelled to solve this murder or she will be joining Ms. Winters in the great beyond.

This was a fun little urban fantasy, but parts of it left me a bit cold. In one scene Toby battles with a doppelgänger in her living room, a gun is hidden behind the curtain only a few feet away. Toby knows the gun is there, but rather than grab it she runs to her bedroom where there's no escape. If she's as smart and sassy as she's written, she would have made a dive for the gun. It made no sense. She also has a confusing love/hate relationship with a weirdo who runs a flop house where she used to live. It's made clear that the guy is a creep, requiring sex as payment for favors from most of his young wards. He's just slimy. And still our headstrong heroine is stealing kisses from him even as she's promising one of his new victims that she'll help her escape. I was baffled. It was a quick read and had won a Hugo, so I stuck through to the end. I don't regret that I read it but I doubt I'll be finishing the series.

The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle)

by Ursula K. Le Guin
(1974 | 387 p)

The Dispossessed tells the story of a man called Shevek, a brilliant physicist and revolutionary who was born to the arid climes on the moon Anarres. His Anarres is a civilization of utopian anarchists who were displaced from their "archist" homeworld of Urras nearly 200 years ago. They have had much success as an anarchy, but the inhospitable planet that is now their home makes life a struggle. Shevek starts to notice the his brothers and sisters (everyone is a "brother" or "sister" in this anarchy) are beginning to revert to a state rule mentality. Horrified by this prospect Shevek makes an unprecedented trip to Urras in hopes of sparking a revolution and reuniting the two worlds.

This novel is one of the densest stories I've read in a while, I enjoyed it no end. Action is replaced with introspection, plot points are based on esoteric theories of physics and governmental philosophy. Le Guin really got me thinking about our cultural norms, which I think was her point. I'd definitely not recommend this book to everyone, but if you are a fan of science fiction or fantasy you should probably just buckle down and read everything Ursula K. Le Guin has ever written. She's one of the masters of both genres.