Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Grafton Books (1984), Paperback
Description
Twenty stories written by the author over the past decade with a wide range of tone and subjects.
Media reviews
Ursula K. Le Guin's novels, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Beginning Place, have made her the hottest name in contemporary scifi. The Compass Rose shows her less a miler than a sprinter. The 20 stories reveal a versatile and far-ranging mind.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Kathleen828
January, 1999 - I bought this paperback copy after I had read my son's hardback because several of these stories are so phenomenally good. Numbers 1, 2 and 7 are, in my opinion, three of the finest science fiction stories ever written. (I wish I had my original marginalia available, so that I could
LeGuin's mature talent, exercised here, is truly worthy of praise.
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review more fully) but it is in the copy I read.LeGuin's mature talent, exercised here, is truly worthy of praise.
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LibraryThing member tcarter
Le Guin's collections of short stories tend to leave me a bit confused. Some contain thought experiments and ideas that I find enthralling and will not leave me. Others are so bizarre that I really do not understand them at all. They almost seem self indulgently obscure, which is inconsistent with
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the sharp insightfulness and concepts elsewhere. As I said, confusing. Show Less
LibraryThing member EmScape
A collection of stories, mostly science fiction. The best are those which you begin assuming a certain set of circumstances: That the narrator is human, that the action takes place on earth, etc. and find near the end you are quite wrong and must read the story again with that twist in mind. Also
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included are interesting discourses on the subjects of animal linguistics, and the running out of time disguised as scientific studies. Show Less
LibraryThing member andersonden
A collection of fantasy/science fiction stories. It's been a while since I've read them but Le Guin is a great writer who usually makes you think.
LibraryThing member deliriumslibrarian
Since reading this book, almost everything else that I've read has come to seem Le Guin-like, not because she has one distinctive style but because she has such *range*: of geographies, discourses, characters, tones, worlds. This collection contains some of my favourite of her short stories (as
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well as some more laboured/dated pieces): it's not as coherent as Birthday of the World, but its ambitious treatment of the six cardinal directions, the echoes of place and theme across the stories, is amazing. Show Less
LibraryThing member amaraduende
This is all short works - I read some, haven't read others yet. I might come back to it someday. Just in the mood for a novel right now... Some of these were good but not like her longer fiction, some of which has been VERY good.
I came back to this during the last few weeks... every story has
I came back to this during the last few weeks... every story has
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something very different going on. Well worth the read - all the way through. Show Less
LibraryThing member elenaj
I didn't love all the stories in this collection equally, but damn. Ursula K. LeGuin is a genuis.
LibraryThing member JudyGibson
A satisfying mix of stories, some disturbing, some thought provoking, some funny, and some I did not understand and will have to read again.
LibraryThing member mmparker
There are some really wonderful, mind-cracking stories in here. LeGuin's anthropological and sociological insight on fine display.
Subjects
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Collection — 1983)
Ditmar Award (Winner — 1986)
Language
Original publication date
1982-07-21 (collection)
Physical description
288 p.; 6.85 inches
ISBN
0586060537 / 9780586060537