Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : Harper & Row, 1975.
Description
The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her lyrical writing, rich characters, and diverse worlds. The Wind's Twelve Quarters collects seventeen powerful stories, each with an introduction by the author, ranging from fantasy to intriguing scientific concepts, from medieval settings to the future. Including an insightful foreword by Le Guin, describing her experience, her inspirations, and her approach to writing, this stunning collection explores human values, relationships, and survival, and showcases the myriad talents of one of the most provocative writers of our time.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Tatiana_G
Unlike Four Ways to Forgiveness, this is an uneven collection, a mixed bag of Le Guin's early short stories.
My favorite are definitely the sci-fi stories: from Hainish cycle - Winter's King (a prequel to The Left Hand of Darkness), The Day Before the Revolution (a prequel to The Dispossessed: An
A couple of Earthsea shorts are great too - The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names. I wasn't sure I wanted to try Le Guin's fantasy before, but now I am certain I will, her magic system is quite interesting.
The worst for me are the psychomyth category of stories (very much like Margo Lanagan's writing) and the acid-trippy ones. They are just weird and most of the time I didn't even understand them. The best in this bunch are - The Masters and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, hard to explain what they are about though...
Almost forgot, another good thing about the collection is that all stories are preceded by the author's introductions. Interesting to learn about Le Guin's creative process. She is a very smart woman.
P.S. I would really appreciate if someone could explain Darkness Box to me. It seems to be a favorite of many readers, but I have absolutely no idea what happened in it.
My favorite are definitely the sci-fi stories: from Hainish cycle - Winter's King (a prequel to The Left Hand of Darkness), The Day Before the Revolution (a prequel to The Dispossessed: An
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Ambiguous Utopia), Vaster than Empires and More Slow (humans try to communicate with a different type of intelligence, reminiscent of Solaris); and independent - Nine Lives (about cloning) and The Field of Vision (explores mysterious structures on Mars).A couple of Earthsea shorts are great too - The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names. I wasn't sure I wanted to try Le Guin's fantasy before, but now I am certain I will, her magic system is quite interesting.
The worst for me are the psychomyth category of stories (very much like Margo Lanagan's writing) and the acid-trippy ones. They are just weird and most of the time I didn't even understand them. The best in this bunch are - The Masters and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, hard to explain what they are about though...
Almost forgot, another good thing about the collection is that all stories are preceded by the author's introductions. Interesting to learn about Le Guin's creative process. She is a very smart woman.
P.S. I would really appreciate if someone could explain Darkness Box to me. It seems to be a favorite of many readers, but I have absolutely no idea what happened in it.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
In her foreword to this short story collection, Le Guin refers to it as a retrospective. 17 short stories are assembled here from the first 10-12 years of Le Guin's publication. They cover the period 1962 to 1974 and originally appeared in anthologies such as Orbit, New Dimensions and various
I had read one or two of these stories several decades ago, but such time has passed that I have no real recollection of them other than the title. I picked this up primarily to read two Earthsea "prequel" stories, ones that were written before any of the Earthsea novels. However, I am discovering that there are a number of seminal stories in the book, including the first story "Semley's Necklace", which became the spring off point for [Rocannon's World], a novel I liked a lot as a youngster. It was a treat to read this and it had echoes of remembrance for me. There is also a brief mention of Rocannon in the story "Vaster than Empires and More Slow".
In addition to the foreword to this collection from Le Guin, she prefaces each story within with background information about the story. This is a real bonus giving us insight into the writer's mind, trivia and ideas. I also liked discovering that Le Guin had a short story rejected from John Campbell at Astounding - and was proud of the rejection slip - she had written and submitted the story at the age of 12. It would be dozens of stories and about twenty years before a story of hers was finally published in Fantastic Magazine at the age of 32. Slightly annoying, though, was Le Guin's constant use of a term in relation to her writing, one I had never heard before and which perhaps she made up, and which really didn't have meaning to me: "Pschomyth". So her repeated references to something either being or not being a psychomyth was not instructive.
What is possibly Le Guin's most famous or renowned short story, "The ones who walk away from Omelas" is included in this collection. This book provided the reason for the name Omelas. I was rather surprised. The story never rocked my world.
The oldest story in the collection, "April in Paris" is nearly 50 years old as I write this, and it is a fairly good tale. The quality of the stories overall is somewhat uneven, and I was even bored a bit at times ("Darkness Box", "The Trip") and rather disinterested in some of the others. I didn't care for the style of writing in a number of the stories.
The two Earthsea stories, which prompted me to read this collection were quite short (about 22 pgs
total including the introductions by Le Guin) and are mostly of interest from a historical view as the beginnings of the Earthsea world. I'm surprised, though, that Le Guin did not set more short stories within Earthsea. The "Left hand of Darkness" related story "Winter's King" was interesting and quite good. My least favorite stories and the ones that felt the most dated were
the stories told in a "hip" or with a bit of a trippy stream of consciousness manner. Overall this is an uneven collection that I expected to enjoy a lot more than I did. I'd rate it at the low end of my average reading.
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magazines. I had read one or two of these stories several decades ago, but such time has passed that I have no real recollection of them other than the title. I picked this up primarily to read two Earthsea "prequel" stories, ones that were written before any of the Earthsea novels. However, I am discovering that there are a number of seminal stories in the book, including the first story "Semley's Necklace", which became the spring off point for [Rocannon's World], a novel I liked a lot as a youngster. It was a treat to read this and it had echoes of remembrance for me. There is also a brief mention of Rocannon in the story "Vaster than Empires and More Slow".
In addition to the foreword to this collection from Le Guin, she prefaces each story within with background information about the story. This is a real bonus giving us insight into the writer's mind, trivia and ideas. I also liked discovering that Le Guin had a short story rejected from John Campbell at Astounding - and was proud of the rejection slip - she had written and submitted the story at the age of 12. It would be dozens of stories and about twenty years before a story of hers was finally published in Fantastic Magazine at the age of 32. Slightly annoying, though, was Le Guin's constant use of a term in relation to her writing, one I had never heard before and which perhaps she made up, and which really didn't have meaning to me: "Pschomyth". So her repeated references to something either being or not being a psychomyth was not instructive.
What is possibly Le Guin's most famous or renowned short story, "The ones who walk away from Omelas" is included in this collection. This book provided the reason for the name Omelas. I was rather surprised. The story never rocked my world.
The oldest story in the collection, "April in Paris" is nearly 50 years old as I write this, and it is a fairly good tale. The quality of the stories overall is somewhat uneven, and I was even bored a bit at times ("Darkness Box", "The Trip") and rather disinterested in some of the others. I didn't care for the style of writing in a number of the stories.
The two Earthsea stories, which prompted me to read this collection were quite short (about 22 pgs
total including the introductions by Le Guin) and are mostly of interest from a historical view as the beginnings of the Earthsea world. I'm surprised, though, that Le Guin did not set more short stories within Earthsea. The "Left hand of Darkness" related story "Winter's King" was interesting and quite good. My least favorite stories and the ones that felt the most dated were
the stories told in a "hip" or with a bit of a trippy stream of consciousness manner. Overall this is an uneven collection that I expected to enjoy a lot more than I did. I'd rate it at the low end of my average reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member AwesomeAud
A collection of twelve short stories by Le Guin, published between 1962 and 1974. I've read a number of Le Guin's novels, but not so many of her short stories. These stories are very thoughtful, and and intelligently written. Stories about foolish choices, loneliness, and the death of science. Le
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Guin can disturb you like no other. Show Less
LibraryThing member wirkman
This is an amazing collection, almost uniformly great stories. The two that stick strongest in memory are "Vaster Than Empire and More Slow" and "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." Try these, if you are skeptical. If you don't like them, walk away.
LibraryThing member andersonden
A collection of older Le Guin stories. More excellent fantasy/science fiction. Been some time since I read this so I can't comment more specifically.
LibraryThing member xiaomarlo
Many of the stories in this collection are excellent, while some are only good. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" totally deserved the Hugo award it won. Reading "The Rule of Names" made me want to go back and read the Earthsea books again. "The Stars Below" reminded me of Germinal. Overall,
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it's a very good collection, and also shows Le Guin's progression as a writer, since there are some early stories of hers at the beginning. Show Less
LibraryThing member kevinashley
I re-read this in 2005 and had forgotten just how impressive a writer she could be. I think I tried to read this book when a teenager and found it hard going, but returning to it now I just wanted to drink it all at once. They are wonderful, well-crafted and understated stories. For anyone who
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doubts that SF can be literature, and vice versa, Ursula Le Guin is sufficient disproof. Show Less
LibraryThing member satyridae
Probably my favorite Le Guin short story collection. The Darkness Box and most especially The Direction of the Road which had a profound effect on me in my youth.
LibraryThing member jorgearanda
Le Guin shines far brighter in her novels than in these short stories, though some of them do capture that same magic.
LibraryThing member JBreedlove
Le Guin's writing tranfers well to short stories. The last few stories were wek but passable. She definitely has a vision and the universe that evolved under her pen expreses it well. Not afraid of the darkness but always looking toward the light.
LibraryThing member cypher2048
It is always hard to rate a collection of stories as a whole. Most of the stories were good, a few I really liked, and a few others I just skipped ahead to the next story after a couple pages. So it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Usually when she stuck to science fiction settings or ideas I
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enjoyed them the most. The more contemporary stories often felt rambling or uninteresting. I did like the author's introductions to each story. They usually gave interesting context to the stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member simchaboston
Just stunning. Some stories in this collection (particularly "April in Paris") speak more to me than others, but the language is so precise and dazzling that even the darker tales are a pleasure to read. The premises are imaginative too, especially since LeGuin, as she says in her introduction and
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headnotes, doesn't do typical fantasy and science fiction, and thankfully she cares more about characters and relationships than fancy spells and spiffy gadgets. As with Ray Bradbury, the only reason I won't rush off and read more is because I can only digest so much rich prose at a time. Show Less
LibraryThing member elenaj
Four stars might be generous - many of these stories are dated in various ways, and I didn't enjoy them as much as, for example, the stories in Birthday of the World. But there's a certain quality of storytelling from Le Guin that is present even in stories where she's clearly limited by boxing
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herself into the constraints of what science fiction was as a genre in the 60s and 70s. Her thinking is expansive, and her touch with language is subtle and remarkable. Show Less
LibraryThing member k6gst
Good. The stories I enjoyed best were "April in Paris," "Nine Lives," and "Vaster than Empires and More Slow."
LibraryThing member mmparker
I'm a Le Guin diehard, and was powerfully moved by this collection. I'd recommend reading her books first, though.
LibraryThing member cindywho
This was on my list because I had read that there was a short story connected to her novel, the Dispossessed. There were some lovely science fiction stories with some phrases that made me smile. Her "psychomyths" I didn't enjoy as much. I like how she consistently uses the device of time loss that
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comes with space travel. I probably read this book of short stories years ago and forgot them all, but now they seem more meaningful to me. More Ursula, please. (June 01, 2004) Show Less
LibraryThing member JasonMehmel
A great review of Le Guin's early work, and often full of the brilliant and sublime ideas she is so good at exploring, not to mention an incisive and sharp prose style, both poetic and subdued at the same time.
In particular, the story 'Those Who Walk Away of Omelas' is in this anthology, which
In particular, the story 'Those Who Walk Away of Omelas' is in this anthology, which
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might make it historic. A short parable, and possibly more famous in it's synopsis than the story itself, but it still packs an incredible punch. Show Less
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Collection — 1976)
Gigamesh Award (1986)
Language
Original publication date
1975-10 (collection)
Physical description
viii, 246 p.; 21.7 cm
Copy notes
Contents: Foreword -- Semley's necklace -- April in Paris -- The masters -- Darkness box -- The word of unbinding -- The rule of names -- Winter's king -- The good trip -- Nine lives -- Things -- A trip to the head -- Vaster than empires and more slow -- The stars below -- The field of vision -- Direction of the road -- The ones who walk away from Omelas -- The day before the revolution.
Book club edition.
Dust jacket covered in Mylar as sold.
Book club edition.
Dust jacket covered in Mylar as sold.