I finished the second book in the saga titled "The Tombs of Atuan". It's great.
It follows the story of Tenar, a girl taken to an old temple in the desert to be the priestess devoted to the "Nameless Ones", ancient gods long forgotten.
She was very lonely there; all her life changed when she met Ged, the first book's protagonist, who was in the underground labyrinth under the temple looking for an ancient relic. This encounter completely changes Tenar's life.
The main topics of the book are freedom, gender, and the power relations emanating between those, reflecting the anarchist views of Ursula.
New on my blog is the second half of my top 10 imaginary worlds. I get a bit deeper this time (or go on a bit more!), as these are ones that have shaped me as a writer.
@bookstodon Finished the first book 'A wizard of Earthsea'. I like how the book is not about good vs evil. It's more about a personal search of oneself. #fantasy#UrsulaKLeGuin
I recently read a compilation of #UrsulaKLeGuin short stories- The Unreal & The Real volume 1 Where On Earth. These are her realist stories. Her writing never fails to illuminate & this line from Unlocking the Air was a gut punch in the context of modern times #books@bookstodon
"Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom — poets, visionaries — realists of a larger reality."
This was lovely. So well-deserved of its Ursula K. le Guin Prize win (and Philip K. Dick award nomination).
Near-future fiction at its best. I love well-done intertwined short stories like this. It may be a tad too optimistic about us humans, but it's nice to have a smidgen of hope.
I need your help #bookstodon. One of the classes I'm taking at the graduate level this semester is Religion & Science Fiction. I read more fantasy, and would like to do my research paper on something that's not obvious (like ST/BS5/Matrix/etc.) & I'd love to use more modern sf rather than the golden age classics.
Anyone have any interesting ideas for my research paper on regarding the intersection of religion and science fiction?
I'll mention #DouglasAdams as well. But point you toward Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's goofy and fun and not terribly deep, but the conceit that Earth was built as a computer to figure out the ultimate question strikes me as an answer to religion.
Soon, The Language of the Night will be available once again! Ursula's 1979 collection of essays will be reissued by Scribner on May 14th, with a new introduction from author Ken Liu.