Strong beginning and strong ending. The writing was as delicious as you can expect from Le Guin, though the fact that it was her debut is evident in the unplumbed depths of the text. I think the worldbuilding was fun in an old-school, campy science-fantasy way, where absurdity sometimes functions as an acceptable substitute for heavy exposition (though I would have appreciated more information). It wasn’t as idea dense as her later works, and the themes present ended up being kind of raised and dropped again in a way that was not so much inherently bad as it was accumulatively disappointing. Character relationships hinted at something profound but were mostly explained to the reader rather than developed over time in a meaningful way. Overall, it was engaging and tragic and rompy, and I’m glad to have read it. 

 

Strangely enough, though I think this was a more disappointing read than Rocannon’s World, it has stuck with me much more effectively. It was as well written as anything from Le Guin, but more anthropological than the absurdist romp of the first book, and the plot was much more linear as well. Both featured a major incoming threat, but the winding nature of Rocannon’s journey dissolved a lot of the plot’s tension until nearly the end of the book, whereas the ‘major incoming threat’ of book two remained the focal point of the book throughout, even as the characters faced numerous other threats and challenges. The worldbuilding was more focused and at least the main characters more developed and knowable (specifically Rolery, Agat, and Wold). The culture of the Askatevar fascinated me, and the world they lived in felt so real by the end of the book that I can feel myself being pulled back there just thinking about it. 

 

My disappointment lies in the ending of the book, which gradually came to feel tedious and uninteresting to me. Once we reached the siege of the farborn city, I just wanted it to be over. I think it’s because, by this point, we weren’t learning much of anything new about the world or the cultures, and we weren’t building up any of the side characters as points of interest. And the new information we did receive (about what was going on evolutionarily with the farborns) wasn’t anything that could have any payoff by the end of the book, so while interesting in theory, the implications would clearly remain unexplored. I think the very last pages could have been touching, if I hadn’t already become so bogged down in the chaotic monotony of the siege that I was ready to be done with the whole thing.

That being said, also very glad to have read it. 

 

 

Temporary DNF – I read the first chapter and I’m intrigued by it, but I think I need a bit of a break before I finish the series. I’ll edit to add my review once I’ve done so.