Finally getting back to more book blogs. I just finished reading the third book in Ursula K LeGuin's Hainish Cycle, or trilogy in this case. Her other novels in the Hainish universe are much different from these, her first three novels. I'll describe each novel's plot and simply tell you my thoughts on the works in and of themselves, and then what I think of them as a whole.
Rocannon's World
Rocannon's World is Ursula K LeGuin's literary debut. It's a science fiction space opera with heroic fantasy elements. Other alien races are similar to fairies and gnomes, who wield swords and axes. The word "ansible" for a faster-than-light communicator, was coined in the novel. The term has since been widely used in science fiction.
The story begins with a prologue titled Semley's Necklace, which is about a woman who travels to a primitive planet to recover a family heirloom. However, her husband and daughter aged so much while she was on the trip, that when she got back they were dead. It combines Rip Van Winkle fairy tale [a person goes off with dwarves for a short bit, only to find that generations have gone by] with modern [the 1960s] science fiction elements.
Rocannon is an ethnologist space operator turned warrior turned mystic god. The story has fantasy elements, especially the dialogue of the alien races being similar to the dialogues of fairies and elves in fantasy novels. Also, the idea of the impermasuit, a suit that makes the wearer invulnerable as long as he's wearing it. This seems like a now-classic fantasy trope. The characters ride on flying winged beasts. Rocannon learns how to Mindspeak [Le Guin's idea of telepathy in the Hainish universe], calls his human allies from the League of All Worlds to help him destroy the enemies' base, but because he's telepathic he feels the death of hundreds of his enemies, making him sorry and traumatized.
The first Le Guin novel is stunning. It's short, simple, straight to the point. The writing is simple but not too simple. It's still got the deep meaning behind the text. In this case, we're talking about Le Guin's primary ideas coming out for the first time in novel form. The idea of anthropology for one thing. One great civilization from outer space comes to some other faraway planet, only to find primitive aliens living in the Bronze Age. The idea of the cargo cult. Some evildoers are enemies of the League and then there are good guys like Rocannon, and then there are all the gray areas that would naturally appear. Considering this came out in 1966, I would say its an important book to read in the science fiction canon. Must read science fiction actually.
Planet in Exile
Planet in Exile also came out in 1966. The story is set one Werel, the third planet of the Gamma Draconis system. The planet is about to through its long winter. The planet has an orbital period of 60 Earth years. Wold, a chieftain and his daughter Rolery are humanlike aliens indigenous to the planet. Jakob Agat is a young man from a dwindling human colony. Although both races have human genes, the differences between them are enough to prevent interbreeding. The main point A to be B here is that the two races have to come together despite a dispute between Rolery getting involved with Agat, which is forbidden to Wold and his people in their culture. There are invading alien creatures, the Gaal, that aren't hilfs [LeGuin term meaning high intelligence life forms] that take them to war.
Planet in exile plays back on the action that is at the forefront of Rocanon's world. In fact, the siege part where they're defending their city from the invaders doesn't focus entirely on the action and fighting. There are a few gory moments and descriptions but it's downplayed heavily considering they were at war.
What Planet of Exile does bring more to the picture is the extension of the LeGuin aesthetic; anthropology, space opera, and believe it or not in 1966, feminist overtones. This novel focuses more on the ecology of the planet itself [something science fiction fans got for the first time from Frank Herbert in Dune]. There is a lot of exposition about the native animals, plants, and races here.
Also, this is the first time that Le Guin writes a powerful sympathetic female character. Rolery isn't as powerful or as important as Agat, rather it's something of a Pocchahantas story. However, it was a push in the direction she would inevitably take. To write feminist science fiction space operas like The Left Hand of Darkness where she goes more into female identity, gender, sex, and equality. Sure, Planet of Exile is sort of conventional in terms of female characters, but it's also so early in the science fiction canon that it can't go unmentioned how important Le Guin's female characters were even as early as her second novel.
City of Illusions
City of Illusions came out in 1967 and lays the foundation for the Hainish universe, where most of Le Guin's novels take place.
The story takes place 1200 years after the Shing has broken the power of the League of All Worlds and occupied Earth. Humans are alive, living as nomads and in small tribes. The Shing suppresses human civilization with Mindspeak, telepathy, and the ability to mind-lie. A descendant from the characters from Planet in Exile is involved in a spaceship crash. The Shing mindwipe him, leaving his mind a blank slate, tabula rasa. They throw him in the forest left to die as practically an infant. He develops a new identity and tries to find out who or what he is.
I finished this novel today and find it to be the weakest of the three in terms of plot but the strongest in terms of character identity. Falk is a powerful sympathetic character. This novel is primarily about the inner psychology of the main character. Not unlike Frederic Pohl's masterpiece, Man Plus. It's not about action, it's about the soul. That's what matters here.
The weakest part of this novel for me was the Shing themselves. They were supposed to be a race of Hitlers but they were portrayed as practically harmless. It was laughable in certain aspects considering that all the humans on Earth live in fear of them and animals have learned to talk because of them. The problem was that they were not convincingly evil. For one thing, they do not kill and have an oath about it. A group of 'bad guys' who don't come off as really all that bad is the death of a novel. Keep in mind that it's very hard to write a group of bad guys in novel form. Most of the time there are one or two bad guys in a novel, but a whole race? That's pushing it. This is why the idea of the literary Satan is usually left for poetry and drama.
LeGuin makes use of her own Tao Ching here. She creates a book for the humans that is basically their bible. It's important and was before and now a staple science fiction trope. I also liked how the humans on Earth 1200 years into the future were all nomads, barbarians, savages, yet there were still some peaceful ones living across the apocalyptic wasteland. It reminded me of Fallout 4. Of course, only in retrospect could someone [a video gamer] say that.
In short, these three novels got me back into my science fiction readings. Le Guin strikes deep with her science fiction. As a whole, the work comes across as a vast cultural societal experience. Le Guin's work makes me think more about the bigger picture. Who really are the good guys in the world? Who are the bad guys? Who are we? What am I? I've already ordered Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven and The Dispossessed [also in the Hainish cycle]. For now, I'm reading a modern 2013 new verse translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Watch this space.
