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Hainish Cycle and other books

Name: Anonymous 2009-05-15 19:59

soup /book/

Currently I'm reading the Hainish Cycle books by Ursula K LeGuin. From those who read them, wanted to know your impressions, the reading order. What else should I read or "am I missing something important"? - for example - I probably should read "The Day Before Revolution" in addition to "The Dispossessed" - but should I read it before or after the main novel?

My current state and reading order:
+ Rocannon's World
+ Planet of Exile
+ City of Illusion
+ The Left Hand of Darkness
* The Word for World is Forest
- The Dispossessed
- Four Ways to Forgiveness
- The Telling

(+ read, - unread, * reading)

My impressions:
While all novels are very beautiful and very diverse, the first three are way too linear, similar to a typical cheap sci-fi movie with a clear disposition of the roles. The third novel "City of Illusion", while maintaining a linear story seems to be the first attempt to brainfuck the reader, making it to a nice thriller.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" is also relatively linear, but there are hints of mixing, otherwise the story is also a thriller, but now based on political intrigues. The theme of sexuality is way less prominent than I feared it would be, that's very good.

"The Word for World is Forest" is rather "meh" so far, looks like a master-slave drama, but now the story is much less linear, also let's see how it finishes.

I'm really looking forward to The Dispossessed - judging from Wiki it's really parallelized, non-linear stuff.

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