Reviews
It's a story. More fantasy than science-fiction. I had a time piecing together what the events in the first part of the book actually meant with regards to the story. I had to read someone else's synopsis to then realize, "oh! That's what happened!" I'm glad I'm starting here with Le Guin. Her works can only get better, I assume. I plan on reading more of the Hainish to at least get to the book I'd purchased first, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Un 3 plus proche du 2,5 en vérité. C'est une histoire sympa, un livre qui se lit rapidement et qui n'est pas désagréable mais qui ne me marquera clairement pas. Mais comme j'essaye de lire tout le cycle de l'Ekumen je voulais le lire. C'est en gros l'histoire d'un envoyé de l'Ekumen, une alliance inter-planétaire, qui part visiter une planète dont les sociétés sont encore à l'époque médiévale. Je trouve que c'est l'aspect le plus intéressant du bouquin : c'est de la médiéval fantasy, avec une trame de fond SF. Le mélange est assez intéressant !
I decided to start my great Ursula K. Le Guin adventure where it all began, i.e. with her debut novel, and I don't regret it. Rocannon's World is a surprising blend of science-fiction and fantasy, which is a charitable way of saying that most of the hard science didn't very much stand up on its own, even from a superficial perspective, and that it was quite derivative from mythic fiction/classic fantasy (flying cats, dwarvish races, prophetic tales & prominent sword-play). At the same time, you can't help but be charmed by the author's "proto-brilliance", her evocative prose paired with her keen mind, focusing on the relationships between people and races living on the same planet, on the cost of war, loss, and violence on a peaceful man but also on what he gained along the way on his journey. It was hard to get into, the overall sequencing of the plot was uneven and some elements felt unnecessary (unless this world will be further explored in later novels? not sure that this is the trajectory of the "series"), but I got sucked into the latter half and found the ending quite engaging. There were friendship and loss, love and vengeance, it made me think, it made me feel, and it was perhaps a bit too short and not straightforward enough to truly be meaningful as a linear story but despite its flaws, you can feel its significance in the potential that the author is already showing, contributing to the greater canon of speculative fiction (if only for the ansible). Tl;dr: it was cool, not the best thing I've ever read but it grows on you, and the finale is the best part.
