The World Crumbles During Winter

[dotinthesky]

Ursula K Le Guin, Planet of Exile, 1966
On a remote, unnamed planet, winter is approaching - a season unlike our own, lasting decades. A young girl, Rolery, falls in love with one of the witches that live in the city by the sea - the same witch that warns her tribe of an army of thousands amassing beyond the mountains and ready to conquer their lands.

Le Guin's novella starts out on a slow foot, with a confusing narrative (many characters never going beyond sketches, information which seems important not well explained), but things soon pick up and, by the end, you are left wishing Le Guin had explored more of this incredible world rather than letting it all come to an end before page 130.

As with her other novels, the fascinating is given special emphasis within the fantasy, but never losing sight of the characters' emotions. Le Guin is science-fiction with a heart.

Comments

[geosh.livejournal.com]

I love your reviews. Have you worked/thought of working as a critic/reviewer?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

How much do you pay, and when do I start?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Don't hate that first thought... it's one I've had many times too. Who knows the future?

I'm really glad you enjoy them though. :-)

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that 40-odd years on, and she's still reviewing books for the Sunday Times. She must be about 110 now.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

She also reviews for The Guardian! Yeah, she kicks ass.

[blu-bear.livejournal.com]

Have you heard of 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon? It's a beautiful book, I'm reading it at the moment in every spare second I can find (partly because it's going out to Sri Lanka for my sister with my dad on Monday). Although it does at times remind me a little of the Harry Potter books without the magic, it's probably only because I know the Harry Potter books far too well. However it's much much darker, a tale about a boy in Barcelona in the 1940's who gets given a book of which there is only one copy - his - and his journey descovering the secrets of the author and the story behind the book.

Read it!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Sounds good! I've added it to my to-read list on GoodReads.com. :-)

[jellyfish93.livejournal.com]

could you translate this (very simple, i know) bit of french for me?

Mai d'accord! C'est tres bon comme tu

Merci beaucoup!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's something like:

But I agree! It's very good like you.

Thank you very much!

[jellyfish93.livejournal.com]

lol...the merci beaucoup was my own addition.

Thanks!