80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin

[altariel]

80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin is now available for pre-order from Aqueduct Press. This is a published version of a Festschrift volume presented to Ursula Le Guin on her eightieth birthday, and I'm very pleased to have a short piece included in it.

You can find out more about it here, and pre-order here. There is a pre-order special price of $15.

Comments

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I often find I'm absolutely despairing in the middle of a Le Guin, but somehow I nearly always find I'm uplifted by the end.

The recent Annals of the Western Shore trilogy was an interesting case in point; I felt somehow mildly depressed by the ending of Gifts, because the Upland environment had been so dreary and empty and physically and spiritually threadbare, and the message at the end seemed to be that all that Gry and Orrec could do to make it better was leave. Voices I absolutely loved, found it brave and positive and uplifting all the way through and wanted to cheer numerous times. And then Powers... oh, gods. Cried, raged, threw the book across the room, couldn't sleep, really didn't know if I could make myself pick it up again [after Miv died and several more times]. But still, when I made it shaking to the end, felt that Gavir was being shown that there were other ways, better ways, and that the message was hopeful.

She's such a brilliant, powerful writer that she can really mess with your head, so I do very much sympathise with what wiseheart is saying - if and when she depresses you, she really depresses you, in ways that are hard to shake off by going and having a cup of tea and watching TV fluff (my usual remedies!)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

And the end of Powers alters the end of Gifts. Because we know the full life that Gry and Orrec have lived. And because they have to be there to receive Gavir. Boy oh boy, I love Powers.