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R.I.P. Ursula Le Guin

Worm

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Worm
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A giant of her field, and a huge influence on my reading and thoughts over the years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/...ed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html

I can't say I read all of her work, but I loved what I read. I still have a copy of the original Earthsea Trilogy that my dad bought me about 35 years ago to keep me occupied on a family holiday. Good call.

“For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after."

Farewell.
 
Well crap.

I have a signed copy of Dispossessed from a VIP reading that my wife bought me as a birthday present back in the 1990s that I had framed, it's on a shelf in my office.

Le Guin is the number one reason I am pursuing a writing career.
 
Oh darn, a good one has gone. Like some one else mentioned the Earthsea and number of other classics from her. The only good thing about her passing is that it reminded me I've finished reading all of her work.
 
I once taught a course on science fiction in which The Left Hand of Darkness was featured prominently. This was prior to almost any discussion of gender identity in the media. The little that occurred in universities was not widely advertised.

Most of my students initially did not know how to react to the book. Class discussions were ... lively, let's say.
 
I loved her work, the Earthsea Trilogy in particular. I might re-read it to see if the magic is still there.
 
xterra said:
I once taught a course on science fiction in which The Left Hand of Darkness was featured prominently. This was prior to almost any discussion of gender identity in the media. The little that occurred in universities was not widely advertised.

Most of my students initially did not know how to react to the book. Class discussions were ... lively, let's say.
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I once took a college literature course in which I had to read The Left Hand of Darkness. As a lifelong science fiction fan, it was some of the most painfully slow and uninteresting matter I ever had the misfortune to slog through.
 
She had some short story collections that were really good. A lot of those writers from the 1950's and 60's did their best work as short stories.

One of her more recent ones was called "Changing Planes", which I bought (conveniently enough) at an airport bookstore and read on a plane. That was a really good set of stories.

Le Guin and Andre Norton really set a good standard for female writers in an era when SF was still pretty male dominated. They both clearly got by on the strength of the writing.

I think Larry Niven might be about the last of the big SF writers from that era who is still with us.
 
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next."
- The Left Hand of Darkness ch. 5 (1969)

She was one of my "Big Five" growing up, along with Clarke, Asimov, Dick and Heinlein. I am profoundly saddened that the last of those Pillars has fallen.

R.I.P. Ursula
 
"Left Hand Of Darkness" is one of the great Science Fiction novels..and when it was published broke quite a few taboos.
 
Dave Rogers said:
She was one of the finest writers whose work I've ever encountered. I haven't read all her stories, I don't think, so I have some reading to do now.

Dave
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You have some very enjoyable reading ahead. Her stories are at least as good as her novels. Look for Four Ways to Forgiveness (an anthology of four related novellettes) and the short stories "Nine Lives" and "The Day Before the Revolution."
 
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