Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin (Rev)

By Elizabeth Cummins

Book Overview

Ever since Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel appeared as one half of an Ace Double paperback in 1966, she has become one of the most important writers in the field of science fiction. This book introduces the fiction of Le Guin by examining the four worlds she has created in her major novels and novellas from 1968 to 1986--Earthsea, the Hainish planets, Orsinia, and the future West Coast. An award-winning science fictionist and fantasist, Le Guin's works include Rocannon's World, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, The Dispossessed, Orsinian Tales, and numerous others. In Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin, Cummins introduces readers to the worlds of Le Guin in hopes they will understand and appreciate her use of the fantasy and science fiction genres, the kinds of stories she tells, and the way she tells them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872498697
• ISBN13: 9780872498693
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

I searched a long time before I found writing about Le Guin

This is a wonderful book to read if you enjoy Le Guin's fiction. It's useful to readers and academics alike because Cummins has split the book into four sections that study the settings for Le Guin's stories. There is a section for the Hainish Universe, another for her works set on the future-West Coast of America, one for the Earthsea books and so on and so forth.Reading a book structured like this is a delight because Cummins has tied in themes and concerns of Le Guin's work with her fictional settings. It reads like a detailed and complex unofficial Ursula Le Guin handbook, with many references to the tao te ching and other philosophical pre-occupations, but is easy to read and simply ~*fascinating*~.