The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin

For many years, I avoided Ursula LeGuin, on the mistaken assumption that she was essentially a fantasy author, by virtue of her Wizard of Earthsea novels. It was not until later that I discovered her science fiction work and grew to enjoy it immensely. But LeGuin is not your prototypical science fiction (or it turns out, fantasy) author. She does not write space opera, but instead focuses on character development and human (or alien) interaction. You could label her work anthropological or sociological science fiction, with the fact that aliens, or space travel, or wizards are involved, becoming almost secondary. This collection of thirteen novellas (very close to short stories) is a perfect example of her writing. There may have been a couple of duds (most particularly Hernes and to a lesser degree Buffalo Gals), but by and large there is good stuff here. Four of the stories involve elements of her Hainish science fiction novels, featuring the planet Weres, where slavery is practiced. In this set of three stories, the reader is taken through a planetary and societal evolution in which slaves are first freed, only to see the women become cultural slaves. Again, only nominally science fiction, to the extent that we are dealing with an alien species in a different time and galaxy. Three other stories are set in the author’s Earthsea world, and while I am not a big fan of fantasy, like her science fiction, this fantasy is not heavy handed with extreme magic and fire breathing dragons. There is magic and there are dragons, but they are very subtly exercised or only mentioned in passing. The story is in the characters and their interaction. The final story, Paradise Lost, is the best in my opinion. Perhaps the most “science fiction” of the lot, it is set on a multi-generational, multi-ethnic starship as it approaches its destination. The story is outstanding as the author explores the various tensions and societal developments that can emerge in an isolated population, five generations removed from any knowledge or empathy for the civilization that launched their voyage; an excellent ending to a very nice collection.

Ursula Le Guin, she's brilliant, and imaginative, and sensitive, and radical. Sometimes beautiful prose, always fast moving plots with fair amount of complexity, challenging our notions of ourselves as human, as gendered, as separate from nature. I've read about 1/4 of this collection, it's got a lot of material in it, and in that sense it's also a bargain!

Here is a collection of LeGuin's novellas from a 25 year period. There is a nice blend of sci-fi and fantasy here, with some from the Hainish world and others from Earthsea. My favorite was "Dragonfly," which is an Earthsea story that goes this way and that before a surprise ending. If you've read LeGuin's work before, you'll find her trademark focus on the social sciences and gender roles. Good stuff, and very enjoyable.

Overall a very good value (kindle edition) and the stories were all very good. Some overlap with the short story collection (Buffalo Gals and The matter of Seggri). There is a four story series on a slave holding planet and the revolutions that take place --Forgiveness Day, A Man of the People, A Woman's liberation, and Old Music and the Slave Woman -- I recommend these be read in this order. Also the author seems to base the slave holding society on an English heritage model (UK, Canada, US, Australia etc). I am not sure her story would hold up in a more totalitarian model such as Mao's China or Stalin's Soviet Union. Never the less these are all very good stories that make you think. The other Novellas besides the six I mentioned already are Vaster than Empires and More Slow, Hernes, Another Story or a Fisherman of the Inland Sea, The finder, On the High Paradises Lost. These novellas introduce most of the concepts we see in Le Guin's other writings and novels -- though these seem to fill in and not repeat what is in the novels. I think this would be a good introduction to the authors writing style and topics she covers. A major beef I have is that the author did not include any introduction or short summary about the stories. She did this foe her recently released short story collection The Unreal and the Real which is also a great buy. All in all I highly recommend this novella collection.

This is Le Guin, one of the best writers ever, period. Her works are masterful, and worth your time. However, Saga Press appears to have been fairly sloppy in some of their approach, in ways that don't make sense. For example, there are odd gaps in what is included in this collection. Only 3 of the 4 intertwined novellas from "Four Ways to Forgiveness" are included, for example, with "Betrayals" left out. So you have what is actually an incomplete novel, and will have to go buy "Forgiveness" in order to get the entire scope of Le Guin's story (with no audio-book on offer, btw). Balancing that is that her later novella placed on the same world, "Old Music and the Slave Women" IS included, as it should be. A very puzzling and frustrating omission, nonetheless. I was under the impression that all novellas were included. And what a pure pleasure it would have been to be able to listen the complete audio-book of 'Four Ways to Forgiveness' as part of this collection! Also, "Buffalo Gals" and "The Matter of Seggri" were included in both this collection, and the Saga Press Le Guin short story collection, "The Unreal and the Real". This overlap again shows some sloppiness in determining what goes where, and deprives readers/buyers of additional material ('Betrayals' for example?) that could have been included in one or the other. Highly recommended, and worth buying of course! And what we really need is a multi-volume set of Complete Works, with accompanying audio books. That these aren't available for such an important writer is a crime in my opinion.

This book contains selections from Earthsea, Social dislocations due to space travel, and one of the most masterfully written books I've ever read: Hernes. The book quality from Saga Press (Simon and Schuster) is above average.

I love everything Le Guin wrote, and this is no exception. Deep, meaningful, inspiring.

I have no problem with Le Guin's writing - it is as ever superb. However, the author and the reader are poorly served by this volume. OK, so all the novellas are collected in a single volume, but one story that is widely considered a novella is missing and those that are included are given no context - several of these belong to collections and would be better read with their accompanying texts. Some are part of the Hainish cycle. We would all have been better served if the individual collections to which these belonged had been republished and the remainders collected in a set of volumes with all the short stories. For completists only.

I think it is much better to read the novellas in the proper places - ie. as part of series - or within the right context. I love Ursula Leguin, but somehow these didn't grab me like they normally would.