Lucas Blogs About Books

  Hey! It's this book again! So, what's this boo—oh it's another of Ursula K. LeGuin's Hainish novels ! That it is. This one is called City of Illusions . Okay, but what's its deal? All right, so this one takes place on Earth, or Terra (I have to admit that I'm irrationally annoyed when science fiction novels treat "Terra" as a more universal alternative to "Earth," but that has nothing to do with this book).  A young woman named Parth comes across a naked amnesiac with cat-like yellow eyes (like so amnesiac that he doesn't even remember how to talk). Over time, the amnesiac, Falk, learns the customs of Parth's people, including learning the new strain of Taoism that has been passed down through the centuries. Eventually, Falk decides that he needs to learn where he comes from, so he sets off for the mysterious city of Es Toch where the Shing rule the Earth with lies and illusions. Who are the Shing? No one rightly knows except that...

Yep, more Le Guin ! So, what's this book's deal? As you can see, it's another of Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish novels. This time it's Planet of Exile  which, like Rocanon's World ,  includes both fantasy and science fiction tropes. Though it certainly does lean more into the science fiction side of the premise. The premise being? So, remember how the League of All Worlds is at war with some other unnamed faction? Vaguely. Well, that's still going on. However, it hasn't directly affected the planet of Werel, where this story takes place. Only indirectly? Yeah. See, the League has established a colony there, which is currently at relative peace with the local population. And by local population you mean who exactly. Well, the human settlers call them HILFs. Humanoids I'd Like to Fu— No! It stands for Highly Intelligent Life Forms. But yes, they are humanoid (again due to the spread of the ancient Hainish civilization) and yes, some of the settlers and so...

I'll admit it, I possess a weakness for Le Guin omnibuses . . . omnibi? So, what's this book's deal? Oh, hey, it's another Ursula K. Le Guin collection! It is, but this time I'm only blogging about the first book: Rocannon's World . So, I've already read The Left Hand of Darkness  and The Dispossessed  with which it shares a setting, but this is the first book she wrote in what is generally called The Hainish Cycle. Speaking of Hain, Rocannon, the protagonist hails from Hain. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The novel begins with a brief ethnological note about the second planet of Fomalhaut, where a previous survey had revealed multiple sentient hominids with a roughly bronze/iron age level of technology. However, after this sketch, the prologue feels like a fairytale: with a young princess in search of an appropriate dowry. She travels to her father's castle and is told that the family treasue, a necklace was given to the dwarf-like Gde...

At least they got the human-to-dragon scale right. Hey! Remember a couple weeks ago when I talked about how much the old Hallmark/Sci-Fi Channel miniseries based on Earthsea ? Well, now I'm gonna talk about how Studio Ghibli donked up their Earthsea adaptation! SPOILERS , of course. The Farthest Shore (1972) & Tehanu  (1990) by Ursula K. Le Guin (with a little bit of Tales of Earthsea  (2001) & The Other Wind  (2001) thrown in for good measure) into Tales of Earthsea ( ゲド戦記 or  Gedo Senki ) dir. Gorō Miyazaki, written by Gorō Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa What gives? Studio Ghibli and Ursula K. Le Guin seem like two great tastes that should taste great together. Heck, if Teto (Nausicaa's pet fox-squirrel) isn't inspired by Ged's pet otak , I'll eat my hat (Please note: I will not eat my hat). The Original: All right, let's get this show on the road. The film borrows a good deal more from The Farthest Shore than Tehanu , so I'll focus a little ...

I knew there was I reason I kept that tablet around. Okay! So, we all remember that weird adaptations series I wrote several entries of last year, right? Well, we're sort of resurrecting it. This is Badaptations, where I look at adaptations that suck, and talk about why. Expect SPOILERS  aplenty. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) & The Tombs of Atuan  (1970) by Ursula K. Le Guin into Earthsea (AKA Legend of Earthsea ) (2004) dir. Robert Lieberman, written by Gavin Scott So, what got lost in translation when a tv producer decided to take a beloved fantasy series and adapt it as a cheap Lord of the Rings knock-off? The Original: Okay, so I've recently reviewed both Wizard and Tombs , so I'll try and be brief here. All right. Let's get cracking: Duny is the son of a village bronze smith on the isle of Gont. Like most Gontish men, Duny has reddish brown skin. Unlike most Gontish men, he displays an early talent for the Art Magic, learning a few simple spells fr...

You may have noticed that I daintily withdrew two fingers to make sure that the author's name would be visible. You're welcome. So, what's this book's deal? The idea that a deal could belong to any one book is propertarian excrement! Beg pardon? Just getting into the spirit of this week's book. The Dispossessed , a novel which is apparently labelled as "An Ambiguous Utopia" in previous editions. And speaking of this edition, Harper Perennial published it with a number of embarrassing typos. That's not something you usually harp on. No it is not, Hypothetical Reader. But there's a particularly egregious one I'd like to point out before we go any further. See, the novel follows the main character, Shevek, from infancy to adulthood, and in the section where Shevek is eight years old, his age is initially given as eighty. That's pretty egregious. But you're getting ahead of yourself. Who wrote this book? Oh, it's by Ur...

So, what's this book's deal? The Other Wind is the last of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. Oh, good, for a while there this blog was threatening to turn into Lucas Blogs About Earthsea and a Series of Unfortunate Events .  Would it really be that bad? It might get a little boring. Okay, but fair warning, I've got ideas for at least two more posts about Earthsea, but I'll sit on them for a little while. They're about the adaptations, aren't they ? Yep! Anyway, before we talk about The Other Wind , let's talk SPOILERS   for Tehanu  and "Dragonfly." So at the end of Tehanu , Ged and Tenar have been captured by the new wizard of Re Albi who was a former disciple of Cob (the evil wizard from The Farthest Shore ) who was using Pelnish lore to keep the Lord of Re Albi alive but infirm and under his control. The wizard is about to kill them when the dragon Kalessin arrives in the TA-DA! nick of time and saves Ged and Tenar by im...

So, what's this book's deal? You know, Hypothetical Reader, you've been pretty cool about every book being an entry in the same series for the last several weeks. I guess I have, maybe I'm growing. Or maybe I just forgot to write you as a scold. Thanks. So, Tales from Earthsea  is the fifth entry in the increasingly inaccurately named Earthsea trilogy ( to borrow a joke from the Hitchhiker's Guide series ). This time around it's actually a collection of short stories. Shit! You're not gonna give each one its own review like you did with Terra Incognita , are you? No, I've learned my lesson. One review for the whole book. So, this sort of expands on the project begun in Tehanu . That is to say, Le Guin continues to interrogate the base assumptions of her own imagined world. None of the stories is a direct continuation of Tehanu , but there are a number of thematic similarities in these stories. So let's get going. First there's...