Review - The Word for World is Forest
Mar. 18th, 2010 02:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanThe Word for World is Forest (Ursula Le Guin)
This is a story with a familiar theme. I see a lot of people comparing this to Avatar, looking at the reviews. This is Ursula Le Guin, so it's better than Avatar, though not as flashy. The writing is not Le Guin's best, in my opinion, but it's still clear and expressive, and lyrical. The story is not new, and I get the impression from the reviews that it was very political and topical at the time it was written -- not a context I share in, so I can't comment on that. Le Guin isn't so shallow a writer that her politics become utterly irrelevant in so short a space of time, though, and the book still has thoughts to offer.
The thing that struck me most, reading it, was how quickly she sketches out the world. This is basically only a novella, so it's not as painstakingly drawn a world as, say, Earthsea, but there's still detail there, even just in the way that Davidson refers to people. Not necessarily overt detail, but implied. I love it.
Not my favourite of Le Guin's work, but interesting and worth a read if you're a fan.
This is a story with a familiar theme. I see a lot of people comparing this to Avatar, looking at the reviews. This is Ursula Le Guin, so it's better than Avatar, though not as flashy. The writing is not Le Guin's best, in my opinion, but it's still clear and expressive, and lyrical. The story is not new, and I get the impression from the reviews that it was very political and topical at the time it was written -- not a context I share in, so I can't comment on that. Le Guin isn't so shallow a writer that her politics become utterly irrelevant in so short a space of time, though, and the book still has thoughts to offer.
The thing that struck me most, reading it, was how quickly she sketches out the world. This is basically only a novella, so it's not as painstakingly drawn a world as, say, Earthsea, but there's still detail there, even just in the way that Davidson refers to people. Not necessarily overt detail, but implied. I love it.
Not my favourite of Le Guin's work, but interesting and worth a read if you're a fan.
