Gracielis

This is really good. It’s made up of different plot threads, but also images from places and events, and even meeting minutes and strange interludes from things like history and computer code.

It’s a very important book, in that it shows that we could save the Earth, but not by making an important invention and then keeping going the was we do now. We would need to address more than carbon, things like economic gaps, refugees, war, gender roles among other things.

Oh, and a “warning”: make sure you are comfortable when you start reading the book, specifically that the space you are in is at a comfortable temperature. I read the first chapter while being too warm on the first day of a heat wave after a week of rain. Don’t do that!!!

University intrigue, city politics, treason and old magic. Of the three Riverside books this would probably be my least favourite. A reason for that may be that I didn’t find a character to care about the way I cared about St Vier in Swordspoint and Katherine in The Privilege of the Sword.

I liked this. I mean, it’s a bit strange but also quite interesting. The narrator tells her left’s story. She grew up in an underground bunker, one of 40 women who were caged and guarded by men who never speak to them. They are allowed no privacy or occupation, and are not even allowed to touch each other. The other women are older and remember life before the bunker.

One day everything changes.

The narrator isn’t really a likable character, and the story is quite slow, but it is interesting. I’m going to have to look into what else this author has written.

I liked these stories, but compared to the fantastic novels in this series I didn’t like this as much as them. Le Guin is an excellent short story writer, but the novels are much more engaging than this collection, to me anyway.

DNF:d. I liked it, so far, but didn't really have time to read it & today I had to return it to the library.