Malafrena

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

I was never interested in Orsinia when I read Le Guin as a kid. I bought Orsinian Tales thinking it would be more Earthsea or The Wind's Twelve Quarters and put it aside, baffled and bored by the lack of magic or spaceships. But now it strikes me as one of her most impressive works, utterly immersive and not at all fantastic, except in being about an imaginary country. The characters live, within their vividly described setting, the language is beautiful, subtle and oblique, the thoughts about love and freedom as as relevant now as in the 1825 of the story. So glad I finally read this and I'll definitely be reading the Tales as well.