FuschiaReads.

Miss LeGuin is one of my favorite authors and I will read whatever she writes, as at her most uneven she is many authors best. She is also the author so often quoted by my collegues and I as someone who can write an excellent story in under 200 pages - as opposed to the seeming compulsion for trilogies full of drivvell that fill the sci-fi/fantasy shelves of modern bookstores.

This novel is set in the same universe as the wonderful 'Left Hand of Darkness' and 'Rocannon's World' - both of which come highly highly recommended and will no doubt have posts of their own soon as I read them both on a yearly basis. I sat in the sun yesterday afternoon and read most of this book and cried because some of it is so sad and cried because all of it is so very beautifully written that it makes my heart ache. The loveliest and most evocative poetry in prose - with space travel and aliens and lasers!

Sutty is an Observer on the planet Aka, a new member of the Ekumen and a planet fearsomely embracing a Corporation style government - citizens are 'producer-consumers' etc. All history, literature etc has been ruthlessly suppressed but linguist/historian and allround gorgeous girl Sutty is unexpectedly allowed to travel to a small country town where she discovered all sorts of wonderful things have been preserved.

This novel is quite similar to 'Always Coming Home', where you have the strong sense that Miss LeGuin is testing out political and social theories, and there is certainly no doubt which ones she hates. Sutty comes from an Earth governed by a totalitarian, militant theology :

"In late March, a squadron of planes from the Host of God flew from Colorado to the District of Washington and bombed the Library there, plane after plane, four hours of bombing that turned centuries of history and millions of books into dirt......The Commander-General of the Hosts of the Lord announced the bombing while it was in progress, as an educational action. Only one Word, only one Book. All other words, all other books were darkness, error. They were dirt. Let the Lord Shine Out! cried the pilots in their white uniforms and mirror-masks, back at the chuch at Colorado Base, facelessly facing the cameras and the singing, swaying crowds in ectasy. Wipe Away the Filth and Let the Lord Shine Out!"

Anykind of dictatorship or system that denies individual faith or hope or sexuality or abilility to make decisions etc is out in the book. I say Vote Miss LeGuin for GodEmperess and the world will be a better place. And there would definately be more poetry - which is a good thing in any book!