I have to admit, I was a little hesitant about this book, which consists of four novellas. I wanted to explore science fiction and this title sounded interesting, but knowing that Ursula Le Guin is such a big name in science fiction, I was a little concerned I was going to be getting into a book that was going to be just a little too weird for me quite frankly. However, I soon forgot I was reading science fiction and really enjoyed this title. Le Guin's focus is much more on her characters and their lives, outer and inner, which made this book particularly interesting to me. I just found out that this book is one of a series, so that could explain why I was a little confused here and there about the two new worlds she created, although I found that figuring out exactly what these worlds were all about added to my pleasure of reading this book. Le Guin is masterful with her writing, and the final novella, written in the first person, is particularly gripping. It was particularly fascinating how the four novellas, while each could be read as a stand alone, were intimately connected and added to each other. If I had more time, I would love to go back and re-read the entire book after gaining knowledge about the two new worlds from all four novellas. ( )

Maybe even five if you want to call the 'Notes' 'historial' piece a story. It also has a timeline.

Apart from that, all longer stories of life, conflict and rebellion on this planet, particularly from the point of view of Ekumen types. A couple of strong novellas in the middle.

Four Ways To Forgiveness : Betrayals - Ursula K. Le Guin
Four Ways To Forgiveness : Forgiveness Day - Ursula K. Le Guin
Four Ways To Forgiveness : A Man of the People - Ursula K. Le Guin
Four Ways To Forgiveness : A Woman's Liberation - Ursula K. Le Guin
Four Ways To Forgiveness : Notes on Werel and Yeowe - Ursula K. Le Guin

Peace shack.

3 out of 5

Ekumen embassy explosion entrapment unreast.

4 out of 5

Envoy lessons.

3.5 out of 5

Slave teachings.

4 out of 5

Planet history.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/01... ( )

a very enjoyable read about a civilization just coming out of a long and oppressive culture of slavery and repression. Le Guin writes a story that takes American slave narratives, the history of woman's repression and manages to turn it into a story that captures all the tragedy of being a slave but does not reference any society, past or present. ( )

Ursula K. Le Guin is a master storyteller. This book puts together four interconnecting novellas set in the Hainish worlds of Werel and Yeowe. Yeowe used to be Werel's slave colony and Werel was under strict slave economy until very recently. That makes an excellent setting to write about freedom, equality and human rights.

The stories tackle interesting issues. For example, in the liberated Yeowe, the visible divide between masters and slaves, owners and assets, has been broken down, reluctantly, but the invisible divide between men in power and powerless women still survives. This is the topic of the heaviest of the novellas, A Woman's Liberation. The collection opens with much lighter Betrayals and the other two fall somewhere in between.

All are interesting, and I do recommend this collection both to fans of Le Guin's Hainish stories and non-genre readers interested in questions of freedom, equality and slavery. Sure, these are science fiction stories, but the science involved is more sociology than physics.

(Original review at my review blog) ( )

It's a very well written cohesive collection of story. It gets a full extra star because I lifted the title for a poem. Thank you Ursula. ( )