The Telling (2001)

When I read this, I didn't know about all her other Hainish novels, so I was a little confused about the background. It was still an absorbing read, and interesting. ( )

Spare, thoughtful, and beautiful like all of her Hainish novels. Not heavy on plot, but a fascinating, organic world to explore. ( )

With all the science fiction reading I have been doing this past year, Ursula Le Guin is a writer I could no longer ignore. I really wanted to read The Left Hand of Darkness, but the book was a bit too expensive and the library does not have it. But they did have De vertelling (The Telling). After starting the book I found out this is part eight in a loose series/universe, but that didn’t affect my reading that much. I think the parts of this series are related to each other like those in The Culture universe by Iain M. Banks, which means that while you will enjoy the book more if you know the other parts, you can still read it by itself.
In this story Sutty, from an earth in the future, is sent to the planet Aka to study and observe. However, while she is in transit, something on the planet changes and she hardly has any access to the history of the place because a new totalitarian regime has taken over and destroyed all books, and prohibited history. During the period she is there she finds out more and more about the history, which may give her a key to fixing the relationship between earth-people and Aka.
It took me a bit to get into this story because Le Guin doesn’t give too much of a back story (maybe because of the previous parts). But after getting into the story that didn’t bother me too much anymore. The story itself was very good, because the reader gets to discover Aka along with Sutty. A nice introduction to Le Guin, four out of five stars. ( )

Has much of the usual magnificence of LeGuin's writing, though with a tad too much Telling in the first half or so of the book. Nevertheless, a satisfying conclusion, and worthwhile read. ( )

After living through a series of tragedies on a future, dystopian Earth, Sutty plans to travel and study the history and literature of a newly contacted planet for the Ekumen. In the 70 years it takes Sutty to reach the planet, however, major social and governmental changes force the literature, history, and religion of the people underground. Sutty is able to travel deep into a rural area in the mountains where she tries to regain what has been lost.

I was way more connected to Sutty than I have been to Le Guin's other protagonists that I have read. I wanted to understand the Akans with her almost immediately. I enjoyed her growth and the Akan cultural system immensely. ( )