Rocannon's World / The Kar-Chee Reign

I have to thank Ursula Le Guin and her early Hainish Cycle novels for restoring my ability to read, my desire to read voraciously.

The book itself showcases the imaginative powers of a great writer to be. Ursula is not yet at her best in this debut novel but already her story is gripping, the questions that she raises transcend the limits of her invented world and creep into our own. Gently the question of race is hinted at and the role of history in a racial divide. This is not a central issue in the book, just a footnote, just a preview of what is to come in Le Guin's later works

Rocannon's World is Le Guin's debut, and you can sense the bones of greatness trying to poke its way out of the body of a conventional romantic adventure.

The novel begins with a prologue centered on Semley, a woman of the aristocratic Bronze Age warrior Angyar, who seeks a lost necklace that once belong to her ancestors. The necklace rests in a distant museum, in fact one orbiting a planet seven lightyears away, belonging to the high tech League of All Worlds. Semley retrieves her necklace and comes back to a land she barely recognizes after time lag.

Rest-frame decades later, League ethnographer Rocannon arrives to complete the survey of the planet called Fomalhut II. His mission to the warrior Angyar, technological troglodytes show more Gdemiar, and fey Fiia, is interrupted when a rebel faction of the League arrives and destroys his ship and the other 14 expedition members in a sneak attack. Now alone, Rocannon must make a dangerous journey to find the enemy base and get a message back to the League.

The science-fiction gloss covers what is basically a fantasy adventure. The most notable elements is that Fomalhut II's light gravity and high-oxygen atmosphere allow for large flying animals, including mighty windsteeds, which are something like winged great cats. Rocannon's last bit of high technology is a transparent and nearly indestructible survival suit, which saves him from being roasted alive by fearful midmen, a serf race to the Angyar. Rocannon's journey takes him to strange places, including a cave where he learns the secret of mindspeech, a key element in later "Hainish" cycle books.

This is Le Guin, so even weak Le Guin is a good book, but she's finding her feet. Characterization is thin, pacing is uneven, the imaginative elements are more sleight of hand than solid extrapolation, and we learn frustratingly little about the League or mindspeech, given how important both things are later. show less

Great book, not as well-structured as her later work but still an amazing fantasy/sci-fi hybrid. The opening story in the prologue is particularly strong.

One of the stronger Ace Doubles with two above average short novels.

The Kar-Chee Reign is one of Avram Davison's early adventure tales, before he moved to the more literary / historical fantasies such as The Phoenix and The Mirror. The plot is standard -- a far future Earth, mostly exhausted and deserted by after extra-solar colonization -- is invaded by mantis-like aliens (and their pet dragons) who come to strip mine the remaining traces of ore, ripping the world asunder as they go. Gradually a resistance movement arises.

What sets it above the average pulp story is Avram's already developing voice, an atypically dark short chapter involving survivors stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean, and a denouement summarizing somewhat show more cynically what happened in the following decades.

Recommended.

Rocannon's World is Ursula K Leguin's first novel. Facing the title page is a very enthusiastic note from Donald Wollheim on this promising new author. While the prediction was spot on, and the novel is quite solid, I don't believe anyone reading this novel in the Hainish cycle would have seen her evolution to The Left Hand of Darkness or The Dispossessed. World has a plot structure similar to Left Hand, with an emissary stranded on a fairly primitive planet, with complex political and social structures, forced to make a long arduous journey with a few companions. But where Left Hand pared everything down to focus on a few specific relationships and ideas, World tosses in a variety of science fictional or fantasy tropes including a galactic encyclopedia, windsteeds that appear to be giant flying cats, at least four distinct alien races including vampires, FTL unmanned rockets, battles, and two abductions. A E Van Vogt with far better writing. It's as male dominated as a Conan story, and not above the occasional cliche, e.g., "he slept like a baby". This by no means a bad novel, of just historical interest. It's an enjoyable read, that's just overshadowed by what was to come.

Recommended. show less

Avram Davidson is a master of short fiction but I had heard his novels, few as they are, didn't measure up. I was expecting a flub; that's not what I got.

Davidson adopts a voice in writing the Kar-Chee Reign that remains consistent and convincing throughout, and is a subtle alternative to many of the voices found in SF. The writing is evocative, the characters are interesting and the story and its underpinnings are complex and well-crafted. The aliens _are_ alien, their purpose aloof from the fate of humankind but huge in its impact, and the differing perceptions of the humans guide their responses to the aliens in intriguing ways. Like much of Davidson's fiction it is thoughtful and thorough rather than explosive and thrilling. A show more quiet, intelligent read. show less

it's been a couple of years since I've read any Le Guin, and I have clearly been away for too long. she is still my favourite, despite this not being her best work. pretty-good Le Guin is better than most other things.

I really need to pace myself when I read her work. Her descriptions are pithy, with really good imagery, and you miss a lot of you gloss over them.

The strengths of this book: portraying the different viewpoints of each species, especially at the beginning; affording each character on the journey more depth as the story progresses; beautiful descriptions of setting; depth of worldbuilding.

Rocannon's World is interesting. LeGuin maintains a fairy tale quality of sorts while setting the story in a high science-fiction world, complete with FTL ships and ansibles. The combination is almost dream-like and provocative, but unfortunately falls into LeGuin's most common flaw -- a slowness that makes the book hard to want to pick up and difficult to concentrate once you have.