"...[I]t's simply that I came on the 'Tao te Ching'...and began reading it. It was one of the books in our house when I was a kid. And it answered my need."
"...Philip K. Dick is one of the science fiction writers who I think is a really good American novelist. They never compare him to Fitzgerald; they compare him to other science fiction writers. There is where there's a barrier that needs to be crossed."
"I think magical realism is one of the better names not only for what Garcia Marquez and other South American writers do, but for what a lot of us are doing. I think of Italo Calvino....I think some of what I write and some of what other science fiction and fantasy writers in America and England write is magical realism. I think it's a worldwide movement, a way of trying to write about the modern world using literary devices that are shifty and tricky and surprising enough that they catch how v more...
"I think magical realism is one of the better names not only for what Garcia Marquez and other South American writers do, but for what a lot of us are doing. I think of Italo Calvino....I think some of what I write and some of what other science fiction and fantasy writers in America and England write is magical realism. I think it's a worldwide movement, a way of trying to write about the modern world using literary devices that are shifty and tricky and surprising enough that they catch how very complicated our world really is."less...
"[T]he fad now is to have the hero be a girl, armed to the boobs with all sorts of weapons. It's extremely stupid--not real gender reversal, but kind of girls acting like men. They tend to be sexually very promiscuous, like guys. It's a guy's fantasy of a busty woman hero slashing and killing people. It's a change and it isn't any worse, but I don't know that it's much better."
Born in Berkeley, California to an anthropologist father and a writer mother, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote her first story at the age of 9. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 and received an M.A. from Columbia in 1952. The next year, she met her future husband, Charles A. Le Guin, while on the Queen Mary passenger liner en route to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship--they married in December of 1953. While she is known as an author of science fiction, fantasy, and children's books, Le Guin's more...
Born in Berkeley, California to an anthropologist father and a writer mother, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote her first story at the age of 9. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 and received an M.A. from Columbia in 1952. The next year, she met her future husband, Charles A. Le Guin, while on the Queen Mary passenger liner en route to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship--they married in December of 1953. While she is known as an author of science fiction, fantasy, and children's books, Le Guin's stories and novels supersede the genres; she uses science fiction conventions to explore vast human issues such as sexuality, human relations, gender politics, and war. Her writing has been widely embraced by readers and critics, winning a number of awards including both the Hugo and Nebula awards for two of her books, THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (1969) and THE DISPOSSESSED (1974). Le Guin has been greatly influenced by Taoist philosophy, and her vast body of nonfiction has included a retelling of the Lao Tzu's TAO TE CHIONG. In 1998, the Colorado School of Mines' Mobile Robots Project named one of its newly designed robots after her, along with ones named after fellow authors Lois McMaster Bujold and Connie Willis. She has received two lifetime achievement awards, including The Los Angles Times' Robert Kirsch Award in 2000 and the 2004 Margaret A. Edwards Award.less...
Jasmyn wrote a review on The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle)
The second book of the Earthsea Cycle introduces us to Tenar, The Eaten One, or the high priestess of the Nameless Ones. Tenar was selected at birth to hold this position and she loves to do so until the wizard Ged appears.
Ged is there to rob the secret vaults of the Nameless Ones to find a ring that is rumored to help restore peace. Tenar discovers Ged when he enters the underground tunnels she loves to be in.
A nice second book to the series, and it also sets up the third (almost done with it) quite well. I wish we were able to see more of Ged's life inbetween the books, but the glimpses of his life that the books do show us are fascinating.
The second book of the Earthsea Cycle introduces us to Tenar, The Eaten One, or the high priestess of the Nameless Ones. Tenar was selected at birth to hold this position and she loves to do so until the wizard Ged appears.
Ged is there to rob the secret vaults of the Nameless Ones to find a ring that is rumored to help restore peace. Tenar discovers Ged when he enters the underground tunnels she loves to be in.
A nice second book to the series, and it also sets up the third (almost done with it) quite well. I wish we were able to see more of Ged's life inbetween the books, but the glimpses of his life that the books do show us are fascinating.