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The Word for World is Forest

Ursula K. Le Guin

3 Reviews

Rated 0

S.F. Masterworks, Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Science fiction, Space opera

Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin's HUGO AWARD-winning tale of colonisation and oppression.

A world of peaceful aliens conquered by bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.

Desperation causes the Athsheans to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. In defending their lives, they endanger the very foundations of their society. Every blow against the invaders is a blow to the core of Athsheans' culture.

And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.

Winner of the 1973 Hugo award for Best Novella, and nominated for many others, The Word for World is Forest is part of Le Guin's 'Hainish Cycle'. It explores a future history of Earth and pacifistic ideals in its depictions of violence, colonialism and resistance.

'A simple story that, like most things Le Guin wrote, packs a powerful emotional and critical punch'- Tordotcom
'Deeply moving and shocking by turns'- Suzanne Reid
'Le Guin writes in quiet, straightforward sentences about people who feel they are being torn apart by massive forces in society . . . and who fight courageously to remain whole' - The New York Times Book Review


Welcome to The Best Of The Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction

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Praise for The Word for World is Forest

  • Le Guin writes in quiet, straightforward sentences about people who feel they are being torn apart by massive forces in society - technological, political, economic - and who fight courageously to remain whole

  • - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

  • Le Guin writes with painstaking intelligence. Her characters are complex and haunting, and her writing is remarkable for its sinewy grace - TIME

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Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula Kroeber LeGuin, daughter of an anthropologist and an author, was born in California in 1929. She attended college at Radcliffe and Columbia, and married C. A. LeGuin in Paris in 1951. She passed away in January 2018.

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