The Birthday of the World and Other Stories - Softcover
'Her most important book since ALWAYS COMING HOME and her most satisfactory collection since her first, the brilliant, THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS. A formidable and rewarding work, a prime candidate for best SF collection of the year. An essential book.' LOCUS Six of the eight piece are set in Le Guin's classic Hainish cycle. The title story, 'The Birthday of the World', stands alone and the final piece, 'Paradises Lost', is a new short novel original to the collection, a major addition to the generation starship subgenre of science fiction.
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About the Author:
Ursula K. Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California, and lives in Portland, Oregon. She has won many Nebula and Hugo Awards as well as a National Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Newberry Honor and the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.
From Publishers Weekly:
Deeply concerned with gender, these eight stories, although ostensibly about aliens, are all about ourselves: love, sex, life and alienation are all handled with illuminating grace. Le Guin's overarching theme, the journey, informs her characters as they struggle to come to terms with themselves or their worlds. The journey can be literal, as in "Paradises Lost," set on a generational ship, where the inhabitants, living in a utopia, learn they will land on the planet their ancestors set out to colonize 40 years earlier; and as in "Unchosen Love," where a young man falls in love with someone in another country and must decide if he can build a new life in a new place. Or the journey can be figurative, as in "Coming of Age in Karhide," in which an adolescent in a genderless society enters sexual maturity; and in "Solitude," as outsiders visit and study a planet where the men and women live apart and a young woman seeks to perfect her soul in the only place she knows as home. In "The Birthday of the World," the nature of God is considered as hereditary rulers, literal gods to their subjects, give up their power when new gods aliens come, throwing their culture into chaos. Gender is a constant concern: "The Matter of Seggri" takes place on a planet where women greatly outnumber men, and in "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways," society is based on complex marriage relationships comprising four people. Le Guin handles these difficult topics through her richly drawn characters and her believable worlds. Evocative, richly textured and lyrically written, this collection is a must-read for Le Guin's fans. (Mar. 13)National Book Award, Le Guin published two major books last year, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind.
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- PublisherGollancz
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0575074795
- ISBN 13 9780575074798
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages384
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The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
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Gollancz, United Kingdom
(2003)
ISBN 10: 0575074795
ISBN 13: 9780575074798
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Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. first u.k. edition. text clean and unmarked. binding tight. covers have very light wear. fore-edge, head and foot of book have some light toning and are clean. Seller Inventory # 5008880
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The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
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ISBN 10: 0575074795
ISBN 13: 9780575074798
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Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Good (ex-library). Reprint. Trade Paperback. 362 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Gollancz, UK, 2003. Reprint. *** CONDITION: This book is in good (ex-library) condition. More specifically: Ex-library with usual marks, stamps, stickers. Covers have no creasing. Spine has minor lean and moderate reading creases. . Cover is protected in clear, self-adhesive laminate. Pages are reasonably tanned. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: 'Her most important book since ALWAYS COMING HOME and her most satisfactory collection since her first, the brilliant, THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS. A formidable and rewarding work, a prime candidate for best SF collection of the year. An essential book.' LOCUS Six of the eight piece are set in Le Guin's classic Hainish cycle. The title story, 'The Birthday of the World', stands alone and the final piece, 'Paradises Lost', is a new short novel original to the collection, a major addition to the generation starship subgenre of science fiction. *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Science Fiction & Fantasy; ISBN: 0575074795. ISBN/EAN: 9780575074798. Inventory No: 14020221. The photo of this book is of the actual book for sale. Seller Inventory # 14020221
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The Birthday Of The World
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Orion / Gollancz
(2003)
ISBN 10: 0575074795
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Book Description Paperback: 8½" x 5¼". Condition: Near Fine: Small signs of wear. Cover Art: Digital Vision & GettyImages / Will Crocker (illustrator). 2003 Edition. © 2002: A collection of 8 short stories by Ursula K Le Guin:- Contents: Coming Of Age In Karhide / The Matter Of Seggri / Unchosen Love / Mountain Ways / Solitude / Old Music And The Slave Women / The Birthday Of The World / Paradises Lost:- Synopsis: For more than four decades, Ursula K Le Guin has enthralled readers with her imagination, clarity and moral vision, creating a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters. Here, in 'The Birthday Of The World', are eight brilliant short works, including the original novella 'Paradises Lost', which probe the essence of humanity. Six of the tales are set in Le Guin's world of the Ekumen - 'my pseudo-coherent universe with holes in the elbows' as Le Guin describes it, which was made famous in the multi-award-winning classic novel 'The Left Hand Of Darkness'. Step into worlds powered by Le Guin's extraordinary imagination, and discover complex social interactions and troublesome issues of gender and sex, loyalty and survival, religion, history and slavery. Discover one of the most remarkable talents writing today:- Review(s): "A master of the craft" - Neil Gaiman:- (original cost £9.99). Seller Inventory # 21.002.00001
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The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
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ISBN 13: 9780575074798
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Very Good. book. Seller Inventory # D7S9-1-M-0575074795-6
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