#hainish

[a-honap-leanya]

I am literally about to start uklgposting bc of coming of age in karhide

why was I procrastinating reading these short stories...

when I saw the words *Praise then Darkness*, I almost screamed back *AND CREATION UNFINISHED!!!!*

what am I doing to myself again

anyway, back to reading 💖💖💖

[kettricken]

Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Sanrio

[biblioklept]

Riff on Ursula K. Le Guin's collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters

Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1975 volume The Wind’s Twelve Quarters collects seventeen short stories, offering, as the author puts it in her foreword, “a retrospective” of her career to date: “a roughly chronological survey of my short stories during the first ten years after I broke into print.” Le Guin adds that The Wind’s Twelve Quarters is “by no means a complete collection” of her short stories to…

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle series)

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

The Tithenai Chronicles (A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, All the Hidden Paths) by Foz Meadows

Endorsement from submitter: "Incredible plot, incredible worldbuilding, incredible relationship building."

“Stolen me? As soon to say a caged bird can be stolen by the sky.”

Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different plans: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.

Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.

With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love―as both will learn―is quite another.

Byzantine politics, lush sexual energy, and a queer love story that is by turns sweet and sultry, Foz Meadows' A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an exploration of gender, identity, and self-worth. It is a book that will live in your heart long after you turn the last page.

Fantasy, romance, arranged marriage, politics, murder mystery, secondary world, series, adult

[littlestpersimmon]

I just saw you mention Ursula Le Guin in your last answered ask. I’ve been meaning to start reading stuff by her. I want to regardless, but do some of her books have trans characters?

[quietflorilegium]

“A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.”

Genly Ai, Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Left Hand of Darkness"

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[diariodeunrincondemi]

When Ursula K. said "To break a promise is to deny the reality of the past; therefore it is to deny the hope of a real future" and also said "To deny the past is to deny the future. A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it"

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

Following my hyperfixation with The left hand of darkness I read Winter's king by Ursula K. Le Guin, so let's talk about it!

It's a short story that takes place in Gethen (yay!). It's about king Argaven XVII so it takes place a few generations after TLHOD (since king Argaven XV was the ruler of Karhide in that novel). In this time the Ekumen has already settled in Gethen, and the planet is about to experience many political changes. Basically Argaven is kidnapped and her memories are altered, so now she'll have a journey trying to get them back and rule her country without any external influences, leaving her (at the time) baby daughter behind.

This story is particularly interesting because Gethen's people are reffered to with femenine pronouns instead of the generic masculine used in TLHOD.

You can find this story in The wind's twelve quarters, a collection of short stories by Le Guin, most of them being part of the Hainish cycle (which apparently is the universe where most of her sci-fi stories/books take place, and it's all about the ekumen and that stuff, it looks so interesting!).

Oh, and as a fun fact I also just discovered that there's another short story that takes place in Gethen called Coming of age in Karhide, which sounds so interesting!!! I swear, this woman's books are going to take my whole soul.

I also want to mention that I discovered this story through @evelasco-art 's gorgeous illustration of it, so go check their account out because they're trully talented!

[pathos-bathos]

Ursula K Le Guin I love you so much

[1000life]

wipeout: futurism (2024)

[sparklywaistcoat]

Man, there are some stories by Ursula Le Guin where it is blindingly obvious that she was raised by anthropologists.

[kettricken]

Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Sanrio

[emerald-truth]

one thing about Ursula Le Guin is she's gonna put something in her story about leaving and returning, about exile, and the significance of a home

[vifetoile]

Health and good work, Courage, patience, and peace.

Hainish mantra, from "Old Music and the Slave Woman" by Ursula K le Guin

As a Hainish mantra, this quote is in the same 'verse as The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness

[fyodor-pavlovich-karamazov]

recently got a friend into reading the hainish cycle based on my constant nagging them about it, and saying that both the friend and the themes of the books are very gender leftism. turns out their polish mum read a lot of Ursula leguinns work back in Poland in the eighties, which bypassed censorship on account of it being fantasy. I thought I was so original and alternative by reccomending it, and it turns out that apparently leguinn was massive in Poland. anyway, if you haven't read any of her work, I highly recommend you do as she was way ahead of her time, and if nothing else her writing is very compelling