A primary reading series developed with UCL Institute of Education to help children become confident, independent readers.
‘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.
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.
Reviews
Once again, Le Guin's powerful work illustrates that fantasy need not be escapist, that gender studies need not be dry or strident, and that entertainment need not be mindless
One of the few science fiction writers who have made the leap successfully to be considered an important writer, period
Her characters are complex and haunting and her writing is remarkable for its sinewy grace
She is a splendid short story writer ... Fiction, like Borges's, that finds its life in the interstices between the borders of speculative fiction and realism
A beautiful, profound, irresistible collection - eight wise and wonderful stories by one of the great masters of science fiction
Le Guin has a gift, which is to transform words into worlds. That gift has never been more in evidence than in THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD
Like a tour of other countries, these splendid and necessary stories will send you back home with new eyes
Pure starlight
Like John le Carre's spy novels or Larry McMurtry's Westerns, Le Guin's work transcends the usual limitations of the genre, and this collection is no exception
Le Guin is a writer of enormous intelligence and wit, a master storyteller with the humour and the force of a Twain