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2.0 out of 5 stars
Read The Left Hand of Darkness instead!, Nov 18 2006
I read The Telling right after reading The Left Hand of Darkness--a book which I found beautiful, well written, and uplifting. The Telling on the other hand I found quite dull and disappointing.
It starts out interesting enough, but quickly becomes boring (for me anyway) as the greatest part of the book follows the main character, Sutty, simply researching the underground religion of the planet she is on.
Almost nothing happens! She just talks to people, and writes down what they say...towards the end of the book it gets a bit more interesting (because a few things actually happen) but just when it looks like the story is going to get more intense, the book ends abruptly.
It felt to me like Le Guin wrote this book simply to explore her own ideas of what an ideal religion would be like. The entire focus of the book is on this philosophy, this religion called The Telling--leaving no room for character development, action, or any of the other elements that might have made the book enjoyable.
Definitely not Le Guin's best work. Although I will admit that the book contains a few sentences which are pure poetry--which I why I gave it 2 stars. I do love her prose style--but style enough is certainly not enough to prop up a dull lifeless story.
I also agree with the reviewer who said that Sutty is unlikeable. I didn't relate to her at all. The few characters who seemed to have some depth (like the old woman and her nephew at the inn) just faded out of the story without having been explored.
It seemed to me that Le Guin was having fun with this book, creating a "perfect" religion of her own and showing us how much better it is than what we have on Earth. But just because it was (I'm sure) fun for her to write doesn't mean it was fun to read. I have enjoyed everything by Le Guin so far (even her non-fiction collections) but I did not enjoy this book.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
It's not SUPPOSED to be hardcore sci-fi, Jun 18 2004
This is a book of psychologically-developed science fiction. Quoting Le Guin in 1975's 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters': "Unless physical action reflects psychic action, unless the deeds express the person, I get very bored with adventure stories; often it seems that the more action there is, the less happens. Obviously my interest is in what goes on inside. Inner space and all that." I own and have read most of her career's work. She currently writes like the wise old crone she is, no longer "like a man", which readers may or may not appreciate. 'The Telling' illustrates the ways LeGuin's characters are forced to confront themselves psychologically, making choices based on experience, need, limitations: the old woman taking in her neighbor the political exile; the smartass diplomat chick trapped in a cell with the bodyguard she'd misunderstood from day one (and he, her); a man leaving the village and home planet as historian-adventurer, to the grief of his family. Thoughtful stuff set in the Hainish Cycle of Le Guin's created future.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
The only dud from an excellent author, April 13 2004
Tedious, predictable, cliche-driven plot, one-dimensional characters - other reviewers have already said the same, so I'll just add a few more personal reactions.The only character who seemed real in this book was the protaganist, Sutty, and I really wish she could have faded into the background with the rest. Unfortunately, she leapt out from the pages as the most irritating, nosy, self-righteous moron I have encountered in any book by any author. Again unfortunately, I have actually met a lot of real people who resemble her, so she was certainly convincing. I don't have a problem with main characters who are intentionally despicable (e.g. Captain Davidson in "The Word for World..."), but here it seemed that we were expected to like and sympathise with Sutty - this was impossible for me. One thing that I have enjoyed with many of Le Guin's other works is the ambiguity with which they present the various cultures across the Hainish universe. This is particularly true in "The Left Hand of Darkness". The general culture of the Gethenians never (for me) corresponded too clearly to any Terran ethnic culture, and I liked the fact that the author didn't present definitive judgement on it, or even on the contrasts between the Karhiders and Orgota - realistically, each are shown to have their good, and bad, points and people. The less balanced the presentation of the world, its culture and issues, the less I tend to enjoy the books (e.g. "Four Ways to Forgiveness" came on a bit strong, as did "The Word for World is Forest"). I don't read sci-fi to have an ideology, any ideology, rammed down my throat! The world on which this book focuses, Aka, too clearly represents mainland China, with the oppressed rural areas a fairly weak, one-sided characterisation of Tibet. From the first few lines, we are force-fed a single perspective of the current cultural state of this planet/country and the style of regime which rules them both. This may suit readers incapable of independent thought (and also unable to comprehend that there are two sides to every story), but it really doesn't appeal to me. My advice: for some excellent sci-fi with a strong human touch, read "The Left Hand of Darkness", "The Dispossessed" or "The Birthday of the World". For a much better understanding of the issues with which this book fails to deal satisfactorily, just visit the PRC!
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