I hate that my first thought when reading this book was of James Cameron and his damnable smurfs. I hate the fact that I thought about those movies at all while reading Le Guin. It feels like a real disservice. Don’t get me wrong here, the Avatar movies are good fun, with great visuals and set pieces of course, and I thought the second one was better than the first. But let’s be honest, we don’t watch them for their poignancy.

The multi-award winning utopian science fiction novel in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish universe. Jeez, people, just please read this book. Honestly. This is the first time I’ve gotten to open up my new Library of America hardbacks of Le Guin’s Hainish series, and they’re wonderful. This story is in volume two of the set. The reading experience was much better than I expected. Normally I’m a lover of paperbacks, and to a lesser extent, ebooks. I’ll choose either of those over a hardback.

After having been asked by absolutely no-one, I thought I’d share a list of all the books I’ve got on my TBR. And because I have taken it upon myself to post up a review for every book I read, you can consider this a kind of sneak-peek at the reviews you can look forward to in the future on this blog, plus get an idea of the kind of books that have captured my interest…

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for science-fiction, and the book which established Le Guin as a major player in the genre, The Left Hand of Darkness is a truly fascinating read. The book has strong feminist themes and explores the concept of androgyny against the backdrop of an alien first-contact scenario…