Customer Reviews

Rocannon's World

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Rocannon travelled to Fomalhaut II for an ethnographic study of the natives, he expected it to be a routine scientific expedition. However, when his starship and companions are vaporized in a sneak attack, he quickly realizes that the planet is home to a secret base of rebels against the League of All Worlds. Now, Rocannon must travel across the world to find the base and stop the rebels. Along the path, he will learn a lot about Fomalhaut II and its peoples...and himself.

This was actually the first novel that author Ursula K. Le Guin published, and it does show. In her introduction to the 1977 edition of the book, she correctly points out that too many features of the story are poorly constructed - such as Rocannon's omnipotent but invisible impermasuit. But, nonetheless, it is a very good story, and an interesting mix of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Indeed, the first chapter, Semley's Necklace, is a fascinating story unto itself, showing how advanced science can create folklore.

So, let me just say that this is a very good story, not quite perfect, but nonetheless quite fascinating. I am very glad that I read it and think that you will be too.

This is the first time I've read a book by Ursula K. Le Guin, and this happens to be the first book she wrote. Apparently she went on to have a very good career as a science fiction writer. This short novel was enough to interest me in reading more of her work.

The novel felt like a combination of fantasy and science fiction. The characters and situations were interesting, but not developed too deeply. This is what I expected of such a short novel. From the perspective of the variety of unique characters and the type of mission to save the world, I was reminded of an Egdar Rice Burroughs novel, only without so much violence and nudity. In contrast the main character was a more mature individual who accomplished his tasks with patience and brains, not brawn.

Overall I found the book to be worth my time. It was not great literature, but a good entertaining read. A comment on the audio book version narrated by Stefan Rudnicki; I would not recommend it due to some editing problems. There were at least two places where multiple paragraphs were repeated. Very annoying.

Ursula Le Guin is one of the few writers who can write a 120 page novel and make it seem epic. Her work is wide and dense at the same time. I didn't realize this was her first novel when I picked it up, so I look forward to reading more from her.

She has a way of conveying information about worlds and cultures with a few masterful words. Never overwriting. One of my favourite descriptions was in the prologue when Semley, a beautiful yet primitive inhabitant from her planet, flies on a spaceship. She doesn't even know what one is, so the journey is described as one would describe it from that innocence.

It took me longer than it should have to read this book because I kept stopping to reread sentences, in awe of her wordsmithing, some of it pure poetry. "The dancers broke apart, their shadows running quickly up the walls, the loosened hair of one swinging bright for a moment. The dance that had no music was ended, the dancers that had no more name than light and shadow were still."

The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because there were too many instances when the protagonist was aided too easily, got out of situations due to happenstance and others' assistance (too much deus ex machina). I wanted him to be less passive and the only instances of that are when he decides to set off on the journey, and at the end when he gets to the enemy's base. But still, the only reason he could be at the base at all was due to an alien's "gift" to him, not something he figured out on his own.

I know she writes "everyman" heroes, regular people who are drawn into extraordinary circumstances. Even so, I wanted more from him. I did like that the hero is an ethnologist, not a warrior, and therefor fascinated by unfamiliar species and compassionate as well.

Other than that, it is pure brilliance and quite profound. I'm not a sci-fi purist, so the fact that the story is woven with fantasy elements didn't bother me as it does some readers.

Rocannon's World is early Le Guin, and not as polished as her later masterpieces, but it's still an exciting tale with gorgeous imagery and important concepts to grapple with. It's the first of her original Ekumen trilogy. The first chapter alone is worth the book.

This recorded version is Stefan Rudnicki's. As many others have said, he could make a telephone directory sound compelling. His work with this piece is beautiful and spellbinding.

This good book is one of LeGuin's earliest novels. Set in the Hainish future history used in many of her books, it features an anthropologist marooned on a planet whose humanoid inhabitants are largely at a Bronze age level of technology. The theme of an outsider in unfamiliar culture is one used in some of her other books, notably the excellent The Left Hand of Darkness. The character of the hero is based probably on her father, the great anthropologist AL Kroeber. This book features a well told quest story that nicely mixes elements of science fiction and traditional mythology.

A short summary:

The story is written from the perspective of Rocannon, an anthropologist, visiting and surveying a world of people with little technology. He discovers to his horror that this world has been chosen as a base for a rebellion against the League of All Worlds. With no way of contacting his own world, and all his colleagues dead, he decides to tackle the invaders himself.

I really enjoyed this book - what a pity it's out of print. It's short and easy to read, but very powerful. Le Guin has a distinctive writing style, beautiful but still very readable. She manages to convey information about the world and its many peoples and cultures with a few deft strokes, without resorting to heavy-handedness. At the same time Rocannon's character is revealed by his observations and reactions.

Recently I've been reviewing old science fiction books in which the characters are so chauvanist or so unquestioningly sexist that I thought I was reading the personal diaries of Don Draper. The fact that this thing is written by Ursula LeGuin doesn't necessarily mean that it is too far off from those other books, but thankfully she's not babbling on like Heinlein about her beliefs.

This is a straight-ahead science fiction book about an anthropologist trying to get a planet together. It's full of cliches and meandering writing that puts the main character through some adventures, but by the end of it you feel like the thing is barely over when there are only 5 pages left. Bad pacing and boring characters dominate this book. Apparently, it's also a first book in a series but that doesn't excuse it.

It's better than other books of its time but it's still an early book written by a writer who was figuring herself out.

When Rocannon travelled to Fomalhaut II for an ethnographic study of the natives, he expected it to be a routine scientific expedition. However, when his starship and companions are vaporized in a sneak attack, he quickly realizes that the planet is home to a secret base of rebels against the League of All Worlds. Now, Rocannon must travel across the world to find the base and stop the rebels. Along the path, he will learn a lot about Fomalhaut II and its peoples...and himself.

This was actually the first novel that author Ursula K. Le Guin published, and it does show. In her introduction to the 1977 edition of the book, she correctly points out that too many features of the story are poorly constructed - such as Rocannon's omnipotent but invisible impermasuit. But, nonetheless, it is a very good story, and an interesting mix of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Indeed, the first chapter, Semley's Necklace, is a fascinating story unto itself, showing how advanced science can create folklore.

So, let me just say that this is a very good story, not quite perfect, but nonetheless quite fascinating. I am very glad that I read it and think that you will be too.

An early novel in the Hainish cycle, Rocannon's World is a small story set on Fomalhaut II, inhabited by few different alien species. Rocannon is a researcher examining the world and its population for the League of Worlds, when rebel forces destroy his ship and kill all of his companions. Rocannon is stranded on the world with no way to contact friends.

Fortunately he has friends on the planet. Armed with their bronze age technology, friendship and courage, Rocannon takes on the technologically advanced enemies. Sometimes technology just isn't the key! Le Guin paints an interesting world and tells a good story, even if it pales in comparison to her better-known Hainish novels.

The League of All Worlds never properly scouted Fomalhaut II. Noting the presence of several high-intelligence species, they chose one and accelerated its development in an effort to gain a new ally in time for the impending galactic war. But when a young ethnologist named Rocannon falls in love with Semley - a golden-haired native who has come to claim her inheritance from the spacemen's museum - he embarks on a voyage of discovery that will show how many of Fomalhaut's secrets still lie undiscovered. Rocannon's mission soon becomes one of utmost urgency: his ship destroyed, he discovers that a rebel faction plans to use the world as a base, and that he himself must warn the League of the peril - even if he must cross Fomalhaut II from pole to pole in search of a working ansible.

To label "Rocannon's World" a work of science fiction is a gross misnomer. LeGuin's first foray into SF - her first Ekumen novel - is almost entirely fantasy. Whatever science fiction there is in it (not much) is extremely pedestrian, so much a collection of deus-ex-machina plot devices that the author herself decries their use in the foreword. The fantasy, however, is much more palatable, though in making the world and its peoples LeGuin shows an extreme over-reliance on Norse myths. The writing shows glints of LeGuin's future greatness, but the style is awkward, unpracticed. The book's utmost brevity did not allow LeGuin to develop the major characters to any sufficient extent, who always remain rather flat and predictable. Rocannon himself is a carbon copy of Ged, though he lacks Ged's richness of character.

Rocannon's quest is artificial, and, on the whole, the book's setup - the first fifty pages or so - are haphazardly put together and not at all easy to read. Only through sheer effort did I choke them down. The going does get easier later on, when LeGuin unfolds the setting and describes the indigenous peoples and their myths. Nonetheless, I was never quite able to rid myself of the feeling that I was reading an overwritten short story - which this book once was.

Recommended reading to LeGuin completists.