Ursula Le Guin has died

[shaolin_monkey]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html?referer=https://www.google.co.uk/

[TordelBack]

So sad to hear this.  My all-time favourite author in any genre, and for my money the very best at turning a clever SF concept into a character-driven story that revealed a truth about humanity.

[Dandontdare]

When I was about 13 our English teacher asked us to all write a letter to one of our favourite authors - out of a class of 30 only one person got a reply, and that was a lovely letter from Ursula LeGuin. A great author, I absolutely loved the Earthsea books

[shaolin_monkey]

I was introduced to her work at 16 years old, when my girlfriend at the time handed me a copy of The Disposessed. My mind was absolutely blown. So many concepts, ideas, political theory, discussions around gender, ownership, capitalism, and all wrapped up in a fantastic sci-fistory of an independent settlement in a moon.

From that point I was hooked, and absolutely soaked up and absorbed as many of her works as possible.

it was only a year later I met and became friends with a guy called Karsten. He was a Danish dude whose job it was to translate all of her work into Danish. I had many a happy evening in his study drinking red wine and looking over the last piece of correspondence from her about the various ways to interpret her words and so choose the best words in Danish that came closest to her meaning. It was a marvellous time, as we both shared such admiration for her work, and would talk about her artistry into the wee hours.

Since then I have been an advocate of her books, and over the years have gifted friends and family, and anyone else interested, with her work. The three I almost always turn to when giving her books as a present are The Lathe of Heaven, The Disposessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness. In fact, that last was the most recent gift I gave someone.

The Left Hand of Darkness is probably my favourite of the three - it starts as a political drama, moves to an action adventure, and finishes as a love story. All the while, she gently wraps your head around the notion of gender being completely irrelevant in all of the above. It's such an important book, and even more so in this age of gender fluidity.

What a writer, what an artist. I owe her so much.

[Robin Low]

The Left Hand of Darkness is probably my favourite of the three - it starts as a political drama, moves to an action adventure, and finishes as a love story. All the while, she gently wraps your head around the notion of gender being completely irrelevant in all of the above. It's such an important book, and even more so in this age of gender fluidity.

Read this last year and rather enjoyed it. Aside from the first two Earthsea books and her book about writing, Steering the Craft, and the collection of essays The Language of the Night, I'm not really familiar with her work. However, I do have several of her books on the shelves, so it's probably way past by time I took them off and read them.

She was also an eloquent and strong voice in for the genres, which only adds to the loss.

Regards,

Robin

[ZenArcade]

Coming on to this late.  I'd like to share the sentiments of the other posters and to mark on a Sci Fi forum the loss of one of the few genuine titans of the genre.
Reading the Disposessed and The Left Hand of Darkness when I was a young person provoked a sense of true awe and wonder in me and for that I am profoundly grateful to this wonderful writer. Z