This took me a long long time to read, in large part because I started out reading it as a compilation, instead of as a unified work. It *is* a compilation - but it's better read as a novel. You really have to develop and remember a sense of the Kesh to get the most of each component, and the ordering of stories is intentional.

It's a strange, unsettling, wonderful anthropological study of a people that doesn't exist, but drawing heavily on people who have existed. It's unbelievably rich and thoroughly thought-out (there's a CD of songs and poems, for God's sake). It's also maybe kinda self-indulgent.

If you really like LeGuin, you'll enjoy it.

A strange and painful book to read in October 2017, while the Valley burns. ( )

Love this book! It was a little confusing at first, but after I learned that it was written as different people speaking, it made it much easier to read. I still am not sure who the anthropologist is in the beginning. I would recommend this book but – be patient. – Reviewed by Mona ( )

Se me ha terminado haciendo tan cuesta arriba que la parte final (la que el propio libro dice que es informativa y no narrativa) la he dejado sin leer. ( )

This is one of my favourite books and I don't like dystopian fiction and so much better than 5th Sacred thing by Starhawk, which I loathed. Normally I like Starhawk but that is her non-fiction efforts.
It has the added benefit of music to go along with it. She creates a world that is believable and real. Read this instead of 5th Sacred Thing. I don't care if that makes me a terrible Pagan. It's a terrible book. ( )

Not always a page-turner, but I had a great time in this world.

This felt a lot like the reading I did for my ancient civilization classes in college, but here Ursula K. Le Guin was doing the work of an entire people. I expect I'll be thinking a lot about the folks living in the Valley in the future.

What have I been thinking about already? Here's some

The portrayal of the Dayao is flatter than that of the Urrastians in the Dispossessed, I think. Maybe there just wasn't as much time to develop them - and maybe some of it is just how Stone Telling talks about her life.

The way Le Guin uses language and metaphor to shape a world-view is fascinating (& very self-aware). Examples include referring to all entities in the world as "people," or the way the Kesh identify "giving" and "wealth," or the way that one's child "makes someone a parent." I wonder if she read that Lakoff book.

Reading this book in 20 minute bursts on the MTA is a funny situation to be in.

One of my favorite quotes is from the introduction to the appendix: "Things from here on will be just as fictional, but more factual, although equally true." I think it captures the way she's been playing with fact and fiction and meaning and language throughout the whole book. ( )