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167 reviews by:
smoladeryn
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What will the creature made all of seadrift do in the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?
p2
Slow at first, definitely a product of its time, the brilliance and reason for this to be deemed a “classic” shows itself for the last 1/3 of the book.
Terrifying in the end, a heartbreaking look at a terrible abuse of power.
Le Guin shows in less than 200 pages how “good intentioned” men do indeed become abusive, power hungry, and ultimately, lost, men.
The quality of the will to power is, precisely, growth. Achievement is it’s cancellation. To be, the will to power must increase with each fulfillment, making the fulfillment only a step to a further one. The vaster the power gained, the vaster the appetite for more.
p131
just believing you’re right and your motives are good isn’t enough. You have to… be in touch. He isn’t in touch. No one else, no thing even, has an existence of its own for him; he sees the world only as a means to his end. It doesn’t make any difference if his end is good; means are all we’ve got… He can’t accept, he can’t let be, he can’t let go.
p156
and a machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own.
p174
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Here he is, doing things he didn't care a damn about, and enjoying it. Now he understood what made people (people he always pitied) happy when they took a job without feeling the compulsion of an internal "Es muss sein!" and forgot it the moment they left for home every evening. This was the first time he had felt that blissful indifference.
p197
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
FINALLY. A transhumanist story that centres the disabled experience.
When I was fourteen and newly broken by the car accident, I realized that there are times when you either save yourself or you don’t. It’s only up to you…
p25
“The problem with you,” Force said, “is that you’re so used to pain and discomfort that your definition of feeling okay is not the greatest indicator of being okay”.
p185
Phenomenal disability representation. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything that resonated with my experience of disability quite so profoundly.
So much so that I could look past one of the biggest flaws in the plot and call this a perfect story. The hole being that why would Ultimate Corp need to create deformed/disabled children when there’s already so many in the world born every year?
But, I really don’t care. Gods I love those characters and everything they go through. Especially the very special cows, Carpe Diem and GPS.
The imagery throughout such a short novel is mind bendingly brilliant too.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
…they could at least have the decency not to try again to unload their responsibilities on the first saviour that came along. Yes, she was willing to take them by the hand and drag them in the right direction until she was sure they could carry on by themselves. No, she was not going to accept leadership of the Guild…
p280
You’re strong. You have strong ideas about the Guild. And you’re willing to put them into action. It’s inevitable they look to you for a lead.
p282
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
reflective
slow-paced
While the first half was nothing new per se, I don’t think the book really claims to be that. Instead I see the first half as catching people up so everyone is on the same page. 101 I guess!
The second half was a lot more of putting into words what many marginalized people already know and validating our experiences. I found it very validating and surprisingly even found some VERY practical new (to me) spins on things like maintaining boundaries.
This essay was also one of the most inclusive I’ve read on the topic, centering, in many cases the most marginalized among us.
—
The second half was a lot more of putting into words what many marginalized people already know and validating our experiences. I found it very validating and surprisingly even found some VERY practical new (to me) spins on things like maintaining boundaries.
This essay was also one of the most inclusive I’ve read on the topic, centering, in many cases the most marginalized among us.
—
When men don’t perform their fair share of the work, women tend to pick up the slack. It’s very difficult for most women who’ve been indoctrinated by the laziness lie and decades of living under sexism to consider that they deserve to let those responsibilities drop and to be as selfish as the men around them.
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
But, each one of these women worked to be of service in ways that violated their roles as Human Givers. And if you do that, say by leaving someone else’s needs unmet, or not being pretty and calm while you do it, or claiming power that rightfully belongs not to a Human Giver, but a Human Being, the world smacks you down.
They say: what’s the matter with you? They say: get back in line.