Paperback, 113 pages
English language
Published April 6, 2022 by Orion Publishing Group, Hachette UK.
When a world of peaceful aliens is conquered by bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.
Desperation causes the Athsheans to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. In defending their lives, they endanger the very foundations of their society. Every blow against the invaders is a blow to the core of the Athsheans’ culture.
And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.
(Winner of the 1973 Hugo award for Best Novella, and nominated for many others, The Word for World is Forest is part of Le Guin’s ‘Hainish Cycle’. It explores a future history of Earth and pacifistic ideals in its depiction of violence, colonialism and resistance.)
You can feel Le Guin’s distress as she wrote this. The world and culture of the Athsheans is beautiful, and this is a tragic tale.
This book is good on the whole, but quite heavy-handed, and I feel that sci-fi depictions of colonialism run the risk of distracting from understandings of real-world colonialism, rather than elucidating anything. Not my favorite from Le Guin, but I'm happy to have read it.
I love Le Guin's writing but don't think this is up with her best. It's a very angry novella; raging against conolialism (obviously inspired by the Vietnam war). From the author's note at the beginning it sounds like it was written in a rush and that means the characters are one dimensional (especially the villain) and there isn't much structure to the story. The Athsean's dream culture is interesting though, and the final downbeat message is important.
