The Telling

"The Telling" is the last book Le Guin wrote in the Hainish cycle, a group of eight books that share a common universe, but can be read separately and as standalones. The few terms that may be unfamiliar, like Ekumen and ansible, can be found on the internet easily, so you don't really need any background from the other books. Despite my love of Le Guin, I didn't enjoy this book that much. It's soft science fiction in the classic sense, that is, more anthropological than the hard science. Normally, this is where Le Guin shines, but I found the world she built to be not that interesting. She says a lot of interesting things about books and religion and theocratic oppression. However, it simply didn't grab me as much as I would have thought these topics would have.

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