The Beginning Place

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Fleeing from the monotony of his life, Hugh Rogers finds his way to "the beginning place"--a gateway to Tembreabrezi, an idyllic, unchanging world of eternal twilight. Irena Pannis was thirteen when she first found the beginning place. Now, seven years later, she has grown to know and love the gentle inhabitants of Tembreabrezi, or Mountaintown, and she sees Hugh as a trespasser. But then a monstrous shadow threatens to destroy Mountaintown, and Hugh and Irena join forces to seek it out. Along the way, they begin to fall in love. Are they on their way to a new beginning...or a fateful end?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Audiobook

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1980

About the author

Ursula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.

She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.

Reviews

[Francisca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opinions about this novella vary widely. There are those who find it undeserving. But there are others, who, like me, find it rich and different; a parenthesis to reality. Much as the characters living the story, the reader travels through a portal to encounter a new world. Yet, it's hard to know why we find ourselves there, among the terrified villagers. And it's even harder to understand what's happening.

One of the portal-crossers is a young man. He has barely explore the edges of this new realm, when a fellow crosser comes to kick him out. The second crosser has been there many times, in fact she knows the place well. Better than her own home, you could say. But for some reason unknown, and for a long period, the portal has remained closed to her. That's until the young man is also allowed to cross, opening the portal for the two of them.

This is a story you will read fast, but you will not forget it as quickly. Much is left to the readers imagination to decide. Why these two young people? Why now? And what really is that menace hiding in the high mountains, deep within a cave?

Significantly, the answers to such questions can only come from the reader, because the genius of this book is that the portal in the story is also a portal to our fears, our stories.

This book was published in America with its original title: The Beginning Place. However, later editions for the UK, sport a different title: Threshold. While both titles are fitting of the book, I think the first one, the one selected by Ursula herself, reflects the meaning and deepness of the story much better.

This is a story about the threshold within us, those places we are afraid to look into, to travel to, and the places where we are allowed to dream and see ourselves in the best light.

A favorite of mine, I would exhort you to read it instead of trying to make your mind from other people's opinions (and that includes mine).

[Evangeline Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book in the entire world, period, full stop. Lots of other people have summed up the plot so I'm not going to. I just want to say that LeGuin's writing is lyrical and masterful--it moves me to tears every time I read this adult fairy tale. Two people who don't belong in our world finding a doorway to another world where they can become more than they ever dreamed. Okay, I know I said I wouldn't sum it up so that's all I'll say. That and, "There is more than one road to the City."
I LOVE this book.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Damn you, Ursula K. Le Guin, for managing to move me even when I think your book sucks.

Many of the poor reviews on Goodreads here can be summed up like so: "Le Guin is a great writer, but this isn't her best." Both of these statements are true. However, I'm not willing to leave it at that. I refuse to accept that a writer of such skill as Le Guin can have an "off" novel, that she somehow misses her mark here. Other writers might have books like that, but not Le Guin. So while it is true that I think this is far from Le Guin's best work, and it is true that I did not enjoy The Beginning Place as much as I had hoped, considering its author, there is definitely something going on here.

Let's start with the two main characters. We first meet Hugh, self-described as "fat" and otherwise unhappy in his dead-end job as a checker at a supermarket. (I'm not sure if the term has just not aged well in the thirty years since this book was published, but I at first didn't understand what a "checker" was. I thought it meant he was a "price checker," but from Le Guin's descriptions, it sounds more like he was the cashier. And I kept picturing him using terminals or, as a price checker, a little infrared scanning device. Bad, anachronistic reader!) Hugh's secret ambition is to go to night school so he can become a librarian. His obstacle is his unhealthy relationship with his mother, who is too dependent on him and far too controlling of his life. Hugh seems to have no real friends and no other solace—until he finds the Beginning Place, or whatever you want to call it.

Irena is a twenty-something girl with chips on her shoulders, because her stepdad is a lecherous, abusive husband and her mother is too "loyal" to him to get help. She's stuck in a terrible in-between where she wants to help her mom, but she can't bear the thought of going back to stay with them and be subjected to the leers—or worse—of the stepfather. She found the Beginning Place, and the world of Tembreabrezi, before Hugh. But it's Hugh that the inhabitants of this world (village?) want to go fight the monster.

Or something. I was never entirely clear on that part—or, I should say, Le Guin never fully explains the nature of the quest Hugh undertakes. The villagers are deliberately vague about the whole endeavour, although it seems like they don't expect Hugh and Irena to return. I was rather disappointed when the threat turned out to be physical (albeit with a side of psychological terror). I was hoping for a much more intellectual obstacle for Hugh to overcome; after all that dallying in the village, that was a very disappointing climax.

The Beginning Place begins somewhat strangely, in that I was not predisposed to feel much sympathy for Hugh. He seemed like a loser—and not the lovable kind. As the book progresses, it becomes apparent that he is a lovable loser—sort of—just as it becomes obvious that he and Irena are destined to hook up by the end. What remains to be seen, then, are the lessons each of them learn and the resolution Le Guin provides when it comes to their respective family troubles.

It is this part of The Beginning Place that most intrigues me. Le Guin does not spend much time exploring either of the worlds she depicts. This is perhaps a reflection that Hugh and Irena do not fully belong in either world—at least not until the ending. Compared to her other books, however, this makes for a very unusual experience. Even her prose style feels different, much less engaging and detailed than I would expect from her. Yet it is still noticeably Le Guinish. Even at its most descriptive, her prose is not straightforward, not meant to be too literal. As a work of magical realism, The Beginning Place speaks volumes with its juxtaposition of "real life" with the surreal Tembreabrezi.

Both Hugh and Irena need to do some growing up, and that's what the adventure in this story is about. Like a lot of escapist fantasy, Tembreabrezi and the woods that lead to it begin as a place of refuge, a sanctuary from the parts of their lives from which Hugh and Irena want to escape. Then it presents its own challenge, manifesting as a sort of quest that Hugh and Irena must complete to come of age.

And true to form, Le Guin does not deliver the expected epic quest and its equally epic resolution. Instead, Hugh and Irena succeed, but it is success tinged with a sense of regret and confusion. It is more about their journey home, and finding solace in each other rather than in their place or their time. Hugh and Irena finally forge what they have needed all along: a connection with someone else.

It sounds trite, and that may be true. The ending is predictable, but in a reassuring sort of way. From the beginning of The Beginning Place to the end, Le Guin seems to alternate between fulfilling our expectations and defying them. What does not work for me is the drabness of the worlds she describes. Neither our world nor Tembreabrezi ever feels very alive or interesting, and at the beginning Hugh is not a sympathetic character. Though this changes, it develops very slowly, and that makes The Beginning Place unappealing, especially at first.

So yes, this is not Le Guin at her best. She brings all of her skill as a writer and a storyteller, and it shows in the themes and the development of the characters. But the setting isn't quite there, and I couldn't get that off my mind no matter how much I tried. The Beginning Place never really began, for me, and that's why I can't say I liked it all that much.

[Hazal Çamur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kraliçenin standartlarının altında kalan bir romandı. Bir başkası yazmış olsa muhtemelen daha farklı düşünür ve takdir ederdim, ama söz konusu Le Guin olunca beklentimin (ve onun seviyesinin) altında kaldığını hissettim.

En bilinen masal arketiplerinden yola çıkarak, erginlenme üzerine günümüz dünyasında geçen bir masal kaleme almış. Kaçıp gidilen orman, ormanı geçmek (erginlenmenin kendisi), büyümenize izin vermeyen ebevenyler ve ormanı geçene kadarki süreçte (erginlenme yolunda atılan başarılı ve başarısız adımlar) yaşananlar bir bakıma çok klasikti. Buna yeni bir tat katılmamış. Kurtarıcı olup canavarla dövüşmek ve ormanı tamamlamak da diğer arketipleri tamamlıyordu. Ama diyorum ya, hepsi klasik masal unsurları ve bunu günümüz dünyasına getirmek dışında bir başka yenilik katmıyordu. Oysa ki çok ama çok sevdiğim Ursula Le Guin'den, onun gibi bir kalem ve dehadan daha fazlasını beklerdim.

Kitabın ilk yarısını "Le Guin'in yazıp da ömrü hayatım boyunca sevemeyeceğim 2. kitabı buldum" diye düşünerek okudum. Döngüler içinde sıkışıp kalmıştı roman. Sonraki yarısı daha hoştu. Her şey daha oturmuştu. Yine de beklentimin altında kaldı.

Ustanın kendisini hala çok seviyor ve inanılmaz saygı duyuyorum. Ama kendisinin onca eserini okuduktan sonra bu eseri böyle bırakmasına gönlüm razı değil.

[Brooke (~!Books are my Favorite!!~) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a coming of age story where youth must wake up from heady twilight dreams and moves on from where life began. LeGuin has a way of hitting pretty hard with the emotional truths that can really pack a punch. Like I didn't even know I was emotionally invested and suddenly...!

Themes of growing up and moving on were ever present. I kept coming back to the sentiment You can't go home again. You can't go back to the beginning place, to childhood, but when we hold hands and face the unknown together somehow it's less scary. She really fleshes out these themes and made my heart ache with hope and fear for these characters <3

4*

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard book to summarize and it may prove maddening to people who prefer their stories to be more straightforward. There isn’t much to it; it’s a slim book that can be read in a matter of hours. But it manages to cram its different threads into one compact package.

While the protagonists are decidedly adolescent in their behavior and outlook, the nature of their individual dilemmas brings this book very much into the adult arena. Hugh tiptoes around his obsessed, needy, vicious and contradictory mother. Irena is torn between saving her too-faithful mother from her abusive, drunken second husband and steering clear of her family before her stepdaddy gets his way and rapes her.

These aren’t children suffering from mere boredom like Alice, Harvey Swick, Coraline Jones or even Pinocchio. But, like these literary counterparts, Hugh and Irena’s discontent brings them into a world of escape, a world of other humans who speak a different language, where time plods at a different pace and it’s always twilight but never day, night, dawn or sunset.

Ms. Le Guin has captured the aura that is Tembreabrezi, a nebulous land as impenetrable and mysterious as the spectral not-day, not-night time that always hangs over it. In a few spare chapters, she shows the gradual shift from the supposed idyll that the humans think it to be to the sullen horror that lies at its center.

There are double meanings throughout this book, shades and shifting that lie beneath the simplest phrases. Everything seems fraught and heavy with portent, discouraging Irena who struggles to understand and cannot and Hugh, who doesn’t even know that he should ask questions and wait for answers.

The Beginning Place could have been deeply pretentious in its weighty ponderousness but manages to avoid that fate by the slimmest of margins. (It has an utter lack of humor but I’ve never found that to be Ms. Le Guin’s forté.) The people of Tembreabrezi remain ciphers but the book isn’t about them. They are friendly yet distant, kindly yet ruthless. They love Irena and worship Hugh but they are willing to send them into danger to protect themselves. Without it ever being said by them, they know that Hugh and Irena are outsiders and don’t belong.

Thus, The Beginning Place is more and less than an adventure story. It’s a long journey, in which the travelling itself is far more important than the destination. In their seemingly bitter wanderings in which direction is meaningless, in a land without animals or insects or flowers, where water refreshes but doesn’t quench thirst, where there is nothing but the endless road, Hugh and Irena at last learn what they needed to all along. In saving Tembreabrezi they save themselves.

[Selvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Büyümek, erginlenmek, korkuyla ve gölgenle yüzleşmek, cesaret, aşk, yeniden başlamak, yeryüzünün rahminden yeniden doğmak, tamamlanmak, dönüşmek... Kitap bitti ama ben içinde yaşamaya bir süre daha devam ederim muhtemelen.

[Onur Uslu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ursula K. Le Guin'le ilk tanışma için biraz yanlış kitabı seçmişim! Ne yazık ki pek beğendiğim bir eser olmadı Başlama Yeri.

Oysaki kitap gerçekten güzel başlamıştı. In Flames - The Quiet Place (dinlerseniz şarkı pek "quiet" değildir ama en sevdiğim şarkılardan birisidir.) şarkısı sayesinde Ankara gibi bir şehirde hep kendi sessiz yerimi aramaya çalışmışımdır. Hala da arıyorum aslında. Kitabımı alıp huzurlu bir şekilde okuyabileceğim, rahatlıkla çalışabileceğim ve gerektiğinde kendi düşüncelerimi dinleyip kendim için gerekli kararlar verebileceğim sessiz yeri. Nitekim lise yıllarımda böylesi bazı yerler bulmuştum fakat oralar için alınan bazı kararlarla ne yazık ki hepsi benden kopup gitti. O yıllardan sonra gitmeyi çok sevdiğim bir parkım vardı fakat orası da sevgililerin uğrak alanı olmaya başlayınca oradaki tadı alamamaya başladım. Bütün bu sebeplerden dolayı bu kitabın böyle bir konuyla başlamış olması ilgimi hemen çekti. Oradaki dünyayı çok güzel şekilde oluşturmuştu Ursula K. Le Guin.

Kitabın ilk yarısı gayet güzel ilerlerken ikinci yarısında gerek Dağ Kasabası karakterleri, gerek ana karakterler giderek önemseyemediğim, gözümde sıradan hale gelen karakterler oldular. Onlarda ilgimi çeken hiçbir özellik bulamadım, verdikleri kararları anlamlandıramadım, yaptıkları eylemlere sebep olan etmenleri çözemedim. Özellikle kitabın sonlarına doğru hayal kırıklığım giderek artmaya başladı. Aşk temalı romanlarla çok fazla ilgilenen birisi olmadığım için hikayenin beni inandırması çok daha gerekli oluyor. Bu sayede kitaba olan ilgimi hiçbir şekilde kaybetmiyorum. Fakat buradaki hikaye ne yazık ki bu konu üzerinde hiçbir şekilde saramadı beni. Yaratılan dünyanın güzelliği yavaş yavaş koptu benden ve ne o başlardaki huzuru bulabildim, ne de sonlarda heyecanlanmama sebep olacak herhangi bir hissiyatı.

Fantazi edebiyatının usta kalemlerinden birisi olduğu için diğer eserlerini muhakkak okuyacağım (muhtemelen sonraki eser Sürgün Gezegeni olacak) ama bu kitabın büyük bir beklentiyle okunmaması gerektiğini düşünüyorum.

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never ever would have thought I'd say this about an Ursula K. Le Guin book, but...I was bored! A tepid. slow-paced story line, a positively snooze-worthy romance and a dull alternate reality...I suppose even a master like Le Guin has an off day on occasion. Don't bother with this one; go grab The Left Hand of Darkness or an Earthsea book!

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's like a lite-flavour fantasy adventure.

Boy struggles in life, runs away, finds a magical fantasy realm, meets girl, learns of the troubles that the locals have been plagued with, learns of his status as the Chosen One, confronts his fears, saves everyone, becomes hero. Every ingredient of the standard recipe is here.

It's just that there's so much less of it all. The realm of eternal twilight feels small and ephemeral, all in all poorly established or grounded: a tiny spot of nothingness with little history, reason for its existence, or how it connects to our world. The "monstrous shadow" is never really fleshed out at all - up until only a couple pages before it's unceremoniously killed off, and even then we never learn where it came from or why, what its reason for being was, or why it needed some outsiders to kill it off. And speaking of the outsiders - they have some sense of personality and sad backstories and chemistry, but they never truly grow into anything remotely unique or likeable or memorable. Their journey is mostly just a bunch of incidental stuff happening to them, and their personal growth, while not nonexistent, minor and almost as a footnote. The allegories of running away and facing your fears are there, obviously, but it's never very clear in the text itself, and I'm not even sure how much of it was intended and how much is all in my head.

All in all, not one of Le Guin's best. Maybe that's what the title really means - this is the Beginning Place of a fantasy story, that would have needed way more work to see the very end.

[Peter Haslehurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, Ursula LeGuin is beyond praise. I can't quite understand why this book is so neglected compared to her other work. I found it haunting.

[J. Wootton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading Le Guin a few years ago, and she has gently persuaded me to read everything she's published. This particular title was a random used-bookstore acquisition: the back-cover blurb describes a terribly cliche story, one I'd have promptly re-shelved if I hadn't come to trust the author.

Le Guin's stories move like broad quiet brooks - strong, determined, and peaceful. Come if you want to contemplate, and she will give you words worth the ponder.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book holds back, and not in a good way. Instead of being an intriguing mystery that unravels as secrets are revealed and characters explored, it feels more like a shuffling of feet as the author delays the inevitable. And when the inevitable finally comes, it comes too easily and without passion. The characters' emotional lives are not revealed through their actions and relationships, so it all feels a bit flat. It's a case of 'telling' rather than 'showing', as they say in creative writing workshops.

It's disappointing because Ursula K Le Guin isn't a bad writer and there are some scenes and characters that have great potential, but it seems to add up to a vaguely allegorical journey through a parallel psychological landscape full of pastoral clichés and unbelievable romance. So what?

[Berfin Kanat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yazardan okuduğum en iyi kitaplardan biri. Büyülü bir dünya yaratıp bunu mütevazi bir dille sunmak herkesin yapabileceği bir şey değil ama Ursula yapmış. Hayatları zorluklarla inişli çıkışlı devam eden iki genç ormanın içinde başka bir yere, "Başlama Yeri"ne açılan bir kapı keşfederler. Bu kapı bildiğimiz açtım girdim tarzında değil, görünmeyen ama hissedilen bir kapı. Karakterlerin kutsal gözüyle baktığı bir derenin ve basit ama değerli bir ormanın ortasında. Basitten kastım öyle abartılı, büyüleyici tasvirlerin olduğu bir mekanda olmaması. Bugün pikniğe gitseniz denk gelebileceğiniz tarzda bir orman. Bu da okumayı daha güzel kıldı çünkü "O kapıyı ben neden bulamayayım?" diye düşünme hakkınız oluyor. :3 Bununla birlikte hep yürünen bir patika, yol, ve yoldaki tehlikeler var. Doğu felsefesinin en temelindeki patikada yürümek kavramı kitabın ön plandaki temalarından biri. Ayrıca dere (veya ırmak) mekanda kutsal bir sınırı temsil ediyor. İnsanın sorunlarını ve dünyevi korkularını bir kenara bırakıp, gerekli olan adımı atacağı sınır. Adeta bir inisiye süreci. Yerdeniz'den örnekleyecek olursam, Koru'nun girişi gibi. Ki orada Ursula'nın korudan kastı Nirvana'ya ulaşılacak yerdir, Nirvana, Pali dilinde korunun ötesi anlamına gelmektedir. Kapının ötesinde buldukları ise son ve başlangıç, kuyruğunu yiyen bir yılan belki.

Bir diğeri ise ise genç - yetişkin teması. Başlama Yeri genç - yetişkin türü için de çok başarılı bir örnek. Yazarın Her Yerden Çok Uzakta kitabındakine göre daha iyi bence. Oradaki karakterler yaşça daha küçüktü. Bu sefer gençlikten yetişkinliğe geçiş sürecindeki karakterler olunca Ursula kendi tarzını daha rahat konuşturmuş. Ve tabii ki feminist bakış açısı yine harikalar yaratmış.
Mistik ama mütevazi bir hikaye bekleyin. Ve yazarı ilk defa okuyacaksanız bu kitabıyla başlamayın. Başlama Yeri'ni Ursula'nın tarzını biliyor ve seviyorsanız okuyunuz. Çünkü Ursula'yı bilmeden okursanız klasik bir hikaye göreceksiniz. Ursula seven birisi olarak okuyunca ise onun bu klasik hikayeyi kendi tarzını katarak nasıl harika bir yapıta dönüştürdüğünü.

[Douglas Milewski · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Beginning Place (1979) by Urusula LeGuin was one of those books that I used to see in the library. Something about the title grabbed me, but I never quite got around to picking it up. I thought it was a young adult book, but in that, I was wrong. Now we would call it a new adult book.

This book challenges my ability to summarize it, or even understand it. Although pegged as part romance, it doesn't progress as you would expect a romance to progress. The man isn't strong. The woman isn't beautiful. Their destinies are not perfect together, if only they'd see it. Quite honestly, what we have is two normally hurt people trying to turn themselves into competent adults, and having a too few role models to fall back on.

Meanwhile, we have the fantasy world which is vaguely gothic in feel, always evening, yet usually pleasant and welcoming. The world itself seems to have rules rather than overt magic steamrolling the narrative. This is not a story of overt magic. This world feels substantially more whole, feeds our protagonists in a more satisfying way. And while they are they, time almost stops, but never completely enough to forget yourself. The responsibilities of the real world always pull them out.

Although I'd like to rate this highly, I found that the story left me, as a person, a bit emptier. The romance felt rushed and perfunctory. The ending felt out of character. The symbolism left me hanging. Whatever this book was supposed to be, or aimed to be, I feel that it went too far in too many directions to leave it much of anything. Like a hollow chocolate bunny, an outside layer of delicious can't hide the empty middle.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read some of the bad reviews other gooodreaders have written, and it seems that what I loved most about this book, is what turned them off:
- two failed characters who can't fit in, who run away
- two uninteresting boring worlds: ours fails to seem real, and Tembreabrezi never truly comes alive
- the confusing narrative style

How can I have loved this? Because, after all the magical self-discovery journeys and battles and love stories jumping from ya books to the big screen, this book felt real.

A colleague who is married to the average guy, problem kids, money woes, might seem a failure to one who is independent, single and free. The married one will also believe the single one to be a failure. How many people have you met who are truly satisfied with their lives? How many take steps to actually improve their lives?

As for the worlds, they're both real - because the only interesting thing in the world is what you make of it. Hugh and Irene did not truly act in either of the worlds, so neither of the worlds can become interesting. Besides that, Tembreabrezi is never their world, and that is exactly why they can not fully experience it - and the readers with them.

Ok, I know some were disappointed at the physicality and allegory of the dragon. For me, it would have been much more disappointing if it had been a predictable emotional or abstract obstacle. Even Hugh expected it to be an abstract concept!

Finally, the narrative. Why do I like it? Because It fully immersed me in the characters pov - there's no need for a lazy 1st person perspective to immerse us, the narrator can express all the confusion and feelings of being lost that the characters experience.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hugh is trapped in suburbia and a dead-end job by his mother's fear. Desperate for escape, he goes running one night and finds a gateway into an idyllically fresh world. The clean water and air, the lack of humans, makes him return to it again and again. But he's not the only one to have found the gate--years ago, Irena discovered the way through while escaping from her gruesome step-father. She feels betrayed that someone else has found her secret spot, but the villagers who live in this perpetually twilit Arcadia are excited--he's the one they've been waiting for.

The roads to the village have been closed by an unamable fear. The villagers are slowly starving, and only Hugh the outsider can get through the roads. Irena demands to go with him, and the two set off together.

On the one hand, this is a pleasingly realistic book. Hugh and Irena spend a lot of time getting lost in the woods, and their internal lives are perfectly described. On the other, not a lot happens, and what little happens is never explained. The story is a bit like Steinbeck's writing style crossed with Patricia McKillip at her most elliptical. This is my least favorite book by Le Guin. It's not bad, but it's not all that good, either.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Possibly my least favorite Le Guin novel? Who would have thought. But yes, this just didn't work for me. The setting is blurry, the plot vague and frustratingly unexplained, and the main characters all behave hatefully or sourly towards each other. The ending baffled me. What was the point of this?

The only thing that sticks with me is the descriptions of how stuck and suffocated Hugh and Irena are in their home lives. That was real, almost unpleasantly so.

[Bahar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Başlama Yeri bir masalın bittiği yerden başlıyor sanki... Hani o başlanan yer muhteşem bir masalmış da bitmiş, büyülü kahramanlar dağılmış gibi bir hava var... Bir zamanların çok renkli, çok parlak, çok güçlü kahramanları artık renklerini, güçlerini yitirmişler de yeni yaşantılarında askıda kalmışlar gibi bir ortam... Tiyatro dağılmış, sahne henüz toplanmamış, aktörler, aktristler henüz kostümlerini çıkartmamışlar...
Oysa gencecik iki insanın erginlenme öyküsünü okuyoruz bu kırık dökük sahnede, basit ve yalın bir düzlemde, hayalin sembolleri, arketipler bir görünüp bir kayboluyor alacakaranlığın içinde birbiri ardına...
Sakin bir roman, yumuşacık... Ne Mülksüzlerin keskinliği, ne Yerdeniz'in büyüsü var aslında, ama işte LeGuin'in ustalığı da burada, akıveriyorsunuz sizde içinde...

[Emily M · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels weird to rate a book by one of my favorite authors this low - though I did like it better than on my first attempt (14 YO me's review: "WTF kind of portal fantasy is this? 1 star"). I think Le Guin was experimenting with something different from her usual style here, and I will give it credit for reflecting the anxieties of 1980s working-class American 20-year-olds in ways that still feel more or less accurate today. The issue for me was the pacing: The first half is REALLY slow, but promises we might get to understand the mysteries of the other world in a similarly leisurely and sensuous way. Nope! A whole bunch of stuff then happens super abruptly and without explanation - including the sex scene - and then we're back out in our world (though I do mostly like that ending).

Full review: https://ajungleoftales.blogspot.com/2...

[Wendy Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual and beautiful book. It reminded me of several favorite books of mine, where people follow a path and go into a different world to discover sometimes about themselves. At times it was confusing but no more confusing than necessary and all part of the process of learning. I woud say that if you are a fan of Storm Constantine, Tanith Lee, and of course Le Guin, then you should read this book unhurriedly and with enjoyment. (If you are looking for a quick fantasy romp this book is not for you and you are probably like those folks who gave this book only one star.)

[l · Rating 2 out of 5]

The unnecessary development of their relationship into a sexual one ... the kiss of death for this already not great story.

“He put his right hand on her hair and drew her against him. He was a wall, a fortress, a bulwark, and mortal, frail, easier to hurt than heal; dragonkiller, child of the dragon; king’s son, poor man, poor, brief, unknowing soul. His desire for her stood up and throbbed against her belly, but his arms held her in a greater longing even than that, one for which life cannot give consummation. She held him so to her, they stood there together.”

Nope.

[Susana · Rating 3 out of 5]

(review in English below)

2,5* arredondadas para cima porque é a Ursula e porque acho que o texto foi prejudicado pela tradução.

Esta história não funcionou para mim. Aborreci-me com as repetidas descrições dos caminhos e das árvores e dos ribeiros e das montanhas - e eu adoro caminhos, árvores, ribeiros e montanhas! Os dez dias que demorei a ler um livro deste tamanho reflectem bem a minha falta de interesse.

Nunca cheguei a sentir empatia com os protagonistas e irritou-me o facto de a questão do "monstro/medo" (a sua existência e, sobretudo, a sua relação com a população da vila) não ser explicada. Há vários outros aspectos que são deixados sem explicação, frases que "caem do céu" e cujo significado no contexto da narrativa não ficou claro para mim.

Isto é obviamente uma alegoria para a necessidade de fuga à realidade quando esta se torna insuportável e para o processo de transformação interior que está relacionado com a transição para a vida adulta - ou foi assim que eu entendi. Mas se calhar não percebi nada...

Embora publicado numa colecção de Ficção Científica, na minha opinião é pura fantasia. Tendo eu gostado tanto da saga Terramar, não percebo o que aconteceu aqui...

2.5 stars, rounded up because it's Ursula and because I think the writing was impaired by the translation.

This story didn't work for me. I was bored with the repetitive descriptions of the paths and the trees and the streams and the mountains - and I love all of those things! The fact that it took me 10 days to read such a small book is an indication of my lack of interest.

I never felt empathy with the characters and I was annoyed by the fact that the "monster/fear" issue is not explained (its existence and mainly its relation to the villagers). There are several other aspects que are left unexplained, sentences that drop from the sky and whose meaning in the context of the narrative wasn't clear to me.

This is obviously an allegory for the need to escape reality when it becomes unbearable, and for the process of inner transformation that relates to the transition to adult life - or so I understood it. But maybe I missed altogether...

Although this was published in a sci-fi collection, in my opinion this is pure fantasy. Having enjoyed the Earthsea books so much, I fail to understand what happened here...

[Goran Lowie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradoxically, this book is one of Le Guin’s most steeped in realism, yet at the same time most escapist. You’ll find no intricate explorations of gender here, no examination of anarchism, no search for meaning. Instead, it’s the deceptively simple story of a twenty-something guy with a deadbeat job, a mother with abandonment issues, no real prospects in life, finding some kind of escape in this “beginning place”—could’ve easily been written by Calvino instead, as a part of his Our Ancestors trilogy for example, more magical realist than straight-up speculative fiction. An escapist romance.

[J_Jens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not understanding the bad reviews.
Why? This book is timeless and ephemeral, haunting and tautly written. Hopeful and hopeless, mingling to a crescendo.

COME ON, PEOPLE!

I read this book and wept, so happy that someone finally had taken a granule of what I felt in life and smoothed it out on a page.

Get over yourselves, and read, goddammit.

[Melek Guler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bol yazım hatası ve spoiler'ın alasını veren arka kapağı ile Ayrıntı Yayınları'na bir kez daha sevgilerimi iletiyorum; elimdeki kitaplar dışında bu yayınevinden bir daha kitap almam bundan böyle

[DivaDiane SM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not so sure about this one. Perhaps writing a review will help me sort it out. It begins describing the mundane and dissatisfying life of Hugh, a young man living with his unbalanced mother and working at a grocery store in the suburbs. One day he literally stumbles into an alternate world which represents a tranquility and beauty that is lacking in his own life. The scene shifts to a young woman, Irene, who is leading an equally unhappy life nearby and has also be frequenting the world in the forest where time in our world passes very slowly. When the two meet, Irene is outraged and suspicious of Hugh and he is baffled, shy and apologetic. During the course of the story they are charged by the inhabitants of a rural mountain village they visit to help them. They are not sure what they are meant to do, but when they do it the villagers will be able to resume their lives, leaving the village if necessary and welcoming others (besides people from our world) back into it. There is considerable danger involved. During their grueling task, and after they accomplish it, the two gradually come together.

The forest/mountain world they happen upon seems to represent a beautiful escape, where they can replenish themselves and rest from the weariness of their existences in the real world. But as the story progresses, we see that all is not so idyllic there and for some reason they are the only ones who can restore it. In doing so they destroy the thrall it has on them and realize that they must create it for themselves, together, in their own world. I think that is the message, at least, that's what I take it to be, although LeGuin in unbelievably subtle.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Usula LeGuin! I loved some sci fi and fantasy when I was young, but have not read much in many, many years. I’ve missed the way these genres explore societal issues and the personal problems they stem from. LeGuin is clearly good at this psychological side.

“ … working in groceries you saw a lot of people scolding the mushrooms, and crazies like the shoplifter who tried to bribe his way out or the guy who pulled a knife on Donna when she refused to cash his check without ID; and people doing things that might have a reason but looked pretty weird, such as buying forty-eight bottles of germ killer spray and a can of water chestnuts. What all these people had in common, as well as he could figure it out, was a kind of getting out of gear, out of synch. The engine made a noise but no power got to the wheels. They were stuck.”

This story is about fear. It’s about a journey two stuck people take to face their fears and get back into synch.

“For the time beyond the clocks is always now and the way to forever is now.”

[Michael Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, took me much longer to read than it should have. I was busy when I started it and kept trying to pick it up but kept getting distracted. I finally really tore into it today, and I finished in a couple of hours.

It starts off a bit slow, and you will more than likely feel like it's not going anywhere. The story comes across as disjointed and confusing for the first quarter of it, but she brings it together nicely towards the end.

It may just be the fact that it's about something that really hits home for me, is why I liked it so much. It's about escaping into a world of make believe when real life becomes too painful and leaving behind toxic people in your life, even though it's difficult.

It's a beautiful little book, and I think if more effort would have been put into world building and character depth, I would have truly loved it.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lyrical, elegant book about two incomplete people who stumble into another world, one that seems a fantastic haven. But it is Omelas, and they walk away from it in the end. In a time when dunderheads like Jordan Peterson are misreading legends and myths to preach rigid, binary ideas of gender roles we would do well to turn to this slim parable in which two people come together to complete an ambiguous heroic quest which results in a salutary disillusionment.