EDGES: Thirteen New Tales from the Borderlands of the Imagination

by Ursula K. Le Guin

For a specific description of this book, please see each individual seller offering.

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Paperback

First published January 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

[Jonathan Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection! The editors said their goal was to assemble fiction from beyond the edge of conventional narrative, and they definitely succeeded. That does mean, as a consequence, that many of the stories are simply odd. Which oddity appeals to each reader will probably vary.

For me the standouts were:
Omens by Carol Eschwiller- Told by a lunatic, it was impossible to fully discern reality from fantasy, but the narration was compelling, the worldview alien yet understandable
Falling by Raylyn Moore- I rated this story only a 3/5, because it lacks a conventional narrative. It makes up for that in imagery and the peculiar logic on which its world operates.
Suzanne Delage by Gene Wolfe- I didn't like this story at all until I read more about it. It's long-winded, there's no real plot, and the main character is uninteresting. It's easy to simply not care about the central mystery, but once you start thinking about it, the story turns into a puzzle box.


The Oracle, the Ballad of Bowsprit Bear's Stead, and The Finger are also quite good, but I think they'll stick in my mind less.

The ballad of bowsprit bear's stead- 3
Omens- 5
Touch the Earth- 4
The Other Magus- 2
Peek-A-Boom- 2
Suzanne Delage- 5
The Finger- 4
Barranca, King of the Tree Streets- 2?
Thomas in Yahvestan- 2
The Vengeance of Hera- 4
Falling- 3
Father Returns From the Mountain-2
The Oracle- 4

[Metaphorosis · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

A baker's dozen of speculative fiction stories.

A while back, someone commented on a review of M. J. Engh's Arslan, and mentioned that her finest work was difficult to find - a novella that had only seen print in an anthology called Edges. I'm a fan of Engh, but didn't recall the novella. I did recall, however that I had Edges somewhere in my library. I dug up my unusually battered copy and gave it a re-read

I recalled Edges as being nowhere near so impressive as its prestigious editors. I'm sorry to say that the impression held true on this repeat reading, despite some big name authors. It gives the feeling that the editors tried a little too hard to match their theme, and not only didn't succeed, but produced a pretty uneven mish-mash of stories that are bound together by very little.

The stories that were of most interest were:


Touch the Earth by Scott Russell Sanders - a companion to Sanders' novel Terrarium. An interesting look at humans escaping their domed cities to find nature, but ultimately without much purpose.
Peek-a-boom by Sonya Dorman - how to communicate with aliens. One of the few real edge cases in the collection that works. It's chaotic and confused, but it fits the concept.
The Finger by Naomi Mitchison - a boy bound not to speak of the past. The story weakens toward the end, but it's a surprisingly effective look at truth and justice.
Thomas in Yahvestan by George P. Elliott - a man looking for answers finds ... something. The story ends weakly and predictably, but the setting is intriguing enough to keep you going until you get there.
Falling by Raylyn Moore - the sky is falling, very, very slowly. A moody and gothic story in which everything happens in slow motion, with inevitable consequences. One of the most effective stories in the collection.
The Oracle by M. J. Engh - a woman who sees the future, in the hands of a man building his future. Happily, this story, at the end of the collection, was well worth the wait. It's rambling and unfocused, but it's also striking and moving. There are no great surprises in it, but it's so well written that it doesn't much matter. Someday, Engh will put out a collection of her short-stories, and we'll all be happy.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarre, nontraditional, imaginative. Some of the longer stories didn't keep my interest but overall worth reading

[Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only a few of these worked for me; my faves were Falling, by Raylyn Moore, a comic/gothic story about the sky falling very, very slowly that could well have written about climate change, and The Finger by Naomi Mitchison, a story about a boy who can't speak of anything that's happened in the past. The others were a fairly mixed bag.

[Daisy L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book because it said “Ursula LeGuin”, but it turns out she was only the editor of this short story collection and wrote the foreword. A few of the stories were better than others, but I’m in general not a huge fan of short stories, so overall I’d say it was only okay.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutting edge Sci-fi from yester-year. It's like getting a peak at what could have been the new wave. My favorite is either the bizarre piece by Damien Broderick or the inimitable Gene Wolfe's addition.

[Patrick Pritchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were an enjoyable read. I've tried several times to read Ursula K. Le Guin's well-known novel The Left Hand of Darkness, to no avail. But, that was many years ago - going through this collection that she co-edited has me thinking I may revisit Left Hand one more time.

My favorites from this volume were:

- Raylan Moore's "Falling" - the more accessible of the lot I think.
- Scott Sanders' "Touch the Earth" - at the time this story was publish here Sanders was working on a novel "Terrarium" from which the short work originates. So, I'm thinking I might investigate further in looking to read that as well.

A good read.

[J.M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into any of the stories.