I finished The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin a few months ago. I know of Ursula Le Guin by reputation1, but it is the first of her book that I read, and… it was a slap in the face.

The book is a collection of short stories in her Ekumen universe making them technically science fiction. However, while science-fiction usually deals with things and technologies, these stories are all about people and feelings.

None of the characters are actually human, each short story happens on a planet where people live in a society different from ours, often because they have a slightly different biology. You will find people whose gender changes with time, societies where men are rare, and societies that live by complex polyamorous rules.

The book is all about tweaking something then observing how society would evolve around it. Sometimes from the cold perspective of an observer and sometimes from the warm perspective of someone whose desires are not exactly matching with their society’s rules2.

It is very warm, organic, science fiction. Living. To the point that most other books in this genre feel cold and mechanical compared to it.

  1. She is considered a major author in both fantasy and science fiction, but she covers a wide range of genres and subjects. ↩︎

  2. LGBTQ+ themes are obvious, but this is a very fresh perspective on the diversity of people and histories behind the acronym. ↩︎