Having only read Le Guin’s fantastic short story ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ before, I was excited to read a full-length novel by her. The premise is a tree-covered planet three years into being colonised by macho-military men who have few qualms about using the small native humanoids as slave labour or sexual toys. Inevitably, a guerilla war breaks out in the jungle.
What this paints is a play-by-play retelling of any classic Vietnam war story. I could almost hear the Ride of the Valkyries from that famous Apocalypse Now scene when men in choppers threw down ‘firejelly’ on the forest.
Perhaps every novel is political. Unfortunately, I think this one is a little too heavy handed in its politics. It’s clear that it comes from a place of anger and despair as Le Guin was an anti-war activist. Interesting themes like a people connected by dreaming, are overshadowed by her fury.