The World for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

Goodreads:

Pages: 160

Publication Date: May 15th, 1989

Genre: Scifi

The novel takes place on a planet called Athshe, which is a lush, green planet. Much like Earth, it's evolved to allow for humans to live on it. Us humans from Earth, have waltzed in and taken control of the planet (after learning space travel from another humanoid planet). On the planet they took over, there is a humanoid species that resides there. They are monkey like, but can mimic speech and have no capacity for violence and slavery. This allows humans to take over the planet very easily.

I think it was an interesting tale, but I think it was a little in your face with themes and what Ursula Le Guin wanted the message to be. I would've preferred if she'd been a little more subtle. It did bring up good questions about taking over a new territory. The humans are also cutting down the forest, which is ruining the planet (I know right, very much a method for how we treat the Earth).

The story isn't new, it's a comment on human nature. We've all read/watched a version of this tale. With saying that, you don't always need to reinvent the wheel. Questions were asked and answered that were intriguing, messages were explicitly given out and the writing was good. I'm guessing this is Le Guin working out her frustrations on the Vietnam war.

Captain Don Davidson is one of the main characters and he's everything wrong with the world. He's racist, rapes one of the Indigenous woman, makes ignorant comments constantly and is just a frustrating person to spend anytime with. I know the point was to hate him, but when he's really the only named character it gets frustrating quickly.

I do think that this was the best version of this story that I've read, but overall it's nothing spectacular.

3.5/5

I think it's an intriguing read and the question it raises are worth commenting on. I'd probably recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy/scifi and dystopians. It's also a classic for that genre and those books tend to get forgotten about.

Cheers,

Jen