The Word for World Is Forest

Clearly, this book inspired James Cameron's Avatar. I enjoyed Avatar on many levels and appreciated very deep messages (and the not very deep messages). The Word for World is Forest is equally mesmerizing. Well worth your time.

Rarely can one find a read so full of deeper, and not instantly obvious, meanings that one has to stop the recording regularly to think about it, while also being wholly enraptured by the tale as it progresses.
Le Guin is a rare breed of writer, a true innovator, a master of literary sorcery.

Ursula LeGuin is so much head & shoulders above most other SciFi/Phantasy writers it's not even funny. This world is beautiful and a dream. Allegory with guns, but not a shoot 'em up. Not for every one,it's somewhat slow. This is not a long novel, but so dense I relisten to chapters just to get it all. And then on re -reading/listening get more. Here the author does not spell everything out but it implied in a masterful way, that it engages your own imaginative function.

This book was enough of a dud that I was prompted to write this review. Firstly, the book is short and is more of relating a series of events than an actual story with a plot that crescendos and comes to a climax and is then resolved. Only one character truly has any character development, and that is the one that you're supposed to view as the antagonist.

I am also disappointed to learn that Audible did not bother to mention that this is not the first book in the series (or the universe) of the Hainish Cycle. Had I known, I would not have bought it, as I prefer not to start in the middle of a series, and this book is not particularly interesting as a stand-alone.

I was impressed with Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness, so I was anticipating another nuanced sci-fi story with this novel. Instead I found it to be a little heavy-handed with the characterization, and a little neat in its conclusion. The antagonist is working for a logging company, one contracted to a forest-world a dozen or so lightyears from earth, who conducts his business as if he were the colonial administrator of the Belgian Congo in 1870. A sea change in colonial administration occurs, however, and suddenly he's dealing with superiors who are reminiscent of the Carter administration. Cue the antagonist going rogue trying to put-down the locals as they make a noble, murderous run for self-determination. Things work out, though, with the smallest amount of bloodshed.

If you want to listen to the first draft for Avatar, or you're looking for the best example of Le Guin's naivety, then get this book now. If you'd rather listen to a compelling story with believable characters, go somewhere else.