Changing Planes (Ursula K. Le Guin)

[ase]

A woman in an airport terminal slips between world-planes, visiting a number of places far more interesting than the terminal she's stuck in. The bulk of the book seems to be traveller's anecdotes of their travels. I got 64 pages into this 246 page novel before realizing the entire novel was a gentle exercise in fragmentary worldbuilding (one world per chapter) and throwing my hands up in disgust, because at this point in my life I want a narrative in my pleasure reading. I really wish I'd thought to read this as a collection of fragmentary, narratively unrelated short stories, rather than looking for a story more coherent than "collection of traveller's anecdotes", because I've inadvertently run into more than one lately. It's not a form that does much for me, thanks much. So whether I finish Changing Planes or toss it back to the library with a cry of disgust for old women who aren't exploring is in the air at the moment.

(Me? Annoyed? Probably more than merited. It's astonishing how external forces will influence one's ability to appreciate a novel.)

Comments

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Sounds like time for Heyer!

[ase.livejournal.com]

Maybe. I'm craving new stuff by authors I know, because I want something I'm certain I'll like. Selfish but true.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

I have been avoiding that book, even though it keeps showing up in front of me whenever I visit the library. I just recently admitted to myself that the only LeGuin I really loved was The Left Hand of Darkness (though I love Mary Gentle's version better -- Golden Witchbreed).

[ase.livejournal.com]

I really liked the original Earthsea trilogy, because it was fantasy that wasn't a generic Tolkien knockoff, but I'm discovering I don't like much Le Guin other than that. She likes talking about the worlds she's created too much. When she remembers to use characters she's not bad, but her stories very often feel like they've been pulled from her desk while she's writing her way into the world. There's only so many times an author can do that before I decide worldbuilding's all they do and I want stuff like plot and characterization and considered theme.