The Eye of the Heron (1978) by Ursula Le Guin

Book Review

The Eye of the Heron (1978)

by Ursula Le Guin

   Le Guin has been a huge beneficiary of my gender equality efforts.   She writes in an accesible genre, she has a lengthy back catalog and plenty of Audiobooks are available with little or minimal wait in the library app.  The Eye of the Heron is perhaps unfairly relegated to "minor work" status because it is a stand alone effort, not part of a larger universe.   Thematically, it fits with the general parameters of the books in the Hainish cycle, perhaps in a period before galactic civilization encountered Earth but after Earth achieved crude interstellar travel.  Here, the action takes place on the planet Victoria, populate solely by two separate exile communities from Earth.  The first, older group are a bunch of criminals and undesirables who seem mostly to come from Latin America.  The second, newer group are the survivors of an international peace movement who were imprisoned by the North American government of a Canada equivalent. 

  The first group literally lords over the second, who are familiar to contemporary readers as peace-loving non-violent anarchists.  The original inhabitants are in the midst of an attempt to feudalize the second group, which the second group resists through the tactics of non-violence.  Cementing the narrative is a Romeo and Juliet-ish scenario between the daughter of the local caudillo and the young leader of the peace lovers.  There's no magic, no aliens (not even a well described alien flora and fauna), the applicable level of technology is the middle ages of Europe.   I keep thinking I'm going to run out of adult Le Guin titles, and indeed I think this may be it. It's been a ride! I do prefer the Hainish cycle to the Earthsea cycle, but I understand by Earthsea might be the more enduring series.