Book #24: The Word for World is Forest
Eco sci-fi from one of the greats, Ursula K. Le Guin.
Hi friends! This is Book Club for the Planet, an online community for us to read about the climate crisis in community. Looking for even more to read? Check out my other Substack where I write about writing, climate collapse and adaptation, sci-fi, speculative fiction and more.
Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction novella, The Word for World is Forest, has been on my shelf for some time. This will be the oldest book we’ve read yet—it was published in 1972—but (hopefully) as timeless and relevant as all of her other books I’ve read. Like many of her books, The Word is a story set in her Hainish universe. The inhabitants of a peaceful world, the Athsheans, are conquered and colonized by an invading force from Earth (known as Terra) for their natural resources, which spurs them to resist and break their traditions of non-violence for the first time.
Book club dates: September 22 at 1 PM EST (virtual); September 23 at 7 PM EST (in-person)
For continued reading, please check out some of Le Guin’s greatest hits, including The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, and A Wizard of Earthsea. Also check out a gaggle of other sci-fi, dystopian, or speculative fiction stories that weave in eco themes, including Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, edited by Joshua Whitehead; The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins (maybe a book club pick for next year…!!); Dawn by Octavia Butler; Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich; The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss; and Liquid Snakes by Stephen Kearse.
Don’t live in Baltimore? Join us virtually via Google Meets!
If you live in or near Baltimore, join us at Greedy Reads' Remington location for an in-person meet-up! Registration link to come.
Happy reading and see you in September! ✨