Veltzeh's reading list

The Birthday of the World is a short story collection by Ursula K. Le Guin. It has eight stories.

"Coming of Age in Karhide" is exactly that.

"The Matter of Seggri" describes loosely what happens on a planet where only one of seventeen persons is a male. The sexes live separated, with women doing the menial and important work while the men stay in their castles, play sports and practise some hideous social oppression on each other.

"Unchosen Love" tells of a person who can't return the intensity of his lover's love. It also describes a complicated marriage system (sedoretu).

"Mountain Ways" tells what happens when one screws with the aforementioned complicated marriage system a little.

"Solitude" describes a planet inhabited by introverts. They refer to the slightest social manipulation as magic.

"Old Music and the Slave Women" is about a man called Old Music who is caught in Werel's civil war. He must spend time as a prisoner and being sort of tortured while things that he can't control happen around him.

"The Birthday of the World" is written from a religious person's point of view. The religion works but is odd. I think that for the first time I could just follow the religious person without cringing, even though the religion didn't make any sense at some points. Then aliens (astronauts) come down on the planet and get crowned gods. It makes a lot more sense than just "worshipping the great white man", mostly because the natives literally foresaw the aliens coming.)

"Paradises Lost" is about a generation ship. A new, odd religion forms there.