LoveReading Says
Anyone who feels that David Gemmell’s Aeneid series ended too soon would probably enjoy this. It picks up the story as Aeneid reaches Italy, after the Trojan Wars and years of roaming, to meet the woman he is prophesied to marry. Narrated, very charmingly, by her ghost, and with a special guest appearance by a famous poet (I won’t give away who!), this has all the wit, style, sensitivity and craftsmanship readers have come to expect from Ursula Le Guin. You do not need to know her work, or any Greek mythology, to appreciate the story of a surprisingly modern girl in an ancient world. I absolutely loved it.
Comparison: Sheri Tepper, David Gemmell (Trojan War trilogy), Glyn Iliffe (King of Ithaca).
Ursula Le Guin has written about some of her literary heroes for Lovereading. To read her article, click here.
Reviewed by Sarah BroadhurstSarah Broadhurst spent her early working life in the book trade in both retail and wholesale until the arrival of children forced her to look for freelance work she could do from…
More reviews by Sarah Broadhurst About Lavinia
'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate.
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Lavinia Synopsis
'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate.
The man was famous, the fate obscure; not a bad balance.' Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a victorious warrior who loves peace; she is her father's closest companion. Now of an age to wed, Lavinia's mother favours her own kinsman, King Turnus of Rutulia, handsome, heroic, everything a young girl should want. Instead, Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas, a man she has heard of only from a ghost of a poet, who comes to her in the gods' holy place and tells her of her future, and Aeneas' past...If she refuses to wed Turnus, Lavinia knows she will start a war - but her fate was set the moment the poet appeared to her in a dream and told her of the adventurer who fled fallen Troy, holding his son's hand and carrying his father on his back...
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780753827840 |
| Publication date: |
13th May 2010 |
| Author: |
Ursula Le Guin |
| Publisher: |
Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) an imprint of Orion Publishing Co |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
295 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
|
| Recommendations: |
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About Ursula Le Guin
Ursula Le Guin was one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbury Honor. Among her novels The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status; and her latest series, the Annals of the Western Shore is joining them. She live in Portland, Oregon and died in January 18.
Here is a tribute by her publisher, Malcolm Edwards:
You may well already have seen the news – extensively reported in the media – of the death, at 88, of Ursula Le Guin. She had been in poor health for a while.
Ursula joined the Gollancz list in 1971, and stayed with us ever since, making her by some distance our longest serving author (rivalled only by Lady Antonia Fraser on the W&N list). We have two new books scheduled for this year: Dreams Must Explain Themselves, a selection of her best non-fiction, forthcoming on 22nd February (finished copies have arrived, ironically, just this morning); and The Books Of Earthsea, a large omnibus of her famous Earthsea novels, illustrated by award-winning artist Charles Vess.
Along the way, she collected almost every honour possible, most recently the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, awarded by the National Book Foundation. You can see her acceptance speech – typically generous and feisty - here. It is well worth a few minutes of your time.
She was an SFWA Grand Master, and was awarded a World Fantasy Award for life achievement. She won many awards for specific works, including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for the third Earthsea novel, The Farthest Shore, and both the major sf awards – the Hugo and the Nebula – for her two best known sf novels, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, both available in our SF Masterworks library.
Those of us who had the pleasure of working with her will remember her as a gracious and good-humoured woman with an iron will, gently expressed. She was by common consent one of the greatest – if not the greatest – contemporary sf and fantasy author. This is a very sad day.
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