''The Birthday of the World and Other Stories'' is a collection of
short fiction
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
by American writer
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...
, first published in March, 2002, by
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
. All of the stories, except "
Paradises Lost", were previously published individually elsewhere. The story which lends its name to the title of the collection was the most recent publication, in 2000. Only these two stories are not set on planets of the
Ekumen.
The collection was also published in London by
Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Group, in 2003. A softcover edition was published by
Perennial
In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...
that year.
Contents
*
Foreword
A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between th ...
*"
Coming of Age in Karhide" – 1995 in ''New Legends'' ed. G. Bear. Takes place on Gethen the planet of ''
The Left Hand of Darkness'' which is part of the
Ekumen. In the society of Karhide, where people are naturally
hermaphroditic and only become male or female during a heat-like period called "kemmer," an adolescent matures and loses their virginity.
*"
The Matter of Seggri" – Spring 1994 in ''Crank!''. Takes place on Seggri of the
Ekumen. The discovery, exploration, and ultimate alteration of a planet characterised by extreme gender imbalance and segregation.
*"Unchosen Love" – Fall 1994 in ''Amazing Stories''. Takes place on O of the
Ekumen which is the same planet as the title story of ''
A Fisherman of the Inland Sea''. Society there is built around the ''sedoretu'' – a marriage involving four people. The story is about a meek man and meek woman, who are in relationships with a strong-willed man and woman respectively. The meek find solace in each other's company, an unexpected relationship catalyzed by mysterious encounters.
*"Mountain Ways" – August 1996 in ''
Asimov's
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac A ...
Science Fiction''. Also set on O, it deals with two women who are in love, but who cannot find suitable partners to establish a sedoretu, decide to deceive the other parties to a marriage by disguising one of the women as a man. The story is part of her
Hainish Cycle books.
*"Solitude" – December 1994 in ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction''. Takes place on Eleven-Soro on the fringes of the Ekumen. Society has fragmented – men and women live apart, and adult women do not even enter each other's houses. The story is told by the daughter of a mobile of the Ekumen who grows up in this society.
*"
Old Music and the Slave Women" – 1999 in ''Far Horizons'' ed. R. Silverberg. Another story in the same dual-planet system of Werel and Yeowe as ''
Four Ways to Forgiveness'' of the Ekumen. Set later in time than the stories in that volume, when the "assets" of Voe Deo on Werel are fighting a war to gain freedom from the "owners".
*"The Birthday of the World" – June 2000 in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction''. The story depicts a society where the hereditary rulers are "God", and how the society is disrupted from inside and outside. The situation has parallels to that of
Inca
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
n civilization and the coming of the Europeans.
*"
Paradises Lost" – First publication. Not part of the Ekumen series, it is a story of a group of humans undertaking a journey to a distant planet to discover the possibilities of habitability. The journey takes several generations, and is told from the perspective of people that have grown up aboard the ship and its unique society, having known only the ship.
References
*
External links
Ways" full story at clarkesworld
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birthday Of The World, The
Short story collections by Ursula K. Le Guin
2002 short story collections
Hainish Cycle
HarperCollins books