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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780441012244
ISBN number: 0441012248
Label: Ace
Manufacturer: Ace
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: July 26, 2005
Publishing house: Ace
Sale Popularity Level: 503924
Studio: Ace
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The National Book Award-winning author takes flight with this bestselling collection of speculative fiction where a woman visits fifteen otherworldly-- yet familiar--societies.
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Rated by buyers -
Ursula Le Guin's new book is Changing Planes, a collection of anthropologically oriented stories about the inhabitants of various different "planes" reached by people sufficiently bored by waiting in airports for delayed flights.
On the whole, it's pretty fun stuff, if rarely brilliant. The best of the stories are mostly those already published, such as "The Seasons of the Ansarac", "Social Dreaming of the Frin", and "The Royals of Hegn". In the best of these Le Guin's imagination regarding alternate social structures, and her wit, are both on display. Some of the new stories are similarly fine. Others are simply routine, or take an okay idea and run too long with it, or in one case, simply reek of contempt for people who don't have Le Guin's taste -- i.e., people who might be so crass as to live in the Midwest or the South, or to have religious beliefs that differ from hers.
Taken as a whole, it's a pretty good book, though as you will gather I wasn't completely pleased. But the stories I've mentioned, and new stories like "Confusions of Uñi", about a constantly-changing world, and "Porridge on Islac", about a plane in which genetic engineering went a bit wild, are very nice stuff.
Rated by buyers 
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Changing Planes is a compilation of loosely connected short stories describing a variety of worlds or "planes." Islac, the very first plane visited, is a place where genetic engineering has gone haywire and every type of gene splice has occurred (plant-human, human-fish, human-animal, etc). This world is fun, colorful, and bittersweet in a way that gave me great hope for the rest of the collection.
While most of the worlds are interesting, it becomes increasingly clear as you progress through them that each story is a satirical projection against something Le Guin finds distasteful about the modern world. The most obvious satire is found in the plane of Great Joy where a corporation has subjugated a whole people to create a type of Disneyland for shallow American tourists. Goodness is finally achieved when the Great Joy Corporation has been destroyed and the workers socialize the means of production. High five for socialism!
In "Seasons of the Ansarac," a humorless, overbearing industrial civilization tried to impose its culture on a peaceful, celebratory, pre-industrial culture. What a relief that they failed! In each of the planes, the simplistic pre-industrial cultures are in tune with the world around them and their environment. How sweet. The cultures that have gone through industrialization are found in their post-apocalyptic state. I guess that doesn't bode well for our world.
Le Guin's approach often comes across as a lecture because most of the stories are written less like a travelogue and more like an anthropological treatise. Only rarely are individual characters fleshed out -- and in these stories the writing sparkles. As I turned the last page, I wished Le Guin had focused her substantial imagination on inventing compelling new worlds instead of preaching.
PS: If you listened to the audio book, you missed out on Eric Beddows' illustrations for each world. Check out the Ursula Le Guin web site where they have been reproduced.
Rated by buyers 
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Oh, why didn't I think of it first? The idea of changing physical planes when waiting in an airport is wonderful! I loved the book, some stories better than others. I've read every one of her adult books I can get my hands on (I own 90%) of them. It is amazing how Le Guin manages to be new every time. What a mind the woman has!
After reading Le Guin, the subsequent book I read has to be a masterpiece not to suffer by comparison. It isn't that Le Guin writes good books. Every sentence she writes is beautiful. And then that they fit together and tell a story is just icing on the cake.
Rated by buyers -
This book makes me think of Douglas Adams and Jonathan Swift. It has the appeal and fun of "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" through the protagonist's (Sita) travels to varied societies (worlds) which are similar to the many places in "Gulliver's Travels".
The book is written as a pun about the miseries of air travel. The very first page will strike a definite chord for anyone who has flown very much. Le Guin calls the worlds she visits "planes" (another little joke here I believe) where the protagonist(Sita Dulip) meets a variety of people. In all Sita goes to 15 different worlds where she meets societies to include a world where applied genetics had gone wrong; a society where the older the people got the less they spoke; another society talks but their words have meanings that change all the time; another world is one of migratory people who like many animals of our own planet trek long distances to mate.
This book is funny, ironic, intelligent, thought-provoking and the ultimate in escapism reading. Even if you've never read Le Guin before, you will be delighted with this book. The only complaint I have with the book is that the drawings in the book are distracting. The artist does a fine job, but I prefer to have my own mental pictures from a book; otherwise, it's a lot of fun to read!
Rated by buyers -
I have had a life long love affair with Ursula K LeGuin's writing, though I have not read all of her works, and what I have read of this slim volume so far is absolutely delicious. The chronicles that flow out of the premise are poignant and engaging. I'm already anticipating many more exciting journeys to come. If you haven't read Le Guin before try exploring her Earthsea Series. My mother read it to me as a child and I couldn't thank her enough.
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