Changing Planes

Hey. Just my opinion, but a book whose very title is a pun is off to a mighty good start. The premise of Changing Planes is that a traveler in a U.S. airport becomes so mightily disturbed by flight delay, food that could double as a petro-chemical, and airline attendants that could easily be outperformed by a Tickle Me Elmo doll, that she is able to access interstellar planes, making travel twixt the numerous civilizations in our universe quite accessible. Daughter of a writer and an anthropology professor (Berkeley), LeGuin's earliest writings often involved imaginary civilizations. What does a writer whose career spans more than four decades, has garnered numerous awards, and gathered a significant band of devoted readers choose to write about in her mid-70's? Well, whatever she damn well pleases! Which, with qualifications (more on this in just a bit), is much to our benefit. The influence of LeQuin's anthropologist/writer genome is strong in Changing Planes. Some books, to be fit into a nutshell, would require a coconut. The kernel, but not all the richness, of Changing Planes can be fit into a sunflower seed: Think Gulliver's Travels on an intergalactic basis. In a series of short stories, each reflecting a trip to a different plane/planet, our neo-Gulliver (who goes by Sita Dulip)visits civilization after civilization, exploring whatever themes haunt the intelligent and agile mind of Ursula K. LeGuin. Genetic manipulation gone wild, clashes between cultures that differ in technological expertise, tales of the consequences of abandoning rituals that are tuned to the rhythms of nature, a planet turned into an extreme version of Disney's "Happiest Place on Earth": Le Guin simply lets fly, with largely intriguing results. My own favorite story? A planet is which everyone dreams a new, but shared, dream every night; a communal dream that includes the longings, fears, joys, and horrors of every citizen. Changing Planes, absorbed at a measured pace, and with a bit of patience, is richly provocative. It could (in Berkeley, but not likely in Sarah Palin's home town) be used to great effect as an entire high school course, with sufficient depth of material to consume an entire semester. Is it worth your time? Let me get back to those qualifications I mentioned above... If you like your sci-fi chock full of nano-tech warfare, spaceships whose guns are projecting blue trans-dimensional disrupter beams at sinister aliens, and scientific underpinnings as hard as diamonds (I do like all these things)....go play somewhere else. If you are ideologically in the Bush/Cheney camp (ideological implies ideas, admittedly a bit of a stretch for these two gentlemen), spare yourself some Pepcid/antacid purchases, pick up a Clancy novel instead. But if, on the other hand, you'd like a book that you could leave on your bedstand in order to graze on a story/plane, and subsequently drift off to sleep thinking "Hmmmmm. Interesting. Very, very i

Beautifully written stories about a universe where one can move from world to world, these stories start out like a very light version of Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and grow deeper and darker. One of my favorite among her works, for its light, simple touch.

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 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!

Waiting in airports can be interminable tedium, OR, a passage to other planes of existence, fascinating new worlds. In fact there is a whole world of such worlds, linked by a loose-knit Interplanary Agency, with Interplanary Hotels for travelers, and Rornan's Handy Planary Guide for guidance. Such is the premise for this collection of fantastic allegorical stories.Strange stories they are, too, stories of people just a little different from ourselves, people whose foibles and fallacies are just a little different from our own. Stories of people wracked by pointless ethnic conflicts that go on for centuries; people who have ruined their worlds and destroyed their ecologies; worlds in which ancient cultures and traditions are fading away. There is a quality of wistful longing in these stories, longing for a simpler, saner world that has been lost or ruined. LeGuin's beautiful writing is complemented by the inventive, Escher-like drawings of Eric Beddows.Author Ursula K. LeGuin is a master story-teller. These stories are easy to read, compelling, humorous, engaging, and hard to forget. They will get you to thinking and they will haunt you. I recommend this book highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber

You can just tell how much fun Le Guin had writing this book. Many of the stories have an irreverent tone. But many also explore serious themes in a novel way. How would you like to sprout wings and fly? Live without any need for sleep? Be immortal? Explore the downsides. But mostly, just enjoy the ride.