This is a collection of novellas, so I’ve read some before (Earthsea), but some were new to me. It’s LeGuin, so they’re all good. I think with anything of hers, it’s a matter of what I’m in the mood to have stick with me.
This time it was “Paradises Lost”, which is set on a colony ship, in the middle of the ride, when these particular colonists are expected to live and die on the ship – it’s their children that’ll eventually land on the planet that these early colonists from Earth have sent away. (I’m not sure if this is technically a Hainish Cycle book – it’s early days for Earth if it is.)
What this ends up being is a meditation on religion, and the journeys to faith. And man, is it not an easy one for this people. I dreamed about this story the night after I finished it. The author just has such a way of throwing back ideas at you that you’d never thought of in quite that way.