The Eye of the Heron
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-18

The Eye of the Heron, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10093480 / CC BY SA 3.0

#1978_American_novels
#Novels_by_Ursula_K._Le_Guin
#1978_science_fiction_novels
#Feminist_science_fiction_novels
#American_science_fiction_novels
#Anarchist_fiction
#Cengage_books
#Delacorte_Press_books
The Eye of the Heron is a 1978 science fiction novel by American author Ursula K. Le Guin which was first published in the science fiction anthology Millennial Women.
The Eye of the Heron is a science fiction novel set on the fictional planet of Victoria in a speculative future, probably sometime in the 22nd century, when the planet has been colonized for about a century and has no communication with Earth.
The protagonist is a young woman called Luz but the story is told in the third person and the reader sees events from the point of view of several different characters.
The Eye of the Heron is usually treated as one of Le Guin's minor novels although it exhibits her characteristic prose style and themes.
The title is a reference to a fictional animal on the planet Victoria which early colonists called heron because of some superficial similarities to Earth heron.
The characters' encounters with these animals occur at moments of significant introspection, particularly when they are considering that which they perceive as alien, or other, in relation to themselves.
The planet of Victoria received two waves of colonists from Earth: first two prison ships founding a penal colony and then one ship of political exiles.
The descendants of the prisoners mostly inhabit the City.
The descendants of the political exiles, the "People of Peace", inhabit Shantih Town, which is known to the City dwellers as Shanty Town.
The Shantih Towners, whose primary occupation is farming, want to settle another valley further away from the City.
The City "Bosses" do not want to lose the control they believe they have over the Shanty Towners and so they take action to try to prevent any settlement...