Whether you read Science Fiction and Fantasy or not, you have probably heard the name Ursula K. Le Guin tossed around. She has written such classic sci-fi books as The Left Hand of Darkness and the fantasy series that starts with The Wizard of Earthsea. Le Guin was also an enthusiastic defender of science fiction as a literary genre. In The Language of the Night: essays on writing, science fiction, and fantasy, readers gain insights to Le Guin as both an author and a sci-fi warrior.
The updated version begins with an introduction by Ken Liu, who is no slouch in the sci-fi/fantasy realm himself. (Worth checking out his books as well). Liu rightly asserts that throughout her writing, Le Guin always wrestled with concepts of truth and joy. The way she did that was by igniting the imaginations of her readers. In her essays, she explains how adults are turned away from using their imaginations and how the world really would be better, if everyone could get over that and realize that creativity has a place in the adult world too.
In fact, defending science fiction writing as a genre of merit comes up in many of Le Guin's essays on writing. She talks about how the sci-fi of the 1940s and early 50s seemed to be mostly robots and aliens. In other words, nobody really took it that seriously. But like imagination, Le Guin saw the potential that science fiction and fantasy stories held. That if authors and critics could treat these stories with the same care as general fiction, then they could absolutely pass along insights about humanity to their readers. After all, even a book with dragons is really about the human condition, isn't it?
So if you have been skeptical about science fiction or fantasy, this book might help you gain some insight into the genre. If you have been looking for a way to read more non-fiction, this book can help because most of the essays are fairly short and definitely entertaining. Or maybe you're a longtime fan of Le Guin and want more information about her process and point of view. This book will give you all of that and more. You can find it here along with Le Guin's other novels at QPL.