‘The Fliers of Gy’ by Ursula K. Le Guin

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Genres: Fantasy, Sci Fi, Short Story

Similar books: The Cloud Roads

Previous books in the series/by the author reviewed: A Wizard of Earthsea

Rating: Highly Recommended

Here’s the TL;DR for my review (SPOILERS!):

• Pros
  • This is a LeGuin short story about flying peoples, and the culture surrounding them.
• Mixed
• Cons

Spoiler-tastic Review

Here’s a short review for a short story.

This is a character based story about a culture of creatures, some of whom can fly. That flight is viewed as a curse, for only one in a thousand of the people of Gy grow functional wings and for those people, flying involves the risk of death.

I liked this. I listened to the LeVar Burton Reads recitation of the story, and he did a good job of adding character to the story. He made the protagonist live and breathe, sounding like a unique person who just wants to live in the moment even though he’s cursed.