Ursula K Le Guin - The Word for World is Forest

Whoa. Just taking a minute to check out the very '70s artwork for The Word for World is Forest. My version is the SF Masterworks one with yellow cover and a tasteful illustration of a forest. But there's something rather attractive about the paisley alien madness up there.

Forest (can I call you Forest?) is barely a book. At 100+ pages it's just a novella. Like The Left Hand of Darkness, it is good but not quotable. The story has to be experienced as a whole. 

To summarise: humans ("yumens") are attempting to colonise a planet that appears to be mostly forest and sea. Its inhabitants (which the humans call "creechies") are small, big-eyed humanoids presumed to be simple, lazy, and sub-human. They're enslaved to do menial work while the yumens busy themselves with felling trees and sending the wood (worth more than gold) back home.

The sadistic yumen Captain Davidson rapes and kills a female creechie, prompting her husband to lead a native rebellion. Then there's war. Which no one had expected of the pliable, peace-loving creechies. Turns out the aliens have a massive network of underground homes within the forests - and a sophisticated society, even if there was no central government. 

The book is a perfect parallel to the Vietnam War and can be read as an antiwar story. Which isn't as off-putting as it sounds. 

I think the best part isn't Le Guin's aliens, but her depictions of the fallibility of human bureaucracy (making decisions with virtually no relevant data). Captain Davidson is her most spine-chilling character. The typical blustery manly man who goes around kicking animals just for the hell of it, bombing their homes just to "show 'em who's boss". It's super scary because many Captain Davidsons exist in real life, and there might be even more of them today. 

This book has really put me in the mood for more eco-feminist sci-fi. Next up: Ursula K Le Guin's Always Coming Home and Sheri Tepper's Grass.