I promised a Birthaday of the world review (because this book was amazing) and here it is!
The birthday of the world and other stories is a collection of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. All of these stories are about gender rols, and they specially talk about women, and most of them are part of the Hainish Cycle. Let's talk a bit about each of them:
Coming of age in Karhide was probably my favourite one. I might be biased because I love The left hand of darkness and this story is also set in Gethen, but it was trully amazing. It's about how a young Gethenian goes through their first kemmer and loses their virginity. I just love this world so much and the cultures in it, and this is a great story to learn about their society and how sexuality works there.
The matter of Seggri is set in a world where the male population is significally lower that the female, which leads to segregation and a reversion of gender roles. Men are just seen as trophies and only have reproductive purposes. That's it until some Ekumen mobiles arrive to Seggri and everything starts to change. It was so good, it had various points of view and deals with such interesting topics!
Unchosen love and Mountain ways are set in O (same planet as A fisherman of the inland sea, which I have yet to read), where marriages or sedoretu involve 4 people. The first one's about a couple between 2 boys looking for the rest of their sedoretu. One of them, tho, feels a bit trapped in the relationship and doesn't know what to do. The other story's about a sedoretu formed unconventionally. Both of them were so fun, I really enjoyed them and they made me want to know more about O.
Solitude's narrated by the dauhter of a mobile from the Ekumen, who talks about her experience growing up in a world where men and women are separated. I found this one a bit more boring than the previous ones, but it's still really interesting.
Old Music and the slave women was also so good. Old Music's a mobile from the Ekumen living in a planet where slaves have rebelled against their owners. He meets some slave women who are still working for some government officials and tries to protect them and survive through an incoming war.
The birthday of the world wasn't really for me, I didn't like it than much. This one's set in a world ruled by God, which is actually a couple between a man and a woman. The male part is dying, so two of their children will have to marry and become God themselves.
The last one, Paradises Lost, is actually a short novel. It's the only story which isn't part of the Hainish Cycle, and is set on a spaceship traveling through generations to a planet safer than Earth. Some members of the last generation that will live in the ship before its landing will have to deal with the members from a religious group that don't belive the ship's actually going to stop. This one was really interesting. The main characters were really cool, and I loved how the story changed from just showing you the everyday life in the ship to a much bigger conflict. It was great.
So, the book in general was super cool. I really liked how the themes are treated in it, it all just works so well. Some stories were better than the others, but overall they were all really enjoyable. I think that it's really worth reading, even if you haven't read anything by the author or the Ekumen series, because it's simply perfect. I loved it so much!
