The essays in The Language of Night have aged unevenly, in part because of their author’s own impact ... Le Guin, however, was a staunch critic as well as a defender of genre ... Le Guin’s most interesting subject was not the now-extinct snob or the still-thriving junk writers. It was herself, capable of greatness but falling short through her reluctance to confront certain subjects.
If you want evidence that people are thinking and writing about science fiction these days with sophistication and good sense, you need go no further than this volume ... At their best they are eloquent examples of an unashamed humanism rarely encountered today.
