In my top five, too. I have two copies right now, the second is a first edition I found at a free bookstore. I've given one other away, will probably send another with a kid when they move out.
It's the dryness, for me. She evokes the setting so clearly and in so few words, it took me by surprise. Also my first exposure to thoughtful anarchist ideas, which has been fun.
That and Wizard of Earthsea. Which is as spare, poetic, and strange as any YA magic fiction book wishes it could be.
I grew up in the Pacific NW, not far from where Le Guin lived, and this book is the clearest picture of the political philosophy of the area I have ever seen. They don't call it the People's Republic of Portland for nothing.
It's the dryness, for me. She evokes the setting so clearly and in so few words, it took me by surprise. Also my first exposure to thoughtful anarchist ideas, which has been fun.
That and Wizard of Earthsea. Which is as spare, poetic, and strange as any YA magic fiction book wishes it could be.