A Fisherman of the Inland Sea: Science Fiction Stories

N.Y.: HarperPrism, New York, 1994. First ed., first printing (full number line). Octavo with two-tone blue boards with embossed illustration; in blue and white pictorial jacket; 191 pages: black and white illustrations; 25 cm Very good (+); tight and bright with very light spotting to bottom edge of first two pages; jacket is very good (+); colors vibrant; tiny puncture near spine on front and original price sticker to rear, very minor edgewear, now in archival mylar. Hardcover. ISBN: 9780061052002, 9780060763510

"This new collection of short fiction by one of America's most honored authors celebrates her understanding that narrative is the shining thread with which we create our common humanity. Ursula K. Le Guin is foremost among that group of writers who have changed science fiction to produce the profound and transformational literature that it can be today. Her award-winning stories range from the everyday to the outer limits of experience, where the quantum uncertainties of space and time are resolved only in the depths of the human heart. Here we have starships that sail, literally, on wings of song...musical instruments to be played at funerals only...ansibles for faster-than-light communication...orbiting arks designed to save a doomed humanity...In A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Le Guin has assembled a far-reaching catalog of wonders, and she uses them to illuminate the earth on which ordinary women and men live. Astonishing in their diversity and power, her stories exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers, and the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intact."-- Jacket flap

Contents: The first contact with the Gorgonids. Newton's sleep. The ascent of the north face. The rock that changed things. The Kerastion. The Shobies' story. Dancing to Ganam. Another story, or, A fisherman of the inland sea. Notes: Interior illustrations by Michael Storrings--Title page verso. Jacket design by G. Mydlowski. Jacket illustration by Kirk Reinert. Author photograph by Marian Kolisch--Jacket flap.