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Overall Summary
The Word for World is Forest is a science fiction story about the relationship between humans and aliens on another planet. It was written by Ursula K. Le Guin, who has a series of books that deal with how Earth acts as an empire in space. The book explores themes such as racism, friendship, and violence through the eyes of the main character.
The story starts off with humans already on a forest planet called Athshe. They have been there for years and they are cutting down trees to export them back to Earth, where wood is scarce. A man named Captain Davidson flies over Smith Camp in an airship and thinks about the women that had just arrived on Athshe. When he returns to camp after his furlough, it has been destroyed by the Athsheans, who are also referred to as creechies because of their small size. The humans enslaved them and forced them into labor camps.
Davidson walks through the ruins of a camp. Four Athsheans approach him and restrain him. One of them is Selver, an Athshean whose wife was raped by Davidson. She later died in the ensuing fight following her death when Davidson badly scarred Selver’s face. At Camp Smith, Selver releases Davidson so he can spread the message of the camp’s destruction to other people in power who will listen to him and do something about it.
The humans and the aliens begin to discuss the massacre. Raj Lyubov, a man who speaks Athshean fluently, believes that mistreating them is what led to the revolt. However, everyone else disagrees with him and claims that he was too lenient on them because of his classification of them as peaceful.
Two aliens from another planet announce that a League of Worlds has been formed. They have brought a radio communicator with them, which will allow instant communication between planets. The League has ordered the release of all Athsheans and their return to Earth.
Meanwhile, Davidson attacks another region in return for the previous attack on Camp Smith. He is transferred away from his unit due to his involvement in the attack. One tribe, with Selver as its leader, launches an assault of New Java and murders everyone they come across including women and children. Lyubov dies during this chaos but her group can no longer be found afterwards because they were exterminated. Selver’s tribe is left behind by their abusers who have gone to get reinforcements and will leave them alone on Athshe until three years later when humans arrive back at that planet then will leave it forever which means till then local tribes must stay away from trees growing around the area in shape of a pin which was to serve as a guide for authorities who are coming after 3 years time so that they could set up usefully.
Davidson attacks Athshean settlements, but he is captured by Selver. He refuses to kill Davidson and takes him to a deserted area of the planet.
Three years later, the ship returns. Selver delivers Lyubov’s anthropological documents and work to the humans, who then prepare to leave. Before the humans came, the Athsheans had never known murder. Selver worries about what will happen after they leave because now that his people know how to kill each other with guns, their planet is changed forever even though there are no more humans on it anymore. The World for World is Forest won a Hugo Award in 1973 for Best Novella and was praised for its parallels between American involvement in Vietnam during that time period as well as today’s issues regarding war around the world. It remains timely and relevant today and continues to receive critical acclaim from critics of science fiction literature.
