Malafrena

Oops - Worlds Wihout End - Error - this book is NOT a collection as listed, it is a novel.

See also the collection Orsinian Tales, with the same setting, which has some excellent stories.

I have assigned the sub-genre "Historical Fantasy", partly because nothing else fits. The book reads as a straightforward novel - it just happens to be set in a very realistic middle-Eurpean setting which seems to match a time period around about Napolean or so, very very roughly.

I don't know whether the sub-genre term "slipstream" might apply - Le Guin is certainly a writer within the SF & F canon (a number of us would say one of / the best / the best of the best). And she never never never regarded Science fiction as a ghetto, or something to be shunned or ashamed of. I retract "slipstream", as I think she would have rejected the notion.

In any case - Malafrena is an excellent novel. Highly recommended, with excellent memorable characters. And how are they named? Le Guin said that she listened very carefully to her characters, and they would reveal their true names to her.

Her passing has left a void which shall linger unfilled for all eternity.