Okay, friends who know me well enough to know my reading tastes. Why have I not read Ursula Le Guin before today? Seriously. Her work has been out for over 40 years, and I’ve not read them until now. This is ridiculous. I finally picked up “The Left Hand of Darkness” from the public library yesterday, and her intro alone was enough to hook me. It’s a rarity to find a powerful female writer in sci-fi of that era, and I’m sad that it took me so long to discover her writing.
Le Guin does something fascinating in her depictions of the planet Winter. She intersperses chapters telling myths and legends of the planet’s people with the chapters that tell the primary narration. I love this. I’d been considering having Zach tell some stories throughout the main narration of my as-yet-unnamed book, but now I’m considering utilizing Le Guin’s technique. This would mean that my narration would potentially be interrupted every few chapters as Zach tells the other characters stories of the world they inhabit. Thoughts?
The Swords of the Ancients 
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I can’t say that I’ve gotten into Le Guin yet myself, and I really have been meaning to. Glad you’re enjoying her, that may motivate me to pick it up myself.
I love the idea of interspersed mythology and legends of the world being told by the narrator…it happens in poem form and song form in LOTR too, and it makes the world seem bigger, older, and more complete. History is one thing, but the myths and legends are the real meat of a culture, and often explain why that culture is what it is. I say go for it, it’s a brilliant idea.
I see it as kind of like a blending of the LOTR trilogy and the Silmarillion’s history in one.