Alexander Yates was born in Haiti and grew up in Mexico, Bolivia, and the Phillipines. He is the author of the critically acclaimed adult novel Moondogs and his debut YA novel, The Winter Place. He lives with his wife in Hanoi, Vietnam. One of the author's top ten wilderness adventures, as shared at the Guardian:The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le GuinRead about another entry on the list.
...Le Guin gives us a massive wilderness in the form of a forested planet. Her novel opens on Athshe, called “New Tahiti” by the Terrans (earthlings)who are colonising it. More then just oppressing the indigenous people - green-furred humanoids who live in symbiosis with their forest home - the Terrans are intent on taming the very planet itself. Their eventual overthrow is both well deserved and exciting, but what really captivates me about Le Guin’s novel is the active role that the forest plays. It is at once a living thing, an ecosystem, and a civilization. Only an outsider could truly see it as a wilderness. Which is true of all wild spaces, isn’t it? That’s part of what draws us to them, and also what repels us. The wilderness can get on just fine without us.
The Word for World is Forest is among Emily Stamm and Charlie Jane Anders's ten best science fiction stories where humans are the villains.
--Marshal Zeringue
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