Five Complete Novels: Rocannon's World / Planet of Exile / City of Illusions / The Left Hand of Darkness / The Word for World

Ursula Le Guin is considered one of the best authors in science fiction and her Hainish series clearly shows why she is celebrated. Every story in this volume is a chapter in the history of different worlds in the galaxy where Earth is just one of the planets and space ships can make journeys to planets light-years away with passengers not aging in the process. It is not immediately obvious that they are connected because every story takes place on a different planet with generations worth of time in between the "chapters" but once I figured it out the series took on a more wholesome feel and became more satisfying.
It was interesting to see different themes dominate every story underneath the general theme of being an alien in a show more strange world and finding a place in it. For example for Planet of Exile it was belonging, for The Left Hand of Darkness - patriotism and friendship and for The Word for World is Forest - acceptance, tolerance and respect for what is different as well as preserving the environment.
The Left Hand of Darkness was my favorite in the series, so I'll tell you about it and leave the rest for you to discover on your own. At first I didn't enjoy it very much, it read as a report without much insight into the people of Winter, which in retrospect is what it was meant to be, but as the story progressed and protagonist changed from the Terran Genly Ai to the Karhidish Therem Harth and the format changed from report to diary I became increasingly invested in the story. With protagonists alternating it became something of a dialogue and then the real adventures started and I was hooked. A very nice addition was the lore of the land with legends interspersed between chapters, it helped create an impression of a culture, a history of this planet and gave it a more human aspect. Don't want to give anything away, but I almost cried towards the end and even now, a week and two books later, I'm still thinking about it, the characters and the societies that shaped them. I have a feeling I'll always remember it and will re-read it many times. show less

These novels are all part of Ursula Le Guin's Hainish cycle and are among her first novels. Rocannon's World, her first novel, seemed too much like Tolkien's Middle Earth overlayed with space opera. In clever ways, but still pretty derivative. The second, Planet of Exile, was still rather conventional, but it was one where the planet's cosmology did do more to drive the plot: this is a planet with a year sixty times longer than our earth about to enter a winter that will last 15 of our years. City of Illusions is a direct sequel to Planet of Exile and was more memorable, had more twists and turns, and delivered along the way a good adventure across a post-apocalyptic far-future America. I can also see her philosophy more to the fore in show more this book. Le Guin did a translation of the Tao Te Ching, and Taoism is said to imbue both Earthsea and her novel The Dispossessed. A passage in the Tao is key in this story, and we even meet a "Thurro-dowist" (follower of Thoreau of Walden Pond and Taoism.) This is the the first novel here I'd call a standout.

The Left Hand of Darkness is perhaps LeGuin's most famous and influential novel, painting one of the most fascinating and unique of alien worlds. Interspersed through the narrative are myths and legends that give a texture to the cultures central to the tale. This is one of the great science-fiction novels of all time that examines a lot of the issues surrounding gender, prejudice and identity--it's specifically considered one of the great feminist science fiction novels but I don't think it's at all heavy-handed but above all a involving and moving story set in a intriguing world.

I wish I could say the same of the last novel included. I didn't care at all for the preachy The Word for World is Forest. Maybe, just maybe, if Captain Don Davidson whose perspective we open with weren't such a caricature, if he wasn't such a repellant, twirl-the-mustache villain from the very first pages, I could have hung on until what was good in the book took hold. As it was, I felt if I'm was going to experience a tale of how cutting down trees is evil, where the noble, peaceful indigenous people fight back against the rapacious Yumens, well, I'll go watch Avatar again--at least it's pretty. Though the novel won a Hugo though for Best Novella, and is considered one of Le Guin's best works, so it's not a bad choice to round things out. show less

Finished the first of the five today - Rocannon's World. It's more a novella. I really liked the mix of scifi and fantasy.
-Finished them all. Everyone in the universe should at least read Left Hand of Darkness. I think some of the images will stick with me forever. It was definitely my favorite. The Word for World is Forest should not be read by angry environmentalists - it will put you over the edge into a either despair or murderous rage. It's just too accurate, in its own way.

Very good stuff.