Interesting to see Le Guin as she's developing her craft.
4 stars
This collection of three early novels in Le Guin's Hainish series initially looks haphazard, as if they were only collected because of writing order and not being as well-known as her later works.
- Rocannon's World is a serviceable fantasy quest wrapped in sci-fi trappings.
- Planet of Exile is a tighter story of isolation and people forced together by an invasion.
- City of Illusions involves a stranger seeking his identity in a post-apocalyptic Earth controlled by unseen alien masters.
But common threads tie them together. Not just her frequent themes like culture clashes, critiquing colonization, challenging racial stereotypes (both in-world and real), and just getting people to communicate. The second and third novels form a thematic duology:
- A single city of Earth colonists struggles to survive and adapt to a primitive world.
- A single city of alien colonists controls a primitive Earth they've adapted to their own desires.
And you can …
This collection of three early novels in Le Guin's Hainish series initially looks haphazard, as if they were only collected because of writing order and not being as well-known as her later works.
- Rocannon's World is a serviceable fantasy quest wrapped in sci-fi trappings.
- Planet of Exile is a tighter story of isolation and people forced together by an invasion.
- City of Illusions involves a stranger seeking his identity in a post-apocalyptic Earth controlled by unseen alien masters.
But common threads tie them together. Not just her frequent themes like culture clashes, critiquing colonization, challenging racial stereotypes (both in-world and real), and just getting people to communicate. The second and third novels form a thematic duology:
- A single city of Earth colonists struggles to survive and adapt to a primitive world.
- A single city of alien colonists controls a primitive Earth they've adapted to their own desires.
And you can watch her craft growing stronger over the course of the three novels.
I wouldn't recommend someone start reading Le Guin here, but I would recommend it to someone who's familiar with her work.