Worlds of Exile and Illusion by Ursula K. Le Guin

The premise of the Hainish Cycle is that the Hain, a post-Earth human society, have seeded the galaxy with new colonies and after thousands of years they are returning to the seeded planets to check in on them. Originally published in 1966, Rocannon's World was Le Guin's literary debut and her introduction to the Hainish Cycle. “Why hide? The army using the planet as their base for interstellar warfare were not going to be very badly scared by the sight of ten men and five overgrown housecats bobbing in the rain in a pair of leaky boats…” The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as 'Solitude' and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. She was known for her treatment of gender ( The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems ( The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. We'll help you figure out where to start.Ursula K. If you want to celebrate this legend's birthday, pick up a copy of one of her books at your library. You don’t have to be a hardcore fantasy fan to appreciate the beauty of Le Guin's writing, her wonderful storytelling, or the vivid fictional worlds she creates. If you've never read Le Guin before, you're missing out on some great literature. Her masterful storytelling, which weaves together anthropology, issues of gender identity and sexuality, high fantasy, and sci-fi, has made her an American legend in literary fiction. Over the course of her 40-year career, she published dozens of novels, collections of short stories, essays, and volumes of poetry to critical acclaim won the Hugo, Nebula, PEN-Malamud, and National Book Award and pushed the boundaries of science fiction. Le Guin (1929-2018), one of the most well-known and popular science fiction and fantasy authors of all time, was born on October 21, 1929, in Berkeley, California.

Worlds of Exile and Illusion by Ursula K. Le Guin