Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume

Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions

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Ursula K. Le Guin: Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume (2016, Orb Books)

383 pages

Published Dec. 12, 2016 by Orb Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-9766-9
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4 stars (1 review)

Worlds of Exile and Illusion contains three novels in the Hainish Series from Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the greatest science fiction writers and many times the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Her career as a novelist was launched by the three novels contained here. These books, Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions, are set in the same universe as Le Guin's groundbreaking classic, The Left Hand of Darkness.

1 edition

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 …