Worlds of Exile and Illusion

Ursula K. Le Guin

★★★★☆

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.