Planet of Exile

by Ursula. K Le Guin

Published Nov. 11, 1966 by Ace.

ISBN:: 978-0-441-66951-6

(29 reviews)

The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years. But ten of Werel's years are over 600 terrestrial years. The lonely & dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter --a season that lasts for 15 years-- the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches & call the farborns. But hilfs & farborns have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals & eerie preying snow ghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?

1 edition

Courts reviewed Planet of Exile by Ursula. K Le Guin (Hainish Cycle)

Short Novella with a Decent Story

4 stars

3.5 stars rounded up. A human colony is stranded on a faraway planet for about 600 years now and has to survive and deal with the primitive native folk. The storytelling is decent, but a bit dusty regarding e.g. gender roles. To be fair, it was written in 1966 and Le Guin was only in the process of becoming the huge success and forward thinker she later turned out to be.

The book is short and shouldn't be any longer for the given story. It's part of the loose canon of Hainish novels (although either I missed it, or they don't play any role in this one), so as a completionist, I just had to read it. I liked it a bit better than Rocannon's World, the first one.

Eric Lawton reviewed Planet of Exile by Ursula. K Le Guin (Hainish Cycle)

Review of 'Planet of Exile' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Although there is a good plot and interesting characters, there is also a focus on societies. It's a pity Story Graph doesn't use this third dimension in it's categorisation.

Think of all the utopias and dystopias.