Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions
Paperback, 384 pages
Published Jan. 18, 2022 by Tor Books.
Content warning Direct quote from book
My favorite bit "Without trust, a man lives, but not a human life; without hope, he dies. When there is no relationship, where hands do not touch, emotion atrophies in void and intelligence goes sterile and obsessed. Between men the only link left is that of owner to slave, or murderer to victim."
These stories lie in the misty plains somewhere between Fantasy and SciFi. Ursula Le Guin shows a fully formed world from the beginning, her anthropological bent shows through in the interactions and cultures she creates.
Rocannon's world I thoroughly enjoyed Ursula's first entry into the Hainish cycle. A hero's tale of a Gonzo anthropologist.
Planet of exile An expert drip-feed of world-building. I loved the elements of language evolving from a historically technologically advanced culture.
City of illusion Le Guin does a fantastic job of portraying hallucinatory disorientation. A suspenseful mystery adventure tale. I think she had fun playing with the possible lives in her new universe.
I did not expect Le Guin's early entries in the Hainish cycle to be as interlinked as they are (at least, as interlinked as may be given the vast amounts of time and space that occurs between each of them), considering that I started with The Dispossessed, Left Hand, and The Word for World, in that order, none of which have the same kind of thematic and situational throughline that these three novels have.
Of the three, I enjoyed Rocannon's World the most, I think, given its more traditional hero's journey with fantastical elements based on a science fiction premise, much in the same vein as Robert Heinlein's Glory Road. It may be something in the simplicity of the narrative, with a hint of the larger intergalactic struggle, both of which build in intensity to the climax, that I enjoyed most. Planet of Exile was interesting as a story of …
I did not expect Le Guin's early entries in the Hainish cycle to be as interlinked as they are (at least, as interlinked as may be given the vast amounts of time and space that occurs between each of them), considering that I started with The Dispossessed, Left Hand, and The Word for World, in that order, none of which have the same kind of thematic and situational throughline that these three novels have.
Of the three, I enjoyed Rocannon's World the most, I think, given its more traditional hero's journey with fantastical elements based on a science fiction premise, much in the same vein as Robert Heinlein's Glory Road. It may be something in the simplicity of the narrative, with a hint of the larger intergalactic struggle, both of which build in intensity to the climax, that I enjoyed most. Planet of Exile was interesting as a story of two dying and incompatible cultures, one old and the other new(ish), coming together so that both can survive, even though their combination means that each will be lost and become something new. A similar scenario at the individual level presents itself as the ultimate struggle in City of Illusions (which is inaptly named, though not opaquely so), wherin the main character has to reconcile himself -- or himselves, rather -- through losses and resorations of memory, the lies and misleading truths of those around him, and the ultimate responsibility he has for the survival of the civilization that struggled so hard to endure in Planet of Exile. As one might expect, Le Guin threads all these stories with elements of the dualism and (communal) anarchism for which she is so well known.
While none of the novels in this volume supplants The Left Hand of Darkness as my favorite of the Cycle, they are all worth reading for their own sakes. I highly recommend reading them in a volume like this one that collects all three, given that they are more connected than the other novels of the Hainish Cycle (at least, that I have read so far).
