'A rich and complex story of friendship and love' GUARDIAN
'It's a giant thought experiment that's also a cracking good read about gender' Neil Gaiman
'Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new'
Two people, until recently strangers, find themselves on a long, tortuous and dangerous journey across the ice. One is an outcast, forced to leave his beloved homeland; the other is fleeing from a different kind of persecution. What they have in common is curiosity, about others and themselves, and an almost unshakeable belief that the world can be a better place.
As they journey for over 800 miles, across the harshest, most inhospitable landscape, they discover the true meaning of friendship, and of love.
Readers love The Left Hand of Darkness:
'This book overwhelmed me with how good it was, and how different it ended up from what I expected . . . a deep story of humanity, love, betrayal, alienation, and acceptance' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'The world is so rich in detail that it becomes an adventure to explore it, and the nuanced character dynamics keep the pages turning . . . a fabulous exploration of fluid gender and sexuality' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'This novel is just the right balance of nuance, world-building and philosophical musings that culminate into a staggeringly empathetic work . . . a great work of feminism' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A masterful and visionary story, one of the most beautiful SF novels I have read' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A landmark in the field of science fiction literature . . . This is a story about loneliness and need for closeness as well' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Ursula K. Le Guin asks, what if gender were not fixed, but serially changeable? . . . The Left Hand of Darkness is a book about journeys, both literal and metaphorical. It is that rare and precious thing: an original and mind-opening book' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
When the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.
Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the very foundations of their society. For every blow against the invaders is a blow to the humanity of the Athsheans. And once the killing starts, there is no turning back.
Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.
Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.
One of the very best must-read novels of all time - with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle
'A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again' THE TIMES
'The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin' Roddy Doyle
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
'There was a wall. It did not look important - even a child could climb it. But the idea was real. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on...'
Shevek is brilliant scientist who is attempting to find a new theory of time - but there are those who are jealous of his work, and will do anything to block him. So he leaves his homeland, hoping to find a place of more liberty and tolerance. Initially feted, Shevek soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.
With powerful themes of freedom, society and the natural world's influence on competition and co-operation, THE DISPOSSESSED is a true classic of the 20th century.
From the multi-award-winning author of The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea sequence comes this single-volume omnibus of the first three Hainish novels.
Intergalactic war reaches Fomalhaut II in Rocannon's World.
Born out of season, a precocious young girl visits the alien city of the farborns and the false-men in Planet of Exile.
In City of Illusions a stranger wandering in the forest people's woods is found and his health restored; now the fate of two worlds rests in this stranger's hands . . .
The three novels contained in this volume are the books that launched Ursula K. Le Guin's glittering career, and are set in the same universe as her Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.
A long, long time from now, in the valleys of what will no longer be called Northern California, might be going to have lived a people called the Kesh.
But Always Coming Home is not the story of the Kesh. Rather it is the stories of the Kesh - stories, poems, songs, recipes - Always Coming Home is no less than an anthropological account of a community that does not yet exist, a tour de force of imaginative fiction by one of modern literature's great voices.
'She is unique. She is legend' THE TIMES
'Le Guin is a writer of enormous intelligence and wit, a master storyteller with the humor and the force of a Twain' BOSTON GLOBE
'Her stories will pass into legend, to touch many generations to come' GUARDIAN
THE UNREAL AND THE REAL is a two-volume collection of stories, selected by Ursula Le Guin herself, and spans the spectrum of fiction from realism through magical realism, satire, science fiction, surrealism and fantasy.
Volume Two, OUTER SPACE, INNER LANDS, showcases Le Guin's acclaimed stories of the fantastic, originally appearing in publications as varied as AMAZING STORIES, PLAYBOY, the NEW YORKER and OMNI, and contains 20 stories, including modern classics such as the HUGO AWARD-winning 'The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas', NEBULA-nominee 'Nine Lives'; JAMES TIPTREE, JR MEMORIAL AWARD-winner (and HUGO and NEBULA-nominee) 'The Matter of Seggri'; NEBULA AWARD-winner 'Solitude'; and the secret history 'Sur', which was nominated for the HUGO AWARD and included in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.
'Her worlds have a magic sheen . . . She moulds them into dimensions we can only just sense. She is unique. She is legend' THE TIMES
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
George Orr is a mild and unremarkable man who finds the world a less than pleasant place to live: seven billion people jostle for living space and food. But George dreams dreams which do in fact change reality - and he has no means of controlling this extraordinary power.
Psychiatrist Dr William Haber offers to help. At first sceptical of George's powers, he comes to astonished belief. When he allows ambition to get the better of ethics, George finds himself caught up in a situation of alarming peril.
'Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be' EMPIRE
The Unreal and the Real is a two-volume collection of stories, selected by Ursula Le Guin herself, and spans the spectrum of fiction from realism through magical realism, satire, science fiction, surrealism and fantasy.
Volume One, WHERE ON EARTH, focuses on Le Guin's interest in realism and magical realism and includes 18 of her satirical, political and experimental earthbound stories. Highlights include WORLD FANTASY and HUGO AWARD-winner 'Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight', the rarely reprinted satirical short, 'The Lost Children', JUPITER AWARD-winner, 'The Diary of the Rose' and the title story of her PULITZER PRIZE finalist collection 'Unlocking the Air'.
'Le Guin's words are magical. Drink this magic up. Drown in it. Dream it' David Mitchell, author of CLOUD ATLAS
In this stunning collection of four intimately interconnected novellas, Ursula K. Le Guin returns to the great themes that have made her one of America's most honored and respected authors.
At the far end of our universe, on the twin planets of Werel and Yeowe, all humankind is divided into 'assets' and 'owners', tradition and liberation are at war, and freedom takes many forms. Here is a society as complex and troubled as any on our world, peopled with unforgettable characters struggling to become fully human. For the disgraced revolutionary Abberkam, the callow 'space brat' Solly, the haughty soldier Teyeo, and the Ekumen historian and Hainish exile Havzhiva, freedom and duty both begin in the heart, and success as well as failure has its costs.
'The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream' Neil Gaiman
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere, alongside the works of such beloved authors as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
When young Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth, everything is taken away - home, family, possessions, even her name. For she is now Arha, the Eaten One, guardian of the ominous Tombs of Atuan.
While she is learning her way through the dark labyrinth, a young wizard, Ged, comes to steal the Tombs' greatest hidden treasure, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. But Ged also brings with him the light of magic, and together, he and Tenar escape from the darkness that has become her domain.
A masterpiece of chilling narration' GUARDIAN
'Wise, graceful, classic myth-making' THE SCOTSMAN
The wizard Alder comes from Roke to the island of Gont in search of the Archmage, Lord Sparrowhawk, once known as Ged. The man who was once the most powerful wizard in the Islands now lives with his wife Tenar and their adopted daughter Tehanu. Alder needs help: his beloved wife died and in his dreams she calls him to the land of the dead - and now the dead are haunting him, begging for release. He can no longer sleep, and the Wizards of Earthsea are worried.
But there is more at stake than the unquiet rest of one minor wizard: for the dragons of Earthsea have arisen, to reclaim the lands that were once theirs. Only Tehanu, herself daughter of a dragon, can talk to them; it may be that Alder's dreams hold the key to the salvation of Earthsea and all the peoples who live there.
'Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be' EMPIRE
'Told with shimmering lyricism, this coming-of-age saga will leave readers transformed' BOOKLIST
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
'A tour de force' EVENING STANDARD
The final part in the story that started with GIFTS, and the tale of Gry Barre of Roddmant and Orrec Caspro of Caspromant, two children with extraordinary powers.
They play a part in VOICES too, the sequel to GIFTS, in which Memer, a girl who has grown up in a captured city, is part of the people's fight for freedom.
And now, in POWERS, we have the conclusion to Ursula Le Guin's beautifully written, powerful and moving story of the Western Isles, a tale that will leave every reader begging for more.
The long-awaited new novel in the superb Hainish cycle
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
'Her worlds have a magic sheen . . . She moulds them into dimensions we can only just sense. She is unique. She is legend' THE TIMES
There have been eighty requests to send an Observer into the hinterlands of the planet Aka to study the natives. Much to everyone's surprise, the eighty-first request is granted, and Observer Sutty is sent upriver to Okzat-Ozkat, a small city in the foothills of Rangma, to talk to the remnants in hiding of a cult practising a banned religion. On Aka, everything that was written in the old scripts has been destroyed; modern aural literature is all written to Corporation specifications.
The Corporation expects Sutty to report back so the non-standardised folk stories and songs can be wiped out and the people 're-educated'.
But Sutty herself is in for an education she never imagined.
'All le Guin's stories are metaphors for the one human story; all her fantastic planets are this one' Margaret Atwood
ARMCHAIR TRAVEL FOR THE MIND:
It was Sita Dulip who discovered, whilst stuck in an airport, unable to get anywhere, how to change planes - literally. With a kind of a twist and a slipping bend, easier to do than describe, she could go anywhere - be anywhere - because she was already between planes ... and on the way back from her sister's wedding, she missed her plane in Chicago and found herself in Choom.
The author, armed with this knowledge and Rornan's invaluable Handy Planetary Guide - although not the Encyclopedia Planeria, as that runs to forty-four volumes - has spent many happy years exploring places as diverse as Islac and the Veksian plane.
CHANGING PLANES is an intriguing, enticing mixture of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY; a cross between Douglas Adams and Alain de Botton: a mix of satire, cynicism and humour by one of the world's best writers.
'Her most important book since ALWAYS COMING HOME and her most satisfactory collection since her first, the brilliant THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS.
A formidable and rewarding work, a prime candidate for best SF collection of the year. An essential book.' LOCUS
Six of the eight piece are set in Le Guin's classic Hainish cycle. The title story, 'The Birthday of the World', stands alone and the final piece, 'Paradises Lost', is a new short novel original to the collection, a major addition to the generation starship subgenre of science fiction.
Memer is a child of rape; when the Alds took the beautiful city of Ansul, they descecrated or destroyed everything of beauty. The Waylord they imprisoned and tortured for years until finally he is freed to return to his home. Though crippled, he is not destroyed. His life still has purpose. Memer is the daughter of his House, the daughter of his heart.
The Alds, a people who love war, cannot and will not read: they believe that in words lie demons that will destroy the world. All the city's libraries, the great treasure trove of knowledge of ages past, are burned, except for those few volumes secreted inthe Waylord's hidden room.
But times are changing. Gry Barre of Roddmant and Orrec Caspro of Caspromant have arrived in the city. Orrec is a story-teller, the most famous of all: he has the gift of making. His wife Gry's gift is that of calling; she walks with a halflion who both frightens and fascinates the Alds.
This is Memer's story, and Gry's and Orrec's, and it is the story of a conquered people craving freedom.
The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on Werel for ten years - and each of Werel's years is over 60 terrestrial years! After so long an exile, the lonely and dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain.
Every winter - a season that lasts a decade and a half - the Earthmen have neighbours: 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, and call the farborns. But both peoples have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals, and eerie preying snow ghouls.
Can the hilfs and the farborns overcome their mutual suspicions and join forces? Or will they both be annihilated?
'One of the most deeply influential of all 20th century fantasy texts' ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FANTASY
'She is unparalleled in creating fantasy peopled by finely drawn and complex characters' GUARDIAN
'I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin' Roddy Doyle
A collection of five magical tales of Earthsea, the fantastical realm created by a master storyteller that has held readers enthralled for more than three decades.
"The Finder", a novella set a few hundred years before A Wizard of Earthsea, when he Archipelago was dark and troubled, reveals how the famous school on Roke was started. In "The Bones of the Earth" the wizards who first taught Ged demonstrate how humility, if great enough, can rein in an earthquake. Sometimes wizards an pursue alternative careers - and "Darkrose and Diamond" is also a delightful story of young courtship. Return to the time when Ged was Archmage of Earthsea in "On the High Marsh", a story about the love of power and the power of love. And "Dragonfly", showing how a determined woman can break the glass ceiling of male magedom, provides a bridge - a dragon bridge - between Tehanu and The Other Wind.
Ursula K. Le Guin has won or been nominated for over 200 awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and SFWA Grand Master Awards. She is the acclaimed author of the Earthsea sequence and The Left Hand of Darkness - which alone would qualify her for literary immortality - as well as a remarkable body of short fiction, including the powerful, Hugo-winning 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' and the masterpiece of anthropological and environmental SF 'The Word for World is Forest' - winner of the Hugo Award for best novella.
But Ursula Le Guin's talents do not stop at fiction. Over the course of her extraordinary career, she has penned numerous essays around themes important to her: anthropology, environmentalism, feminism, social justice and literary criticism to name a few. She has responded in detail to criticism of her own work and even reassessed that work in the context of such critiques. This selection of the best of Le Guin's non-fiction shows an agile mind, an unparalleled imagination and a ferocious passion to argue against injustice.
In 2014 Ursula Le Guin was awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and her widely praised acceptance speech is one of the highlights of this volume, which shows that one of modern literature's most original voices is also one of its purest consciences.
'She's showing no signs of losing her brilliance. She is unparalleled in creating fantasy peopled by finely drawn and complex characters... GIFTS has the simplicity of fairy tale and the power of myth' GUARDIAN
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
Orrec, the son of the Brantor of Caspromant, and Gry, daughter of the Brantors of Barre and Rodd, have grown up together, running half-wild across the Uplands. The people there are like their land: harsh and fierce and prideful; ever at war with each other.
Only the gifts keep the fragile peace. The Barre gift is calling animals. The women of Cordemant have the power of blinding, or making deaf, or taking away speech. The Rodds can send a spellknife into a man's heart. The Callems can move heavy things - even buildings, even hills. The Caspro gift is the worst and best of all: it is the gift of undoing: an insect, an animal, a place ...
Orrec and Gry are the heirs to Caspro and Barre. Gry's gift runs true, but she refuses to call animals for the hunt. Orrec too is a problem, for his gift of undoing is wild: he cannot control it - and that is the most dangerous gift of all ...
GIFTS is Ursula Le Guin at her best: an exciting, moving story beautifully told.
