For this week’s Top 10 Tuesday I’m doing the third installment of my Top 10 Favourite Authors list. I’ve already covered Octavia E. Butler and J. K. Rowling, and now it’s Ursula K. Le Guin’s turn!
Le Guin is a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy. She was made a Grandmaster of Science Fiction in 2003, one of very few women authors in a male dominated arena (which is how I came to love her so much). Her novels and short stories are set in alternative or future worlds and she tackles myriad issues involving politics, gender, environment, and religion among other topics.
I really loved her two more well-known novels The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness, as well as The Word for World is Forest and The Lathe of Heaven. Wizard of Earthsea is a great series set in a fantasy world, and was adapted into a mini-series.
Some of my favourite world-building takes place in her Hanish Cycle: Rocannon’s World (1966), Planet of Exile (1966), City of Illusions (1967), The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) (Hugo Award, Nebula Award), The Dispossessed (1974) (Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Locus Award), The Word for World Is Forest (1976) (Hugo Award, best novella), Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995), The Telling (2000) (Locus SF Award, Endeavour Award). The first 6 novels in this series are among my favourite books ever!
I’ve collected quite a few copies of Le Guin’s works over the last 7 years or so, they tend to pop up at Value Village pretty frequently. I love the old paperback covers!
