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Where to Start With Ursula K. LeGuin? (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/34435904

I've been seeing her name a lot lately in terms of good science fiction and fantasy. I feel like I've lost so much attention span in terms of my ability to read and stuff and I'd like to start getting back into it, perhaps starting with her (or Terry Pratchett lol).

If I start with her, what's a good place to start with her work?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

I posted this comment on a similar topic a while ago, for context it was replying to someone who wanted to pick 2 LeGuin novels to read to essentially get a survey of her work. I've liked her standalone novels as well, but I see them get less discussion generally. I think her work that I see referenced most often is the short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.

LeGuin is one of my favorite authors. I've read a lot, but not all of LeGuin's novels. She has 2 main multibook series that I've read, the Earthsea books and the Hainish cycle.

Earthsea is sort of YA fantasy, but grows up throughout the series. The first 3 are a self contained trilogy, and my favorite is Tombs of Atuan which is book 2, I think would be okay as a standalone title. My other favorite is Tales from Earthsea which is book 5, and is a collection of short stories set in the setting. You'd be missing a little context only reading Tales, but this could also be a standalone.

The Hainish cycle is scifi, and are only loosely connected by the setting and don't have a too firmly established chronology, or any shared main characters. My favorite from the Hainish Cycle is The Left Hand of Darkness and my 2nd favorite is The Dispossessed.