Worlds of Exile and Illusion by Le Guin

Title: Worlds of Exile and Illusion
Includes: The first 3 books in the Hainish Cycle -
Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions


Author: Ursula K. Le Guin (American, 1929-2018)
Originally published: 1966-1967
Page count: 110; 98; 156


Dates read: 9/25/19-10/02/19; 10/11/19-10/29/19
2019 book goal progress: 31 out of 41
Back to the Classics category: 20th Century Classic


Read my other book reviews for the challenge HERE.


Rocannon's World (book 1)
Description on back of book:
Earth-scientist Rocannon has been leading an ethnological survey on a remote world populated by three native races: the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar, the elvish Fiia, and the warrior clan, Liuar. But when the technologically primitive planet is suddenly invaded by a fleet of ships from the stars, rebels against the League of All Worlds, Rocannon is the only survey member left alive. Marooned among alien peoples, he leads the battle to free this newly discovered world and finds that legends grow around him as he fights.

First sentence:
"How can you tell the legend from the fact on these worlds that lie so many years away?"

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 8.4 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 9
Atmosphere   - 10
Writing Style - 8
Plot                - 7
Intrigue          - 8
Logic             - 9
Enjoyment     - 8
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Review:
This was a great story! I loved the world-building and all the different intelligent beings - most of which communicate through mindspeech (telepathy). They ride windsteeds, which are huge cats with wings. I wish we knew more about the League of All Worlds and where Rocannon actually came from. The book says of Rocannon: "By blood, I'm entirely of my mother's race; my father, who was Terran adopted me. This is the custom when different species, who cannot conceive, marry." It also says his mother is from Hain and, upon further research, I discovered that Terran is Earth. The Hainish colonized Terran so it could become a part of the League of All Worlds. So Rocannon is Hainish, but seems to have grown up on Earth/Terran,

Favorite quotes:
"'In times like this, one man's fate is not important.'
'If it is not, what is?'"

"There is darkness over my lineage. My mother, whom you knew, was lost in the forests in her madness; my father was killed in battle, my husband by treachery; and when I bore a son my spirit grieved amid my joy, foreseeing his life would be short. But my part of the darkness is to rule a failing domain alone, to live and live and outlive them all."

Planet of Exile (book 2)
Description on back of book:
The Earth colony of Landin has been stranded on the planet Werel for ten years - which is 600 terrestrial years. The lonely and dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter, the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid and nomadic people, called Hilfs, who only settle down for the snow season. The Hilfs fear the Earthmen, but they have a common enemy: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called Gaals and eerie preying snowghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?

First sentence:
"In the last days of the last moonphase of Autumn, a wind blew from the northern ranges through the dying forests of Askatevar, a cold wind that smelled of smoke and snow."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 9 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 10
Atmosphere   - 10
Writing Style - 9
Plot                - 8
Intrigue          - 9
Logic             - 8
Enjoyment     - 9

Review:
I really enjoyed this book - the world-building was great! One year on the planet equals 60 terrestrial years, each season lasts for 15 terrestrial years, and a moonphase lasts 1 terrestrial year. There's war, there's forbidden romance, and there's a clash of pre-wheel technology with futuristic/space-travel technology. I wanted there to be so much more to the story, but, for how short it was, there was a lot crammed in. There is no connection to the first book except that the Earthmen are a part of the League of All Worlds and a passing mention that they are descendants of Rocannon.

Favorite quotes:
"It is very hard to know the truth in stories that come from far away, from other tribes in other ranges."

"He was evidently and acknowledgly their leader. No especial reason for this was visible unless it was the vigor with which he moved and spoke; is authority noticeable in the man, or in the men about him?"

City of Illusions (book 3)
Description on back of book:
He was a fully grown man, alone in dense forest, with no trail to show where he had come from and no memory to tell who — or what — he was. His eyes are not the eyes of a human. The forest people took him in and raised him almost as a child, but they could not solve the riddle of his past. He decides to set out on a perilous quest to Es Toch, the City of the Shing, the Enemy of Mankind. There he will find his true self ... and a universe of danger.

First sentences:
"Imagine darkness. In the darkness that faces outward from the sun, a mute spirit woke. Wholly involved in chaos, he knew no pattern. He has no language and did not know the darkness to be night."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 9.1 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters      - 10
Atmosphere   - 8
Writing Style - 9
Plot                - 9
Intrigue          - 10
Logic             - 8
Enjoyment     - 10

Review:
This was a much more complex story than the first two and I loved it! It is my understanding that this book takes place about 600 years after the second book and gives a history of what happened to the Earthman and Hilfs. The book takes place on Earth where Mindspeech used to be a normal thing and everyone trusted one another because, unlike verbal speech, people are unable to lie when using telepathy. BUT then the Shing came and they could mind-lie, so no one uses mindspeech anymore and the Shing rule over Earth.

The Shing have one Law: Reverance for Life. This is then translated into "Do Not Kill." This is one of their great lies because, though the Shing don't kill bodies, they wipe minds and let people go in the wild. The idea this book brings up is that life is more than just physiologically living - it stresses the importance of memories, intelligence, and trust. The reader is told one thing throughout the first half of the book and then the whole thing is flipped on its head and you no longer know what's true and what isn't. I could say so much more but I don't want to give anything away - plus this is getting to be a pretty long review.

Favorite quotes:
"The game must be played, and played their way, though they made all the rules and had all the skill. His ineptitude did not matter. His honesty did. He was staked now totally on one belief: that an honest man cannot be cheated, that truth, if the game be played through right to the end, will lead to truth."

"Seen rightly, any situation, even chaos or a trap, would come clear and lead of itself to its one proper outcome; for there is, in the long run, no disharmony, only misunderstanding, no chance or mischance but only the ignorant eye."

Conclusion:

This was such a fun read! The books went from good to great to incredible. I just wish the first book was a little more connected to the other two or that we at least knew how much time elapsed between the first and second stories. They all reference the League of All Worlds, which is an alliance of 80 planets that speak a shared/universal language called Galaktica - in addition to their native languages.

These books are the first three stories in The Hainish Cycle. Hain is a planet - which none of these first stories were set in. We know from book 1 that Rocannon is Hainish, which would mean the Earthmen in book 2 are of Hainish descent, which then connects to book 3 - but I'm not going to tell you how. Book three also mentions Hainish instruments. The Hainish Cycle includes 7 novels/novellas, 2 short story collections, and 6 other individual short stories. I look forward to reading more of the series - the next book is The Left Hand of Darkness, which launched Le Guin's writing career.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Ursula K. Le Guin have the last words:

"Hope is a slighter, tougher thing than even trust. In a good season one trusts life; in a bad season one only hopes. Without trust, a man lives, but not a human life; without hope, he dies." -City of Illusions