Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library discussion

I've been wanting to read a Ursula Le Guin book since I never have and have acquired a couple of her books, The Left Hand of Darkness and the Telling. I know these are a part of a series...the Hainish Cycle series...but was wondering if anyone knows if these books really need to be read in order or are them all pretty much stand alone books.

You can read about the order they were written and timeline at Hainish Cycle Essentially they are stand-a-lones all occurring in the same universe like Diskworld or Darkover novels. They are not a continuing story.

Thank you Kernos I will check it out.

Be on the lookout for an excellent short story by LeGuin.

It is "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and it is incredible. If we rated short stories, I'd give it a five!

Thanks I found this and will read. It is surprising how much a good writer can pack into a good short story. One of my recent favorites which is in the post-apoc vein is Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn which I first read on online mag Lightspeed. They have some really good stuff there.
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

Glad to help. Let me know what you think of the story, please.

Mary wrote: "Thanks I found this and will read. It is surprising how much a good writer can pack into a good short story. One of my recent favorites which is in the post-apoc vein is Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn ..."

Where did you find this?

IMO, a good short story is much more difficult to author, than a novel.

Lavinia is a great book. Still need to get to The Left Hand of Darkness myself.

The Left Hand of Darkness is a brilliant book -- well worth your reading time!

I've only read from the Earthsea Cycle #1 and #2. The #1 book is hard to understand at some parts, but overall it's good. The #2 is better. I'm on my way to search more book from this author.

I'm currently reading The Lathe of Heaven for the 3rd or 4th time, but not for a couple of decades. It is a brilliant book, perfectly crafted. At this stage of my life I feel less certain of what it's about. It seems to be affecting my feelings more than my mind during this read.

I have the 1971 edition with a wonderful photo of a youngish Le Guin filling the back of the dust jacket. She is sitting at her writing desk surrounded by some of her treasures and books. One book is Usage and Abusage A Guide to Good English, though I cannot find which edition she has for lack of cover images. Even the greats need help! And like many of her generation she smoked then, using a clam shell for an ashtray.

Kernos, you seem to be a fan. Have you read 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guinyet?

She is a favorite all time author and probably my 1st favorite female author. I was not aware of this book, thanks, Mary. Of course I want the leather bound presentation copy ;-)

I have her Cheek by Jowl, un-read since it's an e-book and I have so many real books yet unread...

Kernos wrote: "She is a favorite all time author and probably my 1st favorite female author.
I have her ..."</i>

I haven't gotten around to reading any of Le Guin's books yet (Lavinia looks very interesting) but I did read "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas" (Salem O(regon)backwards:) What a great story, one every school kid should read and discuss, along with "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson...actually there are many similarities between the two. Our reading of "The Lottery" was one of the few things I remember from grade school and probably had a profound effect on me...still does after 35+ years, and is something I think is especially pertinent in what seems to me to be an increasing shift in American society towards tea party puritanism and intolerance. Maybe it is why I like dystopian literature so much. But that scares me more than zombies or viral infections or nuclear war.

Also....she wrote a nice review of China Mieville's new book, [book:Embassytown (which I am reading now) that you might enjoy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/...

The Earthsea Cycle is a great fantasy read, especially for kids, to hook them on the genre (I think I read the series when I was 10-11 or so.)

My favorite of her books is actually The Dispossessed. I re-read it last year, and I gained a new level of appreciation for it.

Regarding the original question about Hainish reading order, the time line presented in the Wikipedia entry probably reflects the internal chronology reasonably well (though it leaves out "Four Ways to Forgiveness" since it is a collection of four novellas). Le Guin didn't write these books with any specific chronology in mind, and it is likely not possible to put a chronology together without any internal inconsistencies.

Be that as it may, however, there is no reason to read the books according to internal chronology. Le Guin herself has stated on her website what Kernos said: they are stand-alone novels an can in principle be read in any order. I would recommend reading them in the order they were published. This makes clearest the development of ideas, and there are some instances where having read the earlier books is necessary in order to appreciate some details. There are even a couple of spoilers in later books (in particular the first three Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile and City of Illusions really do need to be read in that order). Reading the full cycle in publication order is what I did and what I would recommend.

If you do not want to commit to reading the entire Hain Cycle you may skip the first three books and start with The Left Hand of Darkness and move on to The Dispossessed. If you're still hooked, go read Four Ways to Forgiveness (and possibly The Telling, though I don't personally like it very much), or go back and read the first three. The Word for World is Forest I would read only for completeness.

And regarding short stories in general and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas in particular, the best of her early short stories (including TOWWAFO) are collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, which I can strongly recommend.

I read some of the earthsea stuff when I was a kid, amazing stuff... A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan I read for sure, the rest I dont think I read. I should get back to those book for a re-read.

The original Earthsea trilogy is amazing fantasy. If you have just read the first two, then you should definitely go back and reread those and then also read The Farthest Shore. If you're still hooked, I'd also recommend the three newer sequels. In my opinion they're not as good as the first three, but they are still good books.

Ursula Le Guin insists that the correct reading order is the original trilogy followed by Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea and last The Other Wind. Personally I don't really see the point of squeezing Tales from Earthsea in there. Le Guin says that the story Dragonfly is the bridge between Tehanu and The Other Wind, which is true from internal chronology, but in my opinion isn't really needed. The other short stories in there are rather outside the main storyline anyway.

Cool, more books for my to-read list. Im hoping I can find some of these at my local library.

I love her books. It is amazing how she can change the style from the Earthsea books to the Left Hand of Darkness. Another book of hers I've enjoyed is Changing Planes

Changing Planes looks like interesting fantasy. From a quick glance it sounds like a political or social commentary, just cos of all the different societies thrown in the one book.