Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Le Guin writes in quiet, straightforward sentences about people who feel they are being torn apart by massive forces in society--technological, political, economic--and who fight courageously to remain whole."--The New York Times Book Review

"As good as any contemporary at creating worlds, imaginary or our own...Le Guin writes with painstaking intelligence. Her characters are complex and haunting, and her writing is remarkable for its sinewy grace."--Time Magazine
-- Review

Review

"Le Guin writes in quiet, straightforward sentences about people who feel they are being torn apart by massive forces in society--technological, political, economic--and who fight courageously to remain whole."--The New York Times Book Review

"As good as any contemporary at creating worlds, imaginary or our own...Le Guin writes with painstaking intelligence. Her characters are complex and haunting, and her writing is remarkable for its sinewy grace."--Time Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books; First Orb Edition: November 1996, full No. line edition (October 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312862113
• ISBN-13: 978-0312862114
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #152,819 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just magnificent., November 19, 2007

By	neurotome "neurotome" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

I've been a LeGuin fan for many years, so I've long been skeptical about reading this, a collection of her first three novels. (They form a loosely-connected trilogy and should be read in order for best effect.) I was worried that they might not live up to the standard of her later works, that they might somehow spoil my appreciation of what I've come to regard as one of the greatest bodies of work of any author.

My hesitation was misplaced. These stories bring LeGuin's anthropologist's eye; deft hand for character; and talent to create unknown, fully detailed worlds together as well as any of her other novels. The opener, Rocannon's World, shows what happens when an anthropological expedition to a new planet gets tangled in bureaucracy before going suddenly wrong. Planet in Exile, set 600 years later, follows a tale of two cultures - one alien, one human - forced to meld into one. Finally, World of Illusion closes the circle, showing us the final confrontation between humankind and the mysterious race variously known as the Shing, the Lords of Es Toch, the Enemy, and the Liars of Earth.

Like all LeGuin's work, the thrill-ride is subtle; some of the themes hit you late, sort of like the heat from a chipotle pepper that's been simmering in soup for a couple hours. The reward of reading LeGuin is a pleasure not to be missed and I'd recommend this book for any SF fan.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the Beginning...., March 30, 2000

By A Customer

There were these 3 books, Ursula Leguin's first science fiction novels. They are all set at different times in the same far distant future as her best known work, "The Left Hand of Darkness". Leguin's skill as a writer is evident in these books, and while they may lack some of the weight of the "Left Hand", they also are more concise and exciting. Leguin is a rarity in the sci-fi field, she is such a good writer that you are drawn into the worlds she creates. It is easy to forget that you are reading works of fiction when reading these books; the narratives and characterizations have the force of non-fiction. Another highly recommended, hard to find book by Leguin, again set in the distant future, is "The Word for World is Forest".

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Up, Down and Up Again, December 20, 2003

By	Mr. Ja Fairhurst (Stockport, Cheshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In their efforts to defend themselves against the oncoming fleets of the Shing, the Hainish peoples (all humanoids in this area, for the Hainish were an old race that had long spread out from their home world) had banded together in defence.
But not all wanted to part of the Hainish Alliance.
In _Rocannon's Word_ Rocannon was an ethnologist investigating Fomalhault when his team was killed by such a band, but Rocannon found a secret in Fomalhaut's hinterlands that would give the Alliance an edge.
Sent out from Terra centuries ago in order to raise the tech level of a primitive world, the expedition were informed of the arrival of the Shing and from the ensuing silence deduced defeat. Now this planet had to be made into a home, but it couldn't be untill the expedition accepted their exile! (_Planet of Exile_)
In _City of Illusion_, an all too fallible member of an off world team is discarded by those who had taken his ship when it arrived in Earth orbit and left to die in the primitive culture that was all that was allowed by the alien overlords. Taken to be one of those overlords by the suspicious villagers, only the belief of a young woman enables him to carry on to find out the truth behind Earth's long silence.