Let’s say that I may only read one or two, as I’m not a prolific reader. What do you think I should get?
The classic is a wizard of earthsea/left hand of darkness and they are always worth repeating. If you do just two, those are them. It’s almost criminal how these are kinda slipping beneath view these days.
I got a steady diet of her short stories and children’s books growing up. I remember sur specifically, but generally they were less fantasy oriented from what I can remember. (Edit:huzzah autocorrect)
The Left Hand of Darkness is great. I really need to get around to Wizard of Earthsea.
I think you’re in for a treat, but I am horribly biased by nostalgia and it’s impossible for me to be objective about that one. There is something deeply soothing to how what stands out changes even if the words don’t.
I remembered " to light a candle is to cast a shadow ".
But: “I had forgotten how much how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me”. Jumped out.
“the dispossessed” is an absolute classic and I enjoyed it a lot.
I recently read and really enjoyed The Left Hand of Darkness. It’s crazy that she wrote such a book back then. Now I’m longing for more books like this.
Today, I’m on (a rare) vacation (yay!). I’m reading through her Earthsea books. When they ended sooner than I expected, I realized they were intended as young adult books. It’s not as in depth as other fantasy, but I’ve enjoyed them nonetheless.
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.
Maybe not the first book to read, but one of the ones that made me think the most was The Dispossessed
Le Guin is one of my favorite authors, so I’m excited to see other people reading her for the first time!
