Where to start with Ursula K. Le Guin: 7 award-recognized books
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote science fiction about anthropology, politics and the people caught between cultures. Most of her award-recognized novels belong to the loosely linked Hainish cycle, but each one stands alone.
If you read just one: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, because it is short, beautifully written and the book she is best known for.
Start here
1. The Left Hand of Darkness
Won the Hugo and Nebula Awards (1970) ·
An envoy on an icy world whose people have no fixed sex, and the friendship that changes him.
2. The Dispossessed
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1975) ·
A physicist moves between an anarchist moon and its wealthy twin planet.
3. The Lathe of Heaven
Won the Locus Award; finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards (1972) ·
A man whose dreams change reality falls into the hands of a psychiatrist with plans for the world. Short and strange.
Then
4. The Word for World is Forest
Won the Hugo Award; finalist for the Locus and Nebula Awards (1973) ·
Colonists exploit a forest planet until its peaceful people fight back.
5. The Telling
Won the Locus Award (2001) ·
An observer on a world where a corporate state has banned its old traditions searches for what survives.
6. Forgiveness Day
Won the Locus Award; finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards (1995) ·
An envoy and a soldier from opposite worlds are kidnapped together and slowly learn to trust each other.
7. Paradises Lost
Finalist for the Locus Award (2003) ·
Generations born aboard a starship argue over whether to ever land.
How we chose
Every book in this guide won or was a finalist for at least one of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus or Arthur C. Clarke awards. Each book page lists its full award history with sources. Page counts come from English print editions and vary by edition. 7 books in all.