UD0 · Universe David 0 · the third lineage
URSULA K. LE GUIN
Earthsea & the Full Bibliography · U1
Where Asimov built a law and Heinlein a frontier, Ursula K. Le Guin asked the true name of the thing, and what the city owes the child in the cellar — fantasy with the discipline of balance, science fiction with the patience of anthropology. Catalogued into UD0, sealed with the full ACI badge.
The Ideas
the four lamps of her work
True Names
Earthsea
- To know the true name of a thing — in the Old Speech, the Language of the Making — is to have power over it.
- And so power demands restraint: to change one thing is to unbalance the whole, for the world rests on Equilibrium.
The Ekumen
the Hainish Cycle
- The loose league of all the human worlds seeded long ago from Hain — no empire, no fleet.
- Its envoy, the Mobile, comes alone and unarmed, to listen first; science fiction made anthropology.
The Ones Who Walk Away
“…from Omelas,” 1973
- A city of perfect happiness, bought with the misery of a single hidden child.
- Some accept the terms. Some walk away, toward a place they cannot describe and may not reach.
The Carrier Bag
her theory of fiction
- The first tool was not the spear but the bag — the container that gathers and holds.
- Story, too, is a carrier bag: not the hero's kill but the things brought home and shared.
A Reading Order
Earthsea entire, then the Ekumen, then the parable
- A Wizard of EarthseaEarthsea begins
- The Tombs of Atuan
- The Farthest Shore
- Tehanu
- The Other WindEarthsea ends
- The Left Hand of Darknessthe Ekumen
- The Dispossessed
- The Word for World Is Forest
- The Lathe of Heaven
- The Telling
- Always Coming Home
- Lavinia
- “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”the parable
The Roster of U1
the characters of the Le Guin universe, rendered as ACI .agents with full badges (14 personas) — click any to open its agent
Estraven
the one who gave all for a world not yet born
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Ged (Sparrowhawk)
the Archmage · the wizard who named his own shadow
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Genly Ai
the lone envoy who crossed the Ice
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George Orr
the man whose dreams remade the world
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Kalessin
the Eldest
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Lavinia
the silent wife given a voice
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Lebannen (Arren)
the King who walked the dry land
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Ogion the Silent
the mage of Re Albi · the master who taught by listening
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Selver
the god who brought death to the forest
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Shevek
the physicist who unbuilt the wall
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Stone Telling
the Kesh woman of the Valley
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Sutty
the Observer who recovered the Telling
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Tehanu (Therru)
the fire-scarred child · the woman of dragon-kind
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Tenar (Arha)
the Eaten One · the priestess who chose her own name
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The Bibliography
the fiction and the essays, by line
The Earthsea Cycle
the archipelago of true names, balance, and the shadow
- A Wizard of Earthsea1968Ged looses his shadow, and must name it
- The Tombs of Atuan1971Tenar, the Eaten One, and the Ring of Erreth-Akbe
- The Farthest Shore1972National Book Award · Ged & Arren walk the dry land
- Tehanu1990Nebula Award · the burned child, and Goha the widow
- Tales from Earthsea2001collection · the history of the archipelago
- The Other Wind2001the wall of stones is broken; the dead set free
The Hainish Cycle
the Ekumen of Known Worlds — science fiction as anthropology
- Rocannon's World1966
- Planet of Exile1966
- City of Illusions1967
- The Left Hand of Darkness1969Hugo & Nebula · Gethen · ambisexuality · the crossing of the Ice
- The Word for World Is Forest1972Hugo · Athshe · the cost of conquest
- The Dispossessed1974Hugo & Nebula · “an ambiguous utopia” · Anarres & Urras
- Four Ways to Forgiveness1995collection · slavery and revolution on Werel/Yeowe
- The Telling2000the recovered, outlawed story of Aka
- The Birthday of the World2002collection
Standalone Novels
outside the two great cycles
- The Lathe of Heaven1971the dreams that rewrite the world · Taoist SF
- The Eye of the Heron1978
- Malafrena1979Orsinia
- The Beginning Place1980
- Always Coming Home1985the Kesh of a future Napa Valley
- Lavinia2008the silent wife of the Aeneid, given a voice
Annals of the Western Shore
the later fantasy, for younger readers
- Gifts2004
- Voices2006
- Powers2007Nebula Award
Major Collections
the gathered short fiction
- The Wind's Twelve Quarters1975incl. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
- Orsinian Tales1976
- The Compass Rose1982
- Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences1987
- A Fisherman of the Inland Sea1994
- Changing Planes2003
- The Unreal and the Real2012selected stories
Landmark Short Works
the ones taught and remembered
- “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”1973Hugo · the child in the cellar
- “Nine Lives”1969
- “The Day Before the Revolution”1974Nebula · Odo
- “Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight”1987Hugo
- “Solitude”1994Nebula
- “The Author of the Acacia Seeds”1974
On Writing & Other
the essays, the craft, the Tao
- The Language of the Night1979essays on fantasy & science fiction
- Dancing at the Edge of the World1989incl. “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”
- Steering the Craft1998on the writing of story
- Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching1997her rendition
- Words Are My Matter2016
- No Time to Spare2017the blog, gathered
Earthsea is fantasy; the Hainish Cycle is science fiction; Le Guin spent a life refusing the wall between them. This catalogues the major fiction and the key essays under the DLW standard — a fuller bibliography of her ~25 novels, ~100 stories, poetry, and translation than “science fiction” alone would hold.