Ursula K. Le Guin was an American speculative fiction author who began publishing fiction in 1959 and went on to become one of the most prolific and accomplished science fiction writers of the 20 century. Ursula Le Guin's books include more than 20 novels, and she also penned more than 100 short stories. Her distinctive writing style included subverting traditional sci-fi tropes, using third-person omniscient narration and writing lyrical prose that helped her become the first woman to win Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel. The best Ursula Le Guin books include the Earthsea fantasy book series and Hainish universe novels, which are are on this list of her best works.
Ursula Le Guin has written 22 books, including several classic novels as well as fantasy novels aimed at young adults. The books on this list are ranked based on critical success, sales, continued acclaim and quality of writing.
One of six Le Guin Nebula Award winners, Powers is part of the Annals of the Western Shore series for young adults. It follows an enslaved man, Gavir, who escapes after a brutal event, then shows how he uses his special powers to find a better place in the world.
This book is best for those who love careful storytelling, as Le Guin's direction and details build to a magnificent conclusion. Powers is available from publisher HarperCollins.
This is one of the few novels to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. It's part of the Hainish Cycle, a seven-book series about a future where planets are connecting and setting up diplomacy. In Dispossessed, Le Guin plays with chronology in sketching the fate of an anarchist civilization.
This book is best for Hainish Cycle fans or those who enjoy utopian novels. The Dispossessed is available from publisher HarperCollins.
Le Guin's final novel finds her still at the top of her game. She reimagines the life of Lavinia, the daughter of a king in Virgil's Aeneid, who is forced into marriage for political purposes. Le Guin's sly narration includes Lavinia's self-awareness that she's a character in a story who can't control her destiny.
This book is best for those who have read Virgil or enjoy feminist fables. Lavinia is available from publisher HarperCollins.
Also nominated for a Nebula Award, this novel originated as a serialized story in Amazing Stories. It focuses on a man whose dreams have the power to alter reality and what that means for him and those around him. It is set in a future where climate change and war have decimated Earth.
This book is best for those who enjoy philosophical musings on whether we control our own destiny. The Lathe of Heaven is available from publisher Simon & Schuster.
The Earthsea series comprises six books and has sold millions of copies. Tehanu is the fourth volume in the series, written 18 years after the third. It focuses on characters from two earlier books: Tenar (now widowed) and Ged (who can't understand Tenar's life choices). The book has a darker style than previous Earthsea novels.
Another Nebula Award winner, this book is best for those looking for a slower-paced fantasy novel with less magic and more character introspection. Tehanu is available from publisher Simon & Schuster.
Le Guin's frustration over the ongoing war in Vietnam sparked this Hainish Cycle book about a group of human colonizers who enslave the peaceful inhabitants of another planet and eventually stage a revolution -- but at great cost to their own nonviolent ways. It won the Hugo Award for its anti-colonial message.
This book is best for those who enjoy political allegories. The Word for World is Forest is available from publisher MacMillan.
Le Guin ingeniously presents this book as a pseudo-anthropologist's recording of a future society. The Kesh people live in a world where traditional society has collapsed, and contemporary ethnographer Pandora is trying to catalog differences between their society and her own. It was a runner-up for the National Book Award.
This book is best for those who want a slow, deliberate read with some Native American influence. Always Coming Home is available from publisher HarperCollins.
Le Guin earned a Nebula Award nomination and the World Fantasy Novel Award for the final novel in the Earthsea series. It follows previously introduced characters Lebannen, Tenar and Tehanu, exploring the theme of reconciliation. The book deftly wraps up strands from other books in the series.
This book is best for those who have already read the earlier books in the series and want to know what happens next. The Other Wind is available from publisher HarperCollins.
The most popular book in the Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness established Le Guin as a top science fiction author and was one of her bestselling works. Ai is sent to another planet to convince them to join a confederation, but he struggles to understand their culture, as residents have no fixed sex.
This book is best for anyone interested in exploring gender identity, androgyny or sex and culture. The Left Hand of Darkness is available from publisher Penguin Random House.
Le Guin's most famous and arguably most influential book, A Wizard of Earthsea kicked off the successful Earthsea Cycle. It follows Ged, a boy with magical talents who accidentally spawns an angry shadow creature during a magical duel. Le Guin subverts tropes by giving Ged dark skin.
Whether writing a children's book about a troubled boy with magical powers or exploring ideas about gender, Le Guin packs powerful themes into her entertaining books. Any is worth picking up to be transported into a different world that will make you think and feel deeply.