Worlds Of Exile And Illusion by Ursula K. Le Guin (Gollancz Masterworks) (book review)
Amongst Gollancz Masterworks selection is ‘Worlds Of Exile And Illusion’ by Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018). It’s actually a composite of her first three novels, ‘Rocannon’s World’ (1966), ‘Planet Of Exile’ (1966) and ‘City Of Illusions’ (1967). These days, we would consider the first two stories a little bigger than novelette size. My interest was because this was where her instant communication device, the ansible, was first used but little detail is given about it. I hadn’t realised it was in her first novel.
‘Rocannon’s World’ also has the hallmarks of any SF writer in finding their way chucking in everything to see what works or not. Explorer Gaverel Rocannon is on Formalhaut II, where three species have limited telepathic ability, although we rarely see much of that. He has a protective impermasuit on but sheds it whenever he can. He has an ansible to call home but rarely uses it. He’s there primarily to explore their world and finds himself trying to locate a missing ancient piece of jewellery. As such, this becomes a quest story and exploration of the planet. It’s obvious that Le Guin can write well from the start but a lot of the ideas haven’t been developed enough and looks like padding that she wants to develop later. For any first-time writers, you will recognise this in your own stories. Seeing Le Guin had a similar problem should reassure you.
The second story, ‘Planet Of Exile’, shows Le Guin experimenting with planet-building and colour racism. The planet Werel has long seasons, ten times longer than our own planet. It also has two immigrant species. Pink-coloured humans and black half-people or farborn who can mindspeak (her name for telepathy), both mostly keeping away from the other after a war. For the humans, multiple marriages happens and Rolery is the result of this and born, literally out of season. She roams into a village of the farborn and pointed out where the beach is but not told about the tides that splits it into an island. Fortunately, she is rescued by Jakob Agat Alterra and, over time, a romance develops between them. There are hints of racism developed over the story but I got the impression Le Guin was walking on eggshells as to how far she could go with this. No one could doubt that Le Guin could write but she was still finding her feet at the time. One of Science Fiction’s strength is the ability to discuss subjects that other genres shy away from. The major flaw was Le Guin skirting around the actual action but you can see the germ of ‘Left Hand Of Darkness’ here with worlds that had long seasons and how it affected the characters.
The third story, ‘Worlds Of Exile’, practically takes on the fantasy element of a journey without really giving the reason for it. There is another hint of the Hainish equipment but Falk with Estrelhes leaves his darkened world on the planet Werel, where some people don’t have eyes and animals can mindspeak, which makes it difficult to use them for food. A lot of his trip is turned into mini-stories. It’s when you get to the last third of the story that we find out just what Falk is and a lot of that is spoiler and he’s not sure if should reveal his true identity as he might be giving away the position of the Earth to the enemy. The merging of two personalities is interesting but could have been developed more considering all the work that she had put in at the beginning of the story. I got the feeling that Le Guin was realising that she was getting close to the accepted novel length expected at that time and felt a need to end the story. Back in the 1960s, 200 pages was the expected length and it took a brave new author to exceed that. Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ and ‘Dune Messiah’ was one of the few exceptions but that was supposed to be one complete novel not two.
It’s interesting to read some of Le Guin’s early stories. It’s also a reminder that, especially in Science Fiction, its isn’t enough to be able to write well but have some good ideas. Something I should point out that, especially in ‘Worlds Of Exile’, Le Guin uses the word ‘queer’ a lot. In her use, it’s more to do with something being odd or strange as it was used in the 1970s. Just goes to show how particular words meaning can evolve over the years.
GF Willmetts
March 2026
(pub: Gollancz, 2020. 370 page enlarged paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-473-23098-9)
check out website: www.gollancz.co.uk
