#the hainish cycle

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 4

Book summaries below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle series)

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Science fiction, adventure, series, adult

[diariodeunrincondemi]

When Ursula K. said "To break a promise is to deny the reality of the past; therefore it is to deny the hope of a real future" and also said "To deny the past is to deny the future. A man does not make his destiny: he accepts it or denies it"

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

Following my hyperfixation with The left hand of darkness I read Winter's king by Ursula K. Le Guin, so let's talk about it!

It's a short story that takes place in Gethen (yay!). It's about king Argaven XVII so it takes place a few generations after TLHOD (since king Argaven XV was the ruler of Karhide in that novel). In this time the Ekumen has already settled in Gethen, and the planet is about to experience many political changes. Basically Argaven is kidnapped and her memories are altered, so now she'll have a journey trying to get them back and rule her country without any external influences, leaving her (at the time) baby daughter behind.

This story is particularly interesting because Gethen's people are reffered to with femenine pronouns instead of the generic masculine used in TLHOD.

You can find this story in The wind's twelve quarters, a collection of short stories by Le Guin, most of them being part of the Hainish cycle (which apparently is the universe where most of her sci-fi stories/books take place, and it's all about the ekumen and that stuff, it looks so interesting!).

Oh, and as a fun fact I also just discovered that there's another short story that takes place in Gethen called Coming of age in Karhide, which sounds so interesting!!! I swear, this woman's books are going to take my whole soul.

I also want to mention that I discovered this story through @evelasco-art 's gorgeous illustration of it, so go check their account out because they're trully talented!

[pathos-bathos]

Ursula K Le Guin I love you so much

[sparklywaistcoat]

Man, there are some stories by Ursula Le Guin where it is blindingly obvious that she was raised by anthropologists.

[emerald-truth]

one thing about Ursula Le Guin is she's gonna put something in her story about leaving and returning, about exile, and the significance of a home

[spookyabuki]

Hi all! I'm planning on starting a TTRPG campaign for a setting I made called Shadow Protocol. Right now, we have three players and I'm looking for two more.

If you're a fan of: • Alien • Blade Runner • Citizen Sleeper • Ghost in the Shell • The Hainish Cycle • Murderbot • Signalis • SOMA

You'll probably enjoy it! We don't have a set meeting time yet (though currently, we're all in American time zones I think). I also haven't decided what system we're going to use, though it's between Carbon 2185 and Neon City Overdrive. We'll be using Roll20 to meet.

Anyway, if you're interested, send me a DM and I can hook you up with the Discord invite!

Also please be cool. No racists, transphobes, etc. We'll probably be dealing with some at least semi-serious themes, so if that turns you off, this may not be the game for you.

(Art by AlexAntropov86)

[hawkesque]

well i have officially finished all the hainish cycle novels and stories in the library of america collection and also The Telling specifically is going to make me throw up and scream and cry

[theeclecticlibrary]

[homospockual]

“the day before the revolution,” ursula k. le guin

[beachgothgay]

Just finished The Word For World Is Forest and I sobbed. Please read the Hainish "cycle" they're such beautiful books.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 3

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Murderbot Diaries series (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, and other stories) by Martha Wells

Endorsement from submitter: "Asexual and agender main character. In later books side characters are revealed to be in poly relationship."

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

Science fiction, novella, series, adult

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle series)

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

[kettricken]

Rocannon’s World by Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Sanrio

[a-ramblinrose]

“I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.”

― Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness

[wykart]

Me when I have to program using Ansible at my job

[sparklywaistcoat]

I just finished reading "Betrayals" from Five Ways to Forgiveness, and just ... sigh. It's a beautiful story, gorgeously and gently written, but I could see the ending coming up Broadway from the first introduction of Chief Abberkam four pages in.

It's disappointing that for all her amazing work around gender and sexuality, Le Guin pretty much never could resist tumbling her characters into bed with one another, even if it takes her four whole books to get there, as it does in the Earthsea cycle. I mean, I get it--Le Guin was allo, the vast majority of her audience is allo, but all the same I wish she had given us some real ace stories.

(No, I do not count Left Hand of Darkness as a story about asexuality, because the Gethenians are ultimately allosexual beings who feel sexual attraction and a personal, biological, and social desire to fuck when they're in kemmer, even if outside of kemmer they don't have sex and their gender doesn't fit along a male/female binary, and even if they spend most of their lives out of kemmer.)