Le Guin, Ursula K.
overview
Earth-scientist Rocannon has been leading an ethnological survey on a remote world populated by three native races: the cavern-dwelling Gdemiar, the elvish Fiia, and the warrior clan Liuar. But when the technologically primitive planet is suddenly invaded by a fleet of ships from the stars, rebels against the League of All Worlds, Rocannon is the only survey member left alive. Marooned among alien peoples, he leads the battle to free this newly discovered world and finds that legends grow around him as he fights.
Rocannon’s World was Ursula’s first published novel, originally released in 1966 as half of an Ace Double. It marks the first appearance of the word “ansible,” Ursula’s neologism for a faster-than-light communication device.
While not currently in print as a stand-alone novel, Rocannon’s World is available in the collections Worlds of Exile and Illusion and Hainish Novels and Stories, Volume One. Though often considered the first book of the Hainish Cycle, Ursula maintained that there is no particular cycle or order for the Ekumen novels.
