They can send death at once, but life is slower.

I have previously read three books in Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and City of Illusions. Having read through Earthsea a few years ago I’ve been meaning to revisit Le Guin’s science fiction series and decided to start at the beginning.

Interesting to see threads of both the later Hainish Cycle books and of Earthsea starting here, with its heroic high fantasy world and story embedded in a science fiction setting. Le Guin’s prose is always wonderful to read and I really enjoyed the contrast in perspectives between Semley in the prologue and Rocannon in the rest of the novel, though it’s difficult not to judge it against her later works and find it less cohesive.