Planet of Exile is one of Le Guin’s earlier works. In fact, this 1978 edition includes an introduction in which the author spends a few paragraphs defending her lack of feminism in the book, explaining she wrote it before feminism got its hooks in to her. Like Rocanon’s World, the plot, settings, and characters are all pretty clunky. Le Guin found her voice and improved her writing skill as she endured as an author.
It’s a lost colony world, as I believe many of Le Guin’s books are. Man is abandoned on Werel. Another humanoid race also lives there, who call themselves man as well. The two groups are somewhat antagonistic, but the formerly starfaring humans have dwindled in number over the centuries and now number only several thousand. The locals (hilfs in English) have quite a few more people.
A northern tribe has begun to assemble an empire rather than conduct themselves according to standard ways of attacking and retreating to their own territory at the end of a season. They are on the march toward the humans and nearby hilfs. Can the groups get along to fight off the horde?
The complicating matter of course is that the leader of the humans picks the eve of the fight to start schtupping the daughter of the hilf tribe.
There’s not a lot to the book. The plot is pretty standard and pretty boring. So are the characters. But, even in this early work I can see a bit of the ways Le Guin would be changing the face of science fiction in later years. For instance, the humans are black. That they are black is hammered home several times. For another example, a traditional sign of respect among the tribes is the act of listening. Members of antagonistic groups will pointedly state that they do not hear their counterpart when he speaks. Just a small way of wording a thing like saving face, but it says so much about what Le Guin might consider important.
I wouldn’t really recommend the book except to those who are studying Le Guin or are completists of her works. But it’s also not a horrible way to fill time if you happen on a copy either.
Title: Planet of exile
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Series: Ekumen; 3
Imprint / publisher: Harper & Row
Format: Hardcover
Length: 140 p.
Publication date: 1978
ISBN-10: 0-06-012559-4
LC classification: PS3563.E42
