The Unreal and the Real: Outer Space, Inner Lands
Locus Award nominee 2013, World Fantasy Award nominee 2013.
“She is the reigning queen of... but immediately we come to a difficulty, for what is the fitting name of her kingdom? Or, in view of her abiding concern with the ambiguities of gender, her queendom, or perhaps — considering how she likes to mix and match — her quinkdom? Or may she more properly be said to have not one such realm, but two?” — Margaret Atwood, New York Review of Books
Ursula K. Le Guin’s nonrealistic stories which have shaped the way many readers see the world. She gives voice to the voiceless, hope to the outsider, and speaks truth to power — all the time maintaining her independence and sense of humor.
This two-volume selection of Le Guin’s stories — as selected by the author — omits stories directly connected to novels. The second volume, Outer Space, Inner Lands, focuses on Le Guin’s stories of the fantastic such as “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” and “The Matter of Seggri” and includes stories from The Compass Rose, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Buffalo Gals, Fisherman of the Inland Sea, The Birthday of the World, and Changing Planes.
The Unreal and the Real is a much-anticipated event which will delight, amuse, and provoke.
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Ursula K. Le Guin
In a literary landscape often dominated by action and conquest, Ursula K. Le Guin carved quiet, radical paths—through forests of magic, across alien planets, and into the deep folds of human nature. Her stories didn’t shout; they asked, wondered, and listened. Through them, she reimagined what science fiction and fantasy could be—not just a reflection of our world, but a transformation of how we see it.
Born in 1929 to a family steeped in stories and scholarship—her father was an anthropologist, her mother a writer and the biographer of Ishi—Le Guin was raised among mythologies, cultural curiosity, and a profound respect for the power of narrative. These early influences are stitched into every book she wrote, from A Wizard of Earthsea to The Left Hand of Darkness.
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories consists of two books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
