Hainish Cycle

The Hainish Cycle consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is set in an alternate history/future history in which civilizations of human beings on a number of nearby stars, including Terra (Earth), are contacting each other for the first time and establishing diplomatic relations, setting up a confederacy under the guidance of the oldest of the human worlds, peaceful Hain. In this history, human beings did not evolve on Earth but were the result of interstellar colonies planted by Hain long ago, which was followed by a long period when interstellar travel ceased. Some of the races have new genetic traits, a result of ancient Hainish experiments in genetic engineering, including people who can dream while awake, and a world of androgynous people who only come into active sexuality once a month, and can choose their gender. In keeping with Le Guin's style, she uses varied social and environmental settings to explore the anthropological and sociological outcomes of human evolution in those diverse environments.

The Hainish novels The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Dispossessed (1974) have won literary awards, as have the novella The Word for World Is Forest (1972) and the short story "The Day Before the Revolution" (1974).

Le Guin herself has discounted the idea of a "Hainish Cycle", writing on her website that "The thing is, they aren't a cycle or a saga. They do not form a coherent history. There are some clear connections among them, yes, but also some extremely murky ones."[1][2]

Sequence of writing

In the first three novels—Rocannon's World (1966), Planet of Exile (1966), and City of Illusions (1967)—there is a League of All Worlds; in City of Illusions, it seems to have been conquered or fragmented by an alien race, called the Shing, from beyond the League.

In the fourth, The Left Hand of Darkness, it seems that the planets of the former League of Worlds have reunited as the Ekumen, which was founded by the Hainish people.

The fifth, The Dispossessed, is the earliest novel in the Hainish Cycle, chronologically. The Cetians have been visited by people from other planets, including Earth and Hain. The various planets are separate, though there is some talk of a union. The idea of an ansible is known but none yet exists: Shevek's new physics may be - in fact, eventually is - the key.

In the sixth, The Word for World Is Forest, the League of All Worlds and the ansible are new creations. The term "Ekumen" is not used.

Later novels and short stories speak only of the Ekumen, which now includes the Gethenians, who were the subject of The Left Hand of Darkness.

Backstory

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the people of Hain colonized a large number of worlds, including Earth, known as Terra. Most of these were similar enough that humans from one world can pass as natives of another, but on some the Old Hainish 'Colonisers' used genetic engineering. At least one of the various species of Rokanan are the product of genetic engineering, as are the hilfs[3] of Planet S (whose story has not so far been told), and perhaps the androgynous humans of Gethen in The Left Hand of Darkness. The Ekumen do not know whether the Colonisers sought to adapt humans to varied worlds, were conducting various experiments, or had other reasons.

Hainish civilization subsequently collapsed and the colony planets (including Earth) forgot that other human worlds existed. The Ekumen stories tell of the efforts to re-establish a civilization on a galactic scale through NAFAL (Nearly As Fast As Light) interstellar travel taking years to travel between stars (although only weeks or months from the viewpoint of the traveler because of time dilation), and through instantaneous interstellar communication using the ansible.

This seems to have happened in two phases. First the League of All Worlds was formed, as an alliance of planets, mostly descended from colonization efforts from the planet Hain, uniting the "nine known worlds"[4] - along with colonies, presumably. By the time of Rocannon's World it has grown but is also under threat from a distant enemy. It is destroyed by aliens called the Shing, who have the ability to lie in Mindspeech. After the apparent overthrow of the Shing by Terran descendants from Alterra/Werel (capable of recognizing the Shing lies), the alliance is eventually reconstructed as the Ekumen. In City of Illusions it is recalled as a league of some 80 worlds.

The second phase begins with The Left Hand of Darkness. The 80-plus planets seem to have reunited as the 'Ekumen' – a name derived from the Greek "oikoumene", meaning "the inhabited world", although characters occasionally refer to it as "the Household",[5] which is in turn a reference to the Greek "oikos", a word which developed from the same root as oikoumene. Unexplained references are made to the "Age of the Enemy".

Planets of the Hainish Cycle

The Hainish Cycle contains a very large number of planets and is continually exploring new ones. Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness explains that there are 83 planets in the Ekumen, with Gethen a candidate for becoming the 84th.

Technology

Societies tend to use sophisticated but unobtrusive technologies. Most notable is the ansible, an instant-communication device that keeps worlds in touch with each other.

Physical communication is by NAFAL ships, Nearly As Fast As Light. The physics is never explained: the ship vanishes from where it was and reappears somewhere else many years later.[6] The trip takes slightly longer than it would to cross the same distance at the speed of light, but ship-time is just a few hours for those on board. It cannot apparently be used for trips within a solar system.[5] Trips can begin or end close to a planet, but if used without a "retemporalizer", there are drastic physical effects at the end of long trips, at least according to the Shing, whose information may be suspect.[7] It is also lethal if the traveler is pregnant.[8]

City of Illusions mentions automatic death-machines that work on the same principle as the ansible and can strike instantly at distant worlds. Such a device is clearly used in the events of Rocannon's World. They are not mentioned again in later books.

Churten theory, as developed by the physicists of Anarres, should allow people to go instantly from solar system to solar system. It is a development of the work of Shevek, whose tale is told in The Dispossessed. Shevek's work made the ansible possible - it is mentioned in his tale that engineers decided they could build it once the correct theory was found. Churten theory offers a way to move whole spacecraft instantaneously, but there are side-effects. These are described in two short stories, "The Shobies' Story" and "Dancing to Ganam", both of which appeared in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994).

The ansible has been adopted by other science fiction and fantasy authors, such as Orson Scott Card, Elizabeth Moon, and Vernor Vinge.

Post-technological worlds

The idea of post-technological societies and social and ecological collapse comes into several of these stories. It is portrayed as the end result of the wrong kind of civilizations, i.e., competitive, capitalist, patriarchal, "dynamic, aggressive, ecology-breaking cultures," while successful societies are close to the land, peaceful, non-authoritarian, non-competitive, static, communitarian, with the holistic outlook of Eastern religions.

Biology

Most of the people in the tales have a common descent from the planet Hain, which settled many surrounding worlds. Some of them are genetically similar enough to produce children together. The unusual hairiness of the Cetians is mentioned in The Word for World Is Forest and The Dispossessed - although to Cetians, it seems that other types of human have unusually little hair. The Telling includes the detail that the people of Chiffewar are all bald.

There are some cases of ancient biological manipulation:

List of books

Novels

The order presented here is the internal chronology of the series proposed by Ian Watson,[10] not the order in which the books were written.

Name Published Setting Notes
The Dispossessed 1974 (341 pp) Urras-Anarres (Tau Ceti); c.2300 CE Nebula Award winner, 1974;[11]
Locus Award winner for Best SF Novel, 1975;[12]
Hugo Award winner, 1975;[12]
John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 1975[12]
The Word for World Is Forest 1976 (189 pp) Athshe/New Tahiti; c.2368 CE Hugo Award winner for Best Novella, 1973[13]
Nebula Award nominee for Best Novella, 1973[13]
Locus Award nominee for Best Novella, 1973[13]
Rocannon's World 1966 (117 pp) Rokanan (Fomalhaut II); c.2684 CE
Planet of Exile 1966 (113 pp) Werel (Gamma Draconis III); c.3755 CE
City of Illusions 1967 (160 pp) Terra; c.4370 CE
The Left Hand of Darkness 1969 (286 pp) Gethen; c.4670 CE Nebula Award winner, 1969;[14]
Hugo Award winner, 1970[15]
The Telling 2000 (264 pp) Aka Locus Award winner for Best Fantasy Novel, 2001[16]

Short stories

In publishing order.

References

  1. ↑ Le Guin, Ursula K. (2007). "Answers to a Questionnaire (FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions)". ursulakleguin.com.
  2. ↑ Le Guin, Ursula K. (2007). "FAQ: In what order should I read the Ekumen, Earthsea, and Catwings books?". ursulakleguin.com.
  3. 1 2 "'Hilf' (a generic acronym for "highly intelligent life form")". Hainish Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  4. ↑ The Dispossessed
  5. 1 2 The Left Hand of Darkness
  6. ↑ "Vaster than Empires and More Slow"
  7. ↑ City of Illusions
  8. ↑ "The Shobies' Story"
  9. ↑ "A Man of the People (Hain)"
  10. ↑ "Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven and the Role of Dick: The False Reality as Mediator". Science Fiction Studies. March 1975.
  11. ↑ "1974 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  12. 1 2 3 "1975 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  13. 1 2 3 "Index of Literary Nominees".
  14. ↑ "1969 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  15. ↑ "1970 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  16. ↑ "2001 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-28.

External links

Further reading

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