Editing Hainish Cycle (section)

== Story chronology ==

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; by ''City of Illusions'', the League seems to have been conquered or fragmented by an alien race, the Shing, from beyond the League. In the fourth, ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' (1969), the planets of the former League have reunited as the ''Ekumen'', which was founded by the Hainish people. The fifth, ''[[The Word for World Is Forest]]'' (1972), part of the anthology ''[[Again, Dangerous Visions]]'' (and only published as a separate book in 1976) is set before any of the first four books, and in it the League of All Worlds and the ''[[ansible]]'' are new, and the term "Ekumen" is not used. The sixth, ''[[The Dispossessed]]'' (1974), is the earliest Hainish novel, chronologically; in it, the Cetians have been visited by people from other planets, including Terra (Earth) and Hain, and while the various planets are separate, there is some talk of a union (and the ansible concept is known, but none yet exist). The seventh and final novel, ''[[The Telling]]'' (2000), and the later short stories only speak of the Ekumen—which now includes the Gethenians, who were the subject of ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]''—and not of the League.

=== LeGuin's view ===

Le Guin often discounted the characterization 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."<ref>{{cite web |author=Le Guin, Ursula K. |url=http://www.ursulakleguin.com/FAQ.html#BookOrder |title=Answers to a Questionnaire (FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions) |date=2007 |website=ursulakleguin.com |access-date=2013-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216192413/http://www.ursulakleguin.com/FAQ.html#BookOrder |archive-date=2016-02-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ursulakleguin.com/FAQ_Questionnaire5_01.html#EkumenBooks|title=FAQ: In what order should I read the Ekumen, Earthsea, and Catwings books?|author=Le Guin, Ursula K.|website=ursulakleguin.com|date=2007|access-date=2007-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128072443/http://www.ursulakleguin.com/FAQ_Questionnaire5_01.html#EkumenBooks|archive-date=2018-01-28|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Le Guin offers the following thoughts on the order in which readers should approach the series:<ref name=HainishNovels/>{{Blockquote |text=''[[Rocannon's World]]'', ''[[Planet of Exile]],'' ''[[City of Illusions]]'': where they fit in the "Hainish cycle" is anybody’s guess, but I’d read them first because they were written first. In them there is a "League of Worlds," but the Ekumen does not yet exist. / Then you could read ''[[The Word for World is Forest]]'', ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]],'' [and] ''[[The Dispossessed]],'' in any order. In ''Dispossessed'', the ansible gets invented; but they’re using it in ''Left Hand'', which was written fifteen years earlier. Please do not try to explain this to me. I will not understand. / Then in the collection of stories ''[[A Fisherman of the Inland Sea]]'', the three last stories are Ekumenical, and we even finally find out a little about Hain, where it all began. The story suite ''[[Four Ways to Forgiveness]]'' is part of that universe, and so is the novel ''[[The Telling]]''. But I have to warn you that the planet Werel in ''Four Ways'' is not the planet Werel in ''[[Planet of Exile]]''. In between novels, I forget planets. Sorry. / ''The Eye of the Heron'' may or may not be set in the Hainish universe; it really doesn’t matter. As for ''[[The Lathe of Heaven]]'' and ''[[Always Coming Home]]'', my Terran science fiction novels, they definitely don’t exist in the same universe as the Hainish or Ekumenical books.<ref name=HainishNovels>{{cite web |last=Le Guin |first=Ursula K. |date=2022 | title=The Hainish Novels and Stories / A Note from Ursula |work=UrsulaKLeguin.com |via=Web.Archive.org | url=https://www.ursulakleguin.com/hainish-novels-and-stories |url-access= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220715160955/https://www.ursulakleguin.com/hainish-novels-and-stories |archive-date=2022-07-15 |location=Portland, Oregon |publisher=The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation |access-date=15 March 2024}} Note, the approximate date of this note derives from its earliest appearance as an archived page at Web.Archive.org.</ref>}}