Ursula K. Le Guin "The Compass Rose."

A collection of short stories ranges widely in subject, mood, geography, and time and combine the tender, the humorous, the grim, and solemn, the adventurous, and the fantastic.

North to Orsinia and the boundaries between reality and madness ... South to discover Antarctica with nine South American women ... West to find an enchanted harp and the borderland between life and death ... and onward to all points on and off the compass. Twenty astonishing stories from acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin carry us to worlds of wonder and horror, desire and destiny, enchantment and doom.

Includes the Locus Award-winning short story “Sur,” the Jupiter Award-winning novelette “The Diary of the Rose,” and the Locus Award-winning novelette “The New Atlantis.”

The "Hainish Cycle" reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.

Harper & Row. First Edition, 1982.

Hard cover with DJ.

Winner of the 1983 Locus Award for Best Collection

New book. Light shelf wear. A couple of taped tears on DJ. Remainder mark. Otherwise, like new inside.