Rocannon's World (Ursula K. Le Guin)

Rocannon's World
The Hainish Cycle, Book 1
Ursula K. Le Guin
Blackstone Audio
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Among the numerous planets of the League of All Worlds, most only have one intelligent species. The League contacts these people, raising their civilization and collecting tax or tribute, in preparation for a coming intergalactic war, but mostly leaves them to their own devices. On one world, though, multiple species reached self-awareness. It is a world too small and otherwise unremarkable to have been officially named beyond its system designation Fomalhaut II, let alone thoroughly explored, and only one of the species, the Gdemiar or so-called Clay People of the nights and underground tunnels, was granted League secrets. But it was not a Clay Person who traveled to the offworld museum one fortuitous day in search of an old family heirloom, traded to the star travelers for their gifts many years past: it was one of the dark-skinned and golden-haired Angyar, ruling race of the Liuar species of humanoids. Interworld ethnologist Rocannon was captivated by her beauty and the many unexplored secrets of her world... enough that he undertook a mission to fill in the countless gaps in League knowledge about the place, for all that, due to the speed of bureaucracy and the time dilation effects of space travel, it would be decades before he set foot on the planet.
That is why he was on the world, in the company of the woman's grandson and current prince of their lands, when his ship and all his League companions were destroyed by offworld rebels. The League of All Worlds is under attack, and the attackers have chosen to set up their base of operations on the backwater Fomalhaut II... and, with the ansible device that allows instantaneous communication across space destroyed, there is no way for Rocannon to let his colleagues know where the rebels are, let alone summon help for a planet whose populace is largely in the Bronze Age. As he cannot, in good conscience, stand back and let the people whom he has come to admire and love be destroyed, he undertakes a quest halfway across the world to find their base and do whatever he can to protect the planet - even if it costs him his own life.

REVIEW: Part of the classic Hainish series by noted genre author Ursula K. Le Guin, Rocannon's World plays into the seemingly-popular "planetary romance" trend of its time (or, at least, I've read more than one other example from roughly the same era, so it appears to have been a trend) of projecting a near-fantasy epic adventure onto an alien world. (It also uses the then-popular, now-cringeworthy notion of tall, thin, blonde masters and "swarthy" dark-haired servants or slaves; even the clearly intelligent underground Clay People are portrayed as brutish and nasty beyond the less technically advanced Liuar race in no small part due to their appearance; even though the skin of the Liuar is dark and the servant/squat races are pale, it's a bit hard to edge around the implications of blonde-haired master/black-haired slave.) The planet itself is a world of many wonders; a slightly less than Earth-normal gravity gave rise to many species developing wings, albeit without any insect life to speak of. The Angyar tame and ride "windsteeds" of griffinlike appearance, and there have been rumors since the world's discovery and in myths of winged humanoids on the unexplored land mass Rocannon and his companions must visit. There's a certain air of mysticism to the cultures, with limited telepathy and talk of omens and destinies. Rocannon comes to the world as a wide-eyed outsider utterly enamored with the people (or at least the comely Angyars) and the planet; when his ship is destroyed, he hardly needs prompting to step up to protect them. There's an unavoidable shade of "white savior" to his actions, especially as he comes to be viewed as something akin to a wizard in his travels, for all that many on the world are casually familiar with the concept of aliens and the League of All Worlds even if they haven't met offworlders themselves. Setting that aside, though, this is a decently-told adventure story in a world of wonders and dangers, perhaps more akin to a classic fantasy story than science fiction as one would read it today.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Lord Valentine's Castle (Robert Silverberg) - My Review
The Snow Queen (Joan D. Vinge) - My Review
Cards of Grief (Jane Yolen) - My Review