The novel “Rocannon’s World” by Ursula Le Guin was published for the first time in 1966.
The ethnologist Gaverel Rocannon has returned to the planet Fomalhaut II after many years due to the long time required by interstellar travel. His goal is to continue his studies of the natives together with his colleagues. However, a rebel faction attacks the group and Rocannon is the only survivor.
Rocannon’s only hope is to warn the League of All Worlds of the attack, but this is only possible with an ansible. The rebels have an ansible in the area they use as a base camp, but it’s very far away and Rocannon has no vehicles to use to do it quickly. He can only ask the natives for help and travel on the windsteeds normally used on the planet to travel.
“Rocannon’s World” is the first novel of the Ekumen Cycle, or Hainish Cycle, whose works are generally independent since they’re usually set on different planets in different eras. The prologue to this novel was published in 1964 as a short story with the title “The Dowry of Angyar” or “Semley’s Necklace” in various anthologies. It features the first appearance of what is called the League of All Worlds and the ethnologist Gaverel Rocannon, who is on a mission to the planet Fomalhaut II to study the various sentient species that inhabit it.
The novel further develops the setting introduced in the prologue. The tone is more typical of the fantasy genre than science fiction with the native sentient species reminiscent of mythological creatures. The presence of the windsteeds, which are more or less winged lions, also contributes to giving a fantasy flavor to the story. The necklace in the prologue has been compared to the Brísingamen which belongs to the goddess Freyja of Norse mythology.
The mythical element becomes progressively important in Rocannon’s story because of the journey he undertakes to find the Ansible he needs to warn the League of All Worlds of the attack on Fomalhaut II. The protagonist lost his colleagues and also a lot of advanced equipment in the attack but he still has a suit that makes him almost invulnerable to local weapons and has knowledge far superior to that of the natives.
Being an alien makes Rocannon special from the start, and this is underlined by the title of the first part of the novel, “The Starlord”, which indicates how the protagonist is called by the natives. He begins what can be considered a quest during which he performs various feats that are considered prodigious. Stories about those feats are created and spread, giving him a superhuman dimension.
As time passes, adversity after adversity, Rocannon’s quest influences him as well. Left alone among the natives, he forges genuine friendships with some of them and gets more and more immersed in the diverse cultures of that planet, with its peoples who have their own specific peculiarities. The confrontation with what at least initially is the Other permeates the entire story of the protagonist and Ursula Le Guin develops it in her own way. These are themes that the author developed in other works, often in greater depth, but they are already central to this novel.
“Rocannon’s World” is really short by today’s standards and even by Ursula Le Guin’s standards. It’s not as refined as this author’s later novels, also because it uses mythological elements in a rather pedestrian way to create the setting. However, in my opinion, it’s still worth reading at least for readers who want to complete the Hainish Cycle. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
