Where to Start with Ursula K. Le Guin
- Best entry point → The Lathe of Heaven
- Best standalone → The Best of Fantasy 2001
- Start The Hainish Cycle #1-3 series → Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions
- What readers keep coming back to → A Wizard of Earthsea
- Highest rated by readers → The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (The Hainish Cycle #6)
- 1
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
The Hainish Cycle • Book 6
★ 4.23 BLT Score (153.9K ratings)★ 4.26 Goodreads (153.9K) - 2
- 3
The Word for World Is Forest
The Hainish Cycle • Book 5
★ 4.05 BLT Score (45.2K ratings)★ 4.07 Goodreads (45.2K) - 4
Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions
The Hainish Cycle #1-3 • Book 1
★ 4.00 BLT Score (5.4K ratings)★ 4.25 Goodreads (5.4K) - 5
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Earthsea Quartet • Book 1
★ 4.00 BLT Score (364.6K ratings)★ 4.01 Goodreads (364.6K) - 6
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Hainish Cycle • Book 4
★ 3.95 BLT Score (224.6K ratings)★ 4.1 Goodreads (224.6K) - 7
- 8
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters #1-2
★ 3.88 BLT Score (8.0K ratings)★ 4.06 Goodreads (8.0K) - 9
The Best of Fantasy 2001
by Robert Silverberg, Greg van Eeckhout, Rosemary Edghill, Lawrence Miles, Poul Anderson, Robert Thurston, Brian A. Hopkins, Jack O'Connell, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lucius Shepard, M.E. Wills
★ 3.64 BLT Score (13 ratings)★ 3.31 Goodreads (13) - 10
The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century
by Martin H. Greenberg, Greg Bear, Terry Bisson, David Brin, John W. Campbell Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Judith Merril, Frederik Pohl, Eric Frank Russell, Terry Farrell, Denise Crosby, Alexander Siddig, Melissa Manchester
★ 3.44 BLT Score (165 ratings)★ 3.61 Goodreads (165)
Browse Related Lists
How We Rank Audiobooks
Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.
Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.
We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.
Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.