The World Crumbles During Winter

Ursula K Le Guin, Planet of Exile, 1966
On a remote, unnamed planet, winter is approaching - a season unlike our own, lasting decades. A young girl, Rolery, falls in love with one of the witches that live in the city by the sea - the same witch that warns her tribe of an army of thousands amassing beyond the mountains and ready to conquer their lands.

Le Guin's novella starts out on a slow foot, with a confusing narrative (many characters never going beyond sketches, information which seems important not well explained), but things soon pick up and, by the end, you are left wishing Le Guin had explored more of this incredible world rather than letting it all come to an end before page 130.

As with her other novels, the fascinating is given special emphasis within the fantasy, but never losing sight of the characters' emotions. Le Guin is science-fiction with a heart.