The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin

Pacifist Exiles and an Aristocratic Defector Resist Forced Labor on a Remote Penal World

First published in 1978 in the anthology Millennial Women and released as a standalone novel in 1982, Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction work takes place on Victoria, an isolated planet populated by two distinct waves of human exiles. The first arrivals were violent convicts transported from Earth who established the City, an authoritarian society governed by an oligarchic council of bosses. Decades later, a second wave of pacifist political prisoners arrived to establish Shantih—an egalitarian farming community that supplies agricultural produce to the City while maintaining nonviolent self-governance.

The uneasy coexistence ends when the City Council moves to subjugate Shantih into an indentured labor force. When young organizer Lev Denisov advocates crossing the southern mountain ring to found an independent settlement beyond the bosses' jurisdiction, tensions turn fatal. Disillusioned by her father's authoritarianism, nineteen-year-old Luz Marina Falco—daughter of chief councilor Luis Falco—escapes the City and joins the pacifists. Alongside community elder Vera, Luz helps guide an expedition across the mountain passes into the uncharted wilderness to establish a commune near the native fauna of Heron Pool.

Why You’ll Love This Book

Ursula K. Le Guin explores the practical challenges of nonviolent civil resistance, social organization, and ecological adaptation. It tackles many of the same big ideas as Le Guin's The Dispossessed, making it an easy recommendation for anyone who reads Octavia Butler, Joanna Russ, or Vonda McIntyre.