The Left Hand of Darkness
Hugo and Nebula winner, the founding masterpiece of feminist SF, and a permanent fixture at the top of all-time lists. Its thought-experiment method defined anthropological SF.
Series Guide
The Hainish Cycle
Le Guin's loose future history of worlds seeded by ancient Hain, visited one by one by envoys of the Ekumen — anthropological SF's defining sequence.
In the Guide
The Dispossessed
Hugo, Nebula and Locus winner; the standard against which all political SF is measured, taught in politics departments as readily as literature ones.