Since the 1970s, her works have incorporated a marked feminist perspective--she has addressed topics with special relevance to women, such as abortion--and have also reflected a strong environmental consciousness. Le Guin is often credited as an exceptional maker of worlds; her books, which take place on earth, on different planets, and in settings outside of our universe, are acknowledged for the author's invention and attention to detail in her depiction of landscapes and societies. Her works also reflect Le Guin's fascination with myths, archetypes, and dreams, especially in her use of language and symbols. Most critics regard Le Guin as the creator of provocative, profound books that insightfully articulate the concerns of humanity in the context of imaginative literature. In a jacket note to Le Guin's short story collection
Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand, Carolyn Kizer called Le Guin "our wise woman, our seeress, a writer of rage and power," while Frank Allen of
Library Journal named her "our foremost woman of letters in fantasy and science fiction." Theodore Sturgeon, writing in the
Los Angeles Times, noted that "above all, in almost unearthly terms, Ursula Le Guin examines, attacks, unbuttons, takes down and exposes our notion of reality." In her
Reading for the Love of It, Michele Landsberg called Le Guin "the leading writer of fantasy in North America," while Derek de Solla Price of the
New Republic wrote that no writer "inside the field of science fiction or outside of it [has] done more to create a modern conscience."
Prized Fantasy Quartet
Since the first publications of her adult science fiction and fantasy, young people have been drawn to Le Guin's writings.
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