#60 in Classics
The Word for World Is Forest
- 169
- Pages
- about 3 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Word for World Is Forest” is a short, thoughtful and moving novel about colonisation on a forest planet that humans have come to log. Le Guin fits the war that follows into well under two hundred pages without losing its moral weight. It is part of the “Hainish Cycle”, stories of human peoples scattered across neighbouring stars. For readers who want science fiction built on an idea and still told as a story.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Word for World Is Forest is a science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the United States in 1972 as a part of the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions, and published as a separate book in 1976 by Berkley Books. It is part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle.
Reading order · Hainish Cycle
Full order & progress →- Rocannon's World
7.47.4 / 10 - Planet of Exile
7.67.6 / 10 - City of Illusions
7.87.8 / 10 - The Left Hand of DarknessStart here
8.38.3 / 10 - The Dispossessed
8.58.5 / 10 - The Word for World Is ForestThis book
8.18.1 / 10 - The Telling
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.3 across 313 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 68% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 8.1 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.8 | 10 | 3% |
| Hardcover | 8.3 | 303 | 97% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Word for World Is Forest?
It has 169 pages — shorter than 97% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 8.1 and 8.2, closest to this book.
