The tales of this book, as Ursula K. Le Guin writes in her introduction, explore or extend the world established by her first four Earthsea novels. Yet each stands on its own. The Finder, a novella set a few hundred years before A Wizard of Earthsea, presents a dark and troubled Archipelago and shows how some of its customs and institutions came to be. The Bones of the Earth features the wizards who taught the wizard who first taught Ged and demonstrates how humility, if great enough, can contend with an earthquake. Darkrose and Diamond is a delightful story of young courtship showing that wizards sometimes pursue alternative careers. On the High Marsh tells of the love of power-and of the power of love. Dragonfly shows how a determined woman can break the glass ceiling of male magedom. Concluding with an account of Earthsea's history, people, languages, literature, and magic, this collection also features two new maps of Earthsea.

Now available individually in new digest sized paperback editions, the first four books in Le Guin's magical series chronicle four young cats with wings who leave the city slums in search of a safe place to live.

Wishing to visit their mother, the winged cats leave their new country home to return to the city, where they discover a winged kitten in a building on the verge of being demolished.

Four young cats with wings leave the city slums in search of a safe place to live, finally meeting two children with kind hands.

«When young Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth, everything is taken away from her-home, family, possessions, even her name. She is now known only as Arha, the Eaten One, guardian of the labyrinthine Tombs of Atuan, shrouded in darkness. When a young wizard, Ged Sparrowhawk, comes to steal the Tombs' greatest hidden treasure, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, Tenar's rightful duty is to protect the Tombs. But Ged also brings with him the light of magic and tales of a brighter world Tenar has never known. Will Tenar risk everything to escape the darkness that has become her domain? With millions of copies sold worldwide, Ursula K. Le Guin's «Earthsea Cycle» has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere, alongside the works of such beloved authors as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.»

The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. But Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.

«Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the greatest science fiction writers and many times the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. her career as a novelist was launched by the three novels contained in «Worlds of Exile and Illusion». These novels, Rocannon's world, «Planet of Exile», and «City of Illusions», are set in the same universe as Le Guin's groundbreaking classic, «The Left hand of Darkness». Tor is pleased to return these previously unavailable works to print in this attractive new edition.»