Rocannon's World

Blurb

Rocannon's World is Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel. It was published in 1966 as an Ace Double, along with Avram Davidson's The Kar-Chee Reign, following the tête-bêche format. Though it is one of Le Guin's many works set in the universe of the technological Hainish Cycle, the story itself has many elements of heroic fantasy. The hero Rocannon encounters lords who live in castles and wield swords, and other races much like fairies and gnomes, in his travels on a backward planet. It may be classified as science fantasy or planetary romance.
The word ansible for a faster-than-light communicator, was coined in the novel. The term has subsequently been used throughout the canon of science fiction.