"The kind of classic fifties-era first-contact story that Jonathan Swift
might have written, if Jonathan Swift had had a background in game
theory."
-- (Hugo nominee) Peter Watts, "In Praise of Baby-Eating"
Three Worlds Collide is a story I wrote to illustrate some points on naturalistic metaethics and diverse other issues of rational conduct. It grew, as such things do, into a small novella. On publication, it proved widely popular and widely criticized. Be warned that the story, as it wrote itself, ended up containing some profanity and PG-13 content.
- The Baby-Eating Aliens
- War and/or Peace
- The Super Happy People
- Interlude with the Confessor
- Three Worlds Decide
- Normal Ending
- True Ending
- Atonement
PDF version here.
Le Guin is a genre writer, like Tolkien and Gaiman. For the most part she's not stylistically difficult as Shakespeare or Joyce can be, although Always Coming Home is experimental in form.
I think she's wonderful. Her Earthsea books (A Wizard of Earthsea is the first) are a good accessible jumping-on point if you're interested in checking her out. Or The Dispossessed if you prefer science fiction. Or one of her short story collections, maybe The Wind's Twelve Quarters or The Compass Rose.
I would only advise you to stay away from The Left Hand of Darkness--that one won both the Hugo and the Nebula and is the book of hers most likely to be taught in college courses, but she regards it as something of a failed experiment and personally I tend to agree.