Two story collections from Ursula Le Guin seem to fit naturally together in this omnibus. The 17 tales of The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) include "April in Paris," her first published story; two early tales from the fantasy realm of Earthsea; the Nebula Award winner "The Day Before the Revolution"; and possibly her best-known story, the Hugo Award winner "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The 1982 Locus Award winner The Compass Rose contains 20 stories, including "Sur," which first appeared in The New Yorker (and itself won a Locus Award), describing a secret expedition to the South Pole by a group of South American women in 1909.