The Word for World is Forest

Written when America was embroiled in the Viet Nam war, LeGuin's short novel packs a powerful punch. On a distant planet, Athshe, a human colony is systematically destroying the forests that cover most of the land and shipping the wood back to a barren Earth. The natives, or Creechies as they are referred to, are a branch of humans descended from LeGuin's Hainish civilisation that also colonised Earth millennia ago. Having adapted over time to Athshe's environment they are small and covered in green fur. Thus they are seen as “less than human” and virtually enslaved by the human colonists.

The analogy to not only the Viet Nam war, but all imperialist wars, is implicit: treat the native population as less than human, subjugate, enslave and exterminate. But one Creechie, Selver, does something extraordinary for a society based on dream culture, that sees the dream world and the real world as one - he fights back.

As I said it's a short novel but ends up being very moving with the realisation that Selver's actions have irrevocably changed the inhabitants of Athshe. One of the great SF novels by one of it's greatest practitioners.