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Wednesday, July 15, 2026

The needs of the many - Strange New Words - July 2026

The needs of the many | And the winner is... | "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin

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July 15, 2026

Space.com's Sci-Fi Reader's Club

The needs of the many

Hello there! Welcome back to Strange New Words, Space's monthly sci-fi short story book club. I know I promised a regular schedule last month and this one's a week late, but it was my birthday last week, so I took some time off to stare into the existential void. Oh, and eat cake.

Anyway, enough about me. We've totalled up the votes, and the July story is… "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Le Guin was an American author who specialised in speculative and science fiction, most notably the Hainish Cycle series. Whilst most famous as a novelist, she penned over a hundred short stories in her lifetime, including "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", which won the Hugo Award in 1974.

The story describes a beautiful day in the city of Omelas and… well, I can't really go into any more detail than that without giving the game away. Suffice it to say, we'll talk about it at the end of the month when we record our discussion video.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and questions, too — drop us an email at community@space.com or leave a comment on this month's Strange New Words article. We'll aim to answer them in our video discussion at the end of the month.

We'll see you out there.

Ian Stokes,

Entertainment Editor,

Space

This Month's Short Story

And the winner is...

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin - 42%

"I have no mouth and I must scream" by Harlan Ellison - 41%

"Poetry Cloud" by Cixin Liu - 17%

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin

(Ursula K. Le Guin)

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" offers a vivid description of the first day of Summer in a seemingly perfect city called Omelas. The sun is shining, and the people are happy and carefree as a festival to celebrate the solstice rolls across the city. It seems like a perfect world, but there's a dark secret behind this utopia.

The story explores the idea of utilitarianism, a concept that should be very familiar to the Star Trek fans amongst you. Spock's infamous line, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," is about as apt a summation of the philosophy as you'll find.

You can find a PDF copy of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" here.

Discussion Questions

Discussion questions to ponder on your walk...

Below are a few questions to think about once you've read the story. Feel free to share these with friends, discuss them amongst yourselves, and post your thoughts on socials. We'll be talking through these, along with other discussion questions from the panel and our readers, during the wrap-up discussion at the end of the month (July 29th).

Would you walk away from Omelas? Would you stay? Or is there a third option?
Does modern society need the suffering of others to survive in its current form?
Is it possible to have a good society at the expense of someone else? Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?
What did you think of the author's distinct separation of technology and happiness (especially in the current global AI race)?