Ariadne’s Crossword Library, November 2025

ACL Grid: 7 mins, Meta: 15 seconds [3.50 avg; 4 ratings] rate it

G’day! Ben, here, with this month’s selection from Ariadne’s Crossword Library. This month we have a guest constructor – and a crossword constructing debut at that! “The Ending Places” was constructed by Heather Gearan and comes with the prompt: The meta answer is a prolific science fiction author.

I didn’t notice anything while I was filling in the grid. (To be completely honest, I actually thought I was filling in this week’s MikeyG meta, which I had also just downloaded!) But once the grid was filled, and I rechecked the meta prompt and title, thereby realising my initial mistake, I immediately looked at the ends of the four long entries: SAGN. Carl Sagan, perhaps? But he wasn’t exactly what you would call a prolific sci-fi author. But then, seeing PENGUIN at the end of 64A suggested LE GUIN. And would you look at that!

• 17A {Roving minstrels} TROUBADOURS
• 31A {Star-forming region in the Hunter} ORIONBEBULA
• 48A {Pirated recording made at a performance} LIVEBOOTLEG
• 64A {Second-largest species in its genus (the emperor being the largest)} KINGPENGUIN

The last 3 letters of the 4 themers combine to form URSULA LE GUIN, a very prolific sci-fi author. And that’s when I noticed the K at the end of the middle entry 41A!

• 41A {Like a sports car} SLEEK

So that’s Ariadne’s library book returned for another month! Congratulations to Heather on her meta puzzling debut. Given the smooth fill in the grid and a clever meta, may there be many more! Thanks also to Emma Oxford for editing and for providing a place for new meta constructors to strut their stuff.