From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Left Hand of Darkness

Ursula K. Le Guin

Start date: June 1, 2024

Finish date: June 30, 2024

Discussion: Science Fiction and Fantasy

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 11 topics — 1,308 comments total

Science Fiction and Fantasy

* 2026 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reading Schedule
By Book Nerd , Purple Book Horse · 3 posts · 38 views

last updated Nov 20, 2025 07:25AM

* 2025 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reading Schedule
By Book Nerd , Purple Book Horse · 14 posts · 157 views

last updated Jan 05, 2025 07:59PM

showing 8 of 8 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Dec 14, 2018 Book2Dragon rated it it was amazing

My introduction to LeGuin. I loved it because it was quirky. Love her books, and her poetry.

8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 27, 2015 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-fiction, fantasy, science-fiction, fiction-20th-century, read-2015, audio-books

From BBC Radio 4:
Adapted by Judith Adams

Science fiction with incredible humanity from a brilliant feminist writer. This is the first dramatisation of Ursula Le Guin's 1969 novel which is as groundbreaking in its approach to gender as when it was first published over 45 years ago.

Episode 1:
In a snow-changed city in the middle of an Ice Age on an alien world, one young man prepares for the biggest mission of his life. Alone and unarmed, Genly Ai has been sent from Earth to persuade the world of Ge ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Oct 14, 2020 Natalie rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

A very heavy book with a lot of suffering and sadness in it. Le Guin is a good writer but the subject matter was so heavy. Two characters travel through various places and go through harrowing experiences on a planet far from their own. One of the characters escapes from prison and travels with the other across ice and snow. Most disturbing is the kemmering or sex with people who change their gender depending on the situation. I'm glad I read more Le Guin, her subject matter is just difficult. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2011 Douglas Beagley rated it really liked it

A wonderful re-read. Her style is inimical, her ideas are lovely. UKLG is tremendous, unique, powerful.

Go read the introduction. It will alter you.

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2015 Jenn Cavanaugh rated it it was amazing

The Introduction alone is worth the price of admission. In its own words: "This book is not extrapolative. If you like you can read it, and a lot of other science fiction, as a thought-experiment.... In a story so conceived, the moral complexity proper to the modern novel need not be sacrificed...." ...more

Like · see review