The Left Hand of Darkness in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Aug 07, 2009 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ultimate-reading-list, ebooks, novels, fiction, favorites, science-fiction

This story involves the planet of Winter, whose inhabitants have no fixed gender. The story is told party through a report by Genly Ai, a human envoy sent to try to convince the planet to join an interstellar federation. He's our eye into one of the most fascinating and unique of alien worlds--an unreliable narrator for much of the book, who makes all the (wrong) assumptions we might. We also get diary entries by a native of the land, Estraven. Interspersed between those narratives are myths and ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Nora rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

This is the best science fiction novel that I have ever read. It isn't genre ficion, it is a true literary work that deserves all the accolades that it has received. In fact, I think I will re-read it! ...more

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Sep 30, 2018 Cee rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, subject-gender, stand-alone, science-fiction, space-adventures

In Le Guin's classic The Left Hand of Darkness, an interplenetary traveller is sent to Winter, an exceptionally cold planet. Apart from its climate, Winter is notable because of its hermaphrodite population.

Neither man or woman, or perhaps both at the same time, these people gently challenge the preconceptions of Genly Ai, whose mission it is to act as an Envoy in Winter for a substantial collective of planets. Le Guin's sci-fi is the kind that is less interested in technological progress, and In Le Guin's classic The Left Hand of Darkness, an interplenetary traveller is sent to Winter, an exceptionally cold planet. Apart from its climate, Winter is notable because of its hermaphrodite population.

Neither man or woman, or perhaps both at the same time, these people gently challenge the preconceptions of Genly Ai, whose mission it is to act as an Envoy in Winter for a substantial collective of planets. Le Guin's sci-fi is the kind that is less interested in technological progress, and more in 'what if' scenarios that challenge societal notions that we take for granted. This focus on the human rather than the inanimate leads to fascinating reading. Where I found Asimov's characters to be flat and dull, Le Guin clearly paints hers with a more subtle and compassionate hand.

Every time I thought I would find myself bored with The Left Hand of Darkness, the narration was switched up, moving from Genly's point of view to a snippet of myth, or a chapter of narration by another character. It is a slow book, and its interest lies more in its nuances than it does in big action or dramatic interactions.

The book initially interested me because of the way it reflects on the gender binary. While this book might have been radical in 1969, I feel like that aspect did not stand the test of time. Genly's ideas on sex (having come from a 'bisexual' society) were rather amorphous and too broad to be truly questioned. He seems to equate femininity with weakness, lack of abstract thinking, with beating around the bush socially, and many other negative characteristics. I do hope that we have moved slightly beyond these preconceptions in the last seventy years (though probably not as much as I'd like) and the novel's questioning of these ideas wasn't thorough enough.

I would recommend The Left Hand of Darkness for lovers of science-fiction, light on the technology, heavy on the society and politics. Many of its elements are timeless, though its initial appeal might have faded over time.

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Trigger warnings: (view spoiler) ...more

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