The Left Hand of Darkness in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Sep 12, 2008 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: multiple-award-winners, award-nominee-hugo, award-nominee-nebula, sf-space-opera, award-winner-nebula, award-winner-hugo, multiple-award-nominee

4.0 to 4.5 stars. A classic worthy of the name. Set in the Hainish universe created by Le Guin, it centers around a missionary named Genly Ai who is sent by the Ekumen (the galactic federation of worlds ) to determine whether the planet Gethen should be brought into the Ekumen. That is only the framework of this hauntingly beautiful story of personal discovery and an expolration of the meaning of gender and sexuality.

Winner: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Award (1970)
Winner: Nebula Award f ...more

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Mar 12, 2009 Derek rated it really liked it

It's an interesting book, and well written, and it made me think, but I didn't particularly enjoy reading it. I'm sure this is partly because I prefer fantasy to sci fi, but that's not all of it, because this is VERY softcore sci fi.

The world is spare but well done, and the characters seem to be internally consistent, but I wasn't really grabbed by any of them. The story itself is a little slow without much action, and the description of the ice-beridden world is part of that, but certainly nec ...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Heather rated it really liked it

Shelves: women, scifi-fantasy, library, 2012

In Star Trek parlance, this was a book about making first contact. I was somewhat confused the first 40 pages or so with the flipping around to different character's perspectives, tossed in with some of the host-world's mythology, however I got into the groove and found myself really liking the developing friendship between the two main characters, as well as the way Le Guin crafted the androgeny of the host-worlders. Leaves me interested in reading more of her stories ...more

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