The Left Hand of Darkness
Written: Jul 14 '01 (Updated Nov 24 '04)
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Pros: Good "new world exploration"-style science fiction, full of fresh thinking
Cons: slightly dated by its social commentary
The Bottom Line: An excellent alien adventure. Equally, an excellent commentary on how to "unlearn" judging people by first appearances!!
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| snpmurray's Full Review: Ursula K. Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness |
...What an interesting book!
The response of the public to this book is in fact almost as famous as the book itself. Sociologists and feminists have quoted this book frequently.
But, alas, mine is not the role of a social commentator, and I'm here to recommend a good book to you. This book I heartily recommend. If, in the process, you find yourself to have read a work of great social and political significance,well, who could complain?!!
This book concerns the mission of one Genly Ai, ambassador for the Ekumen, a collection of politically united worlds. He is assigned to attend the isolated planet known as "Winter", a planet locked in a global ice age. Acting as sole intermediatory, persuade them to join the Ekumen. Winter is distinguished amongst the worlds by having no knowledge of war.
His mission is both long and complicated, and our following of this mission constitutes the body of the novel. Dealing with the internal politics of the planet, as if not complicated enough, pales into insignificance compared to the curious biology of its inhabitants. The people of Winter are androgynous. Once every month they are capable of completely changing the sexual orientation of their physical being, becoming a functional male or female. Only pregnancy keeps individuals in one sex for longer periods than this, and the majority of adults on Winter have been both a mother and a father.
Naturally, this is somewhat confusing for Genly Ai. LeGuin illustrates for us the challenge that might be encountered by such a spacefarer in dealing impartially with the alien nature of Other Beings. This book is a course of epiphanies for Genly Ai. Through exposure to wildy varied politics and attitudes of the different political bodies on Winter, he comes to see a bigger picture of who, and what, may be.
This book vacillates between politics, anthropology, and gender studies. All of this is blended into an excellent adventure story. The story moves briskly after its somewhat slow start, as the pace of the adventure accelerates constantly until the very end of the book. Genly Ai leads us through the life of one man, alone, on an Alien world, essentially defenseless, with only his art of diplomacy to survive on.
To those who may not be Science fiction readers by habit, this is another of those books, which , despite its existence within a particular genre, is in fact universally excellent literature. A good book, by any standards.
This book now contains an excellent foreword by the author commenting on the roles and duties of the writer in science fiction. I added several lines from it to my list of "lifelong-significant quotes".
Some of my other science fiction book reviews:
Rama Revealed
Prelude to Space
Stand on Zanzibar
The Demolished Man
The Stars my Destination
Cat's Cradle
The Gods Themselves
Watchmen
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Hammer of God
The Left Hand of Darkness
Flowers for Algernon
Lord of Light
Rendevous with Rama
The Tombs of Atuan
The Dispossessed
I am Legend
The Einstein Intersection
Earth Abides
Peace on Earth
The Farthest Shore
Methuselah's Children
A Call to Arms
To your Scattered Bodies Go
The Lion of Comarre / Against the Fall of Night
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Doomsday Book
Frankenstein Unbound
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Imperial Earth
A Case of Conscience
Solaris
The Sands of Mars
The Land of Laughs
Eden
His Masters Voice
Citizen of the Galaxy
King David's Spaceship
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Double Star
The Fabulous Riverboat
Songs of Distant Earth
Way Station
The Fountains of Paradise
The Long Tomorrow
Lincolns Dreams
Alas Babylon
More Than Human
1984
The Forever War
All the Myriad Ways
I Sing the Body Electric
Gateway
Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said
This Immortal
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Recommended:
Yes
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