The Left Hand of Darkness

This is the first book by Ursula K. LeGuin that I've read, and I was expecting it to be more of a fantasy novel. But I wasn't disappointed, and I found myself very quickly drawn into the world of Gethen and Genly Ai's struggle to understand the its people. It's a book that examines how we can transcend the differences between us to embrace the similarities, the power of friendship, and an exploration of sexual identity that was decades ahead of its time. I loved it.

I felt a deep connection to the characters in this book as they go through a journey of intense struggle. It is a thorough exploration of another world, including both the good and darker aspects of human nature. When I finished this book, I felt I had returned from a great adventure to another land with characters that I had come to know well. The book has a timeless relevance with its insights into human nature and the corruption of power.

I think Le Guin's world-building is nothing short of remarkable. Through her meticulous attention to detail, she crafts a… show more.

Welcome to a world where the inhabitants are androgynous, able to manifest both male and female genitalia. A world where you can be both a mother and a father of your children, where gender roles and expectations make no sense. I was absolutely astounded by this book when I read it many years ago. In a beautifully told sci-fi tale of political intrigue and adventure, I found myself constantly confronted by my limitations in terms of gender equity. 

For what LeGuin called her “social science fiction” and “thought experiments,” LeGuin created worlds—canvases really—where human foibles, conflicts, values, and ideas could… show more.

Ursula Le Guin’s book uses gender identity to address reader estrangement. I love that Le Guin ruthlessly runssacks all our preconceptions, interrogates the assumptions we mistake for laws, and deconstructs conventional notions of what makes a viable society.

The locale is the planet of Winter, where it is always either cold or colder. There is sex but no gender, and individuals can father a child or give birth to one. This circumstance becomes endlessly confusing to Genly Ai, the male visitor from planet Earth, who doesn’t know how to respond to his guide and benefactor Estraven or even what pronoun… show more.

This novel is one of the few that for me truly delivers on science fiction’s promise to transport the reader into a fully-realized alien culture that has been thoroughly thought through, from its biology to its myth-making. I find it a masterpiece of sensitivity and immersiveness.

I also appreciate that the story unfolds slowly and deliberately. Despite the hefty ideas, the relationship between the Terran protagonist and the Gethenian character of Estraven is one for the ages. I found the sequence detailing their long trek through icy desolation starkly beautiful.

Like Among Others, this book won both the Hugo… show more.

I loved this book because it was something I read a long time ago but returned to at a different time in my life with a fresh perspective.

A science fiction classic first published in 1969, so many of the themes in this book feel especially relevant today. It involves political intrigue, gender politics, and learning a new culture, but through the lens of a relationship between two people from entirely different planets.

LeGuin manages to create an alien world that is very, very human. N. K. Jemisin, in her introduction to the 2018 volume of The Best American Science… show more.

If you’re like me, you are a sucker for stories about an outsider finding themselves in a new society and having to struggle and adapt to circumstances they don’t fully understand.

Genly Ai is a man who is sent to the planet Gethen to convince the people there to join a planetary alliance. The problem is Genly is so fixated on his manhood and personal identity that he can’t adapt culturally in a world where everyone is genderfluid.

Genly’s political mistakes get him into a lot of trouble that his lone ally Estraven tries to save him from, and it… show more.

Ursula K. LeGuin was a writer before her time.

In The Left Hand of Darkness, LeGuin tackles gender issues creating a people who are at times sexually neutral but can change to either feminine or masculine during mating season. Humans are seen as freaks because they are trapped to one gender.

It was a mind-blowing book back in 1976, when it came out, winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best science fiction. The Left Hand of Darkness is worthy reading for its story and for its audacity, being penned almost fifty years ago. A great read!

Of course, any list wouldn't be complete without mentioning Le Guin. The Left Hand of Darkness is one of the most well-known works of queer speculation, and for good reason: reprinted dozens of times over the decades since it was originally published in 1969, the story centres around the ‘ambisexual’ inhabitants of Gethen, the androgynous population of a planet settled many centuries into the future. Yet it’s not just the social setting that makes The Left Hand of Darkness a compelling read, but the central relationship between the native Estraven and ambassador Ai – whose bond carries the novel’s central… show more.

Ursula K. Le Guin taught me how powerful science fiction could be. Published in 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness, tells the story of a human observer who arrives on an alien planet and discovers that the humanoid inhabitants change their gender in response to external stimuli. One of the aliens helps the human observer escape from a perilous situation, and the relationship between the two explores gender stereotypes and sexual orientation. 

I’ve often wondered whether the Left Hand of Darkness influenced The Crying Game, a movie that came out in 1992, over twenty years later. Then and… show more.