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The Left Hand of Darkness (Hardcover)

by Ursula K. Le Guin (Author) "I'LL MAKE my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)

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Genly Ai is an emissary from the human galaxy to Winter, a lost, stray world. His mission is to bring the planet back into the fold of an evolving galactic civilization, but to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own culture and prejudices and those that he encounters. On a planet where people are of no gender--or both--this is a broad gulf indeed. The inventiveness and delicacy with which Le Guin portrays her alien world are not only unusual and inspiring, they are fundamental to almost all decent science fiction that has been written since. In fact, reading Le Guin again may cause the eye to narrow somewhat disapprovingly at the younger generation: what new ground are they breaking that is not already explored here with greater skill and acumen? It cannot be said, however, that this is a rollicking good story. Le Guin takes a lot of time to explore her characters, the world of her creation, and the philosophical themes that arise.

If there were a canon of classic science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness would be included without debate. Certainly, no science fiction bookshelf may be said to be complete without it. But the real question: is it fun to read? It is science fiction of an earlier time, a time that has not worn particularly well in the genre. The Left Hand of Darkness was a groundbreaking book in 1969, a time when, like the rest of the arts, science fiction was awakening to new dimensions in both society and literature. But the first excursions out of the pulp tradition are sometimes difficult to reread with much enjoyment. Rereading The Left Hand of Darkness, decades after its publication, one feels that those who chose it for the Hugo and Nebula awards were right to do so, for it truly does stand out as one of the great books of that era. It is immensely rich in timeless wisdom and insight.

The Left Hand of Darkness is science fiction for the thinking reader, and should be read attentively in order to properly savor the depth of insight and the subtleties of plot and character. It is one of those pleasures that requires a little investment at the beginning, but pays back tenfold with the joy of raw imagination that resonates through the subsequent 30 years of science fiction storytelling. Not only is the bookshelf incomplete without owning it, so is the reader without having read it. --L. Blunt Jackson --This text refers to the Paperback edition.



About the Author

Ursula K. Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929. Her novels include Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, and The Left Hand of Darkness. With the awarding of the 1975 Hugo and Nebula Awards to The Dispossessed, she became the first author to win both awards twice for novels. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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I'LL MAKE my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

114 Reviews
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4.1 out of 5 stars (114 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, thought provoking science fiction, Nov 18 2006
By L. Bourque (Windsor, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Left Hand of Darkness (Paperback)
The Left Hand of Darkness started out quite slowly for me. But once I got 2/3 of the way through I couldn't put it down! The ending is wonderful, if bittersweet. The intimate friendship that developed between Genly and Estraven was deeply touching to me. The quality of prose was top-notch, as I have come to expect from Le Guin.

The only problem I might say I had with the book (and the reason I gave it 4 stars) was trying to visualize the characters as neither men nor women when the only pronoun Le Guin used is "he." I was unable to form pictures of any of the characters in my mind. Yet I think she did a good job of making the characters have a mixture of masculine and feminine traits.

After I put the book down I realized why I liked Le Guin's Earthsea books so much: because even when she is writing about a world with men and women, she doesn't write them as such, but as human beings. None of her books contain bulging biceps or heaving bosoms, but rather real people. It's refreshing.

It's an excellent book overall. Not a riveting read, but a slow, thought-provoking and often beautifully touching read.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Truly alien, April 18 2007
By Greg Slade "Grga" (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Left Hand of Darkness (Paperback)
The protagonist is a human envoy sent to a planet of hermaphrodites to invite them to join galactic civilisation. The inhabitants of Gethen are functionally sexless most of the time, but for a few days each month become sexual, and may be either sex during that time.

Le Guin takes this premise and works out a whole social and political system, and then introduces a normal human character to be the outside observer through whose eyes the reader gets to experience this world. The result is a society which is far more alien than many. (I recently described aliens in the poorer grade of SF as "humans in rubber suits.") But the story does not simply depend on that central idea. There is excellent characterisation, and some adventure thrown in for good measure. I found it hard to put down.
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5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most extraordinary books every written?, Jul 18 2004
This review is from: The Left Hand of Darkness (Paperback)
I first read this book over 30 years ago, and 2 worn out copies later, have lost count of the number of times I've re-read it.

It is an extraordinary book, which for me, raised a whole number of questions about how our society was formed, how it works and how it fails to work. As a femail scifi reader this was one of the first books I read that called me to question. So many stories were 'hard core', being about technology and the impact it was likely to have. Nothing wrong with that, but this is so much more.

For me, one of the key moments in the story is when I realised that Genli was a man. I guess being female, and identifying with the character, it simply hadn't occured to me that he was a him! This made the story spring into relief - an impact that was barely less striking for the second and subsequent readings. It takes a scifi book to tackle a subject of gender impact from such a novel angle, and causes the kinds of questions other more books more obviously about this cannot raise. It cleverly puts the reader into a position of observer of the difficulties of dealing with gender issue that are quite different from those we experience, and thus causes similar questions to be raised about our own gender issues.

And contrary to many other critics - I do think it is a good read as well!

This is a book that should be on the reading list of every school.

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 		 Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Whelming
I had been meaning for some time to read Le Guin, and picked this book as a starter. It did not live up to my expectations.

Let me start with the good. Read more

Published on Jul 3 2004 by J. M. Raines

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tao of Le Guin
In many ways, Le Guin delineates upon the Taoist belief of unity in order to prove that all things, materialistic or idealistic, have an opposite in this wonderful, original, and... Read more
Published on Jun 23 2004 by Danielle Kuehnel

4.0 out of 5 stars Considering the possibilities
In her introduction, the author makes some compelling statements about the nature of science fiction as descriptive and not predictive. Read more
Published on May 19 2004 by Nicholas Jong

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst (psudo) ethnography I have ever read
I was just forced to read this book for a class. It was assigned under the false pretenses that my classmates and I would take away some kind of meaning from it about notions of... Read more
Published on Mar 11 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars More than science fiction
With a few exceptions, I don't usually enjoy the usual science fiction books. But this one is different. Read more
Published on Feb 17 2004 by N. Berman

5.0 out of 5 stars it's a good book
I will not review the general plot or story, that has been done elsewhere.

If you like good books, read it. Read more

Published on Feb 11 2004 by skodapacific

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, that's all there is to it.
A double award-winner (Nebula and Hugo, and Mrs. LeGuin will receive the Grandmaster Award this year), this 1960s novel stands as one of the most respected SF tales ever because... Read more
Published on Jan 17 2004 by Ryan Harvey

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, well worth your time
This novel presents a richly detailed alien world and culture, and gives you a regular human as your ambassador as well as a powerfully rendered native in Estraven. Read more
Published on Dec 2 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars An Honest Letter
I had no idea how to review this book, so I wrote Ms. Le Guin a letter. I thought I would include part of it as my review. She responded to me, and it was a real thrill. Read more
Published on Dec 1 2003 by Tommy Jeffers

5.0 out of 5 stars Good old fashioned Sci-Fi
Having been a Sci-Fi fan for many years now, it is with some shame that it has taken me this long to get around to reading anything by Ursula Le Guin. Read more
Published on Nov 16 2003 by dinadan26

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