The Left Hand of Darkness

50th Anniversary Edition

epub, 341 pages

English language

Published June 30, 2000 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-1-101-66539-8
Copied ISBN!
(85 reviews)

**50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION—WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS

Ursula K. Le Guin’s groundbreaking work of science fiction—winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.**

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

1 edition

reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle)

Slow start but a beautiful story

I had to force myself to keep reading this book for a while. The beginning seemed to drag, and I was not really emotionally invested in any of the characters.

However, the last third of the book is an absolute page turner, and I found myself saving quote after quote. I am not a fan of books or movies that have a pervasive sense of doom about them, and this one definitely does. It is, much like life, a lesson in hopefulness in spite of the horrors.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this book right now to be honest, having just finished it moments ago. That doesn’t happen often to me, and I think that speaks to the complexity of it. I look forward to mulling it over for the next few days, and also to reading more of this series.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" Review

A fascinating and well-realized world with an exploration into gender, sexuality, politics, societal expectations, and so on.

The start is a bit hard to get into, but it picks up its pace nicely.

I really liked the chapters that expanded on the world of Winter and the Gethenians.

I would've liked a more thorough exploration into Genly and Estraven's relationship, however.

All in all, a very interesting read from a wonderfully imaginative author.

Great read

I feel like I need to read this again some time. So many ideas to think about. Probably missed half of them. Found the start a bit difficult to get into, but couldn't put it down after the first half. My edition has an afterword with some valid critique in it as well but considering it was written such a long time ago it still feels very relevant today.

Even better on the re-read

I last read this book something like twenty years ago. I thought it was a good book, not a great book, but it did stick with me. My book club selected this as our read for August... I was a little disappointed because I wanted to read something new for me. Well, turns out I got quite a lot more out of reading this the second time... and I'm now convinced that it's Le Guin's best book.

This book kind of gets flattened to being about gender in popular discourse and it is about gender... but it's also about politics and trust and survival. It's also about how gender impacts all of those things... Gender as a material condition.

I also feel that it's the case that all of the parts of this book come together very well. The asides into folk tales strengthen the illusion of the world Le …

Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on 'Goodreads'

Having really liked Lathe of Heaven (it would make s great play) I was really looking forward to this book. It comes very highly recommended on the Internet but it just fell flat for me. Imagining a world without genders was an interesting thought experiment that didn't get explored with the depth that I would have liked. Much more time was spent on the struggle to survive the planets harsh winter. I suppose that was the point; the universe is hard to survive for all humans.

Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' on 'Goodreads'

This is the first Ursula K. Le Guin book that I have read, and I enjoyed it. This book is the epitome of sci-fi. It has all the features of a good sci-fi novel: an alien race on an alien world, space-time travel, and the interaction of the familiar with the unfamiliar.

I liked the overlying question that Le Guin weaved throughout this book: What defines humanity? In a world without gender, does the human race lose its defining spark? Or is there still something under the surface that defies minor differences such as gender? Le Guin brought up the dualities that usually define the human experience: yin and yang, male and female, light and dark; she questioned the existence of such dualities in a world lacking the male and female distinction, and theorized the effect this lack would have on the growth of a culture.

To explore this question, …

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