The Left Hand of Darkness

by Ursula K. Le Guin

eBook

English language

Published 2017 by Orion Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-1-4732-2163-5

(138 reviews)

[Comment by Kim Stanley Robinson, on The Guardian's website][1]: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1969)

One of my favorite novels is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin. For more than 40 years I've been recommending this book to people who want to try science fiction for the first time, and it still serves very well for that. One of the things I like about it is how clearly it demonstrates that science fiction can have not only the usual virtues and pleasures of the novel, but also the startling and transformative power of the thought experiment.

In this case, the thought experiment is quickly revealed: "The king was pregnant," the book tells us early on, and after that we learn more and more about this planet named Winter, stuck in an ice age, where the humans are most of the time …

[Comment by Kim Stanley Robinson, on The Guardian's website][1]: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1969)

One of my favorite novels is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin. For more than 40 years I've been recommending this book to people who want to try science fiction for the first time, and it still serves very well for that. One of the things I like about it is how clearly it demonstrates that science fiction can have not only the usual virtues and pleasures of the novel, but also the startling and transformative power of the thought experiment.

In this case, the thought experiment is quickly revealed: "The king was pregnant," the book tells us early on, and after that we learn more and more about this planet named Winter, stuck in an ice age, where the humans are most of the time neither male nor female, but with the potential to become either. The man from Earth investigating this situation has a lot to learn, and so do we; and we learn it in the course of a thrilling adventure story, including a great "crossing of the ice". Le Guin's language is clear and clean, and has within it both the anthropological mindset of her father Alfred Kroeber, and the poetry of stories as magical things that her mother Theodora Kroeber found in native American tales. This worldly wisdom applied to the romance of other planets, and to human nature at its deepest, is Le Guin's particular gift to us, and something science fiction will always be proud of. Try it and see – you will never think about people in quite the same way again.

[1]: www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/14/science-fiction-authors-choice

43 editions

flashy_dragon reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

3 stars

Genly Ai is an emissary for the Ekumen on Winter, hopeful to open Winter to trade between worlds. However, Ai has a difficulty navigating a society and a world where people are ambisexual, and don't fit into particular gender roles.

Ai makes disparaging remarks throughout the novel about the residents of Winter, associating negative values to what he ascribes to female or womanly, while praising masculine values. His misogyny runs through the entire novel, insidious, hidden to all but him.

I suspect Le Guin's intent is to hold a mirror to ourselves, and let us see how we react (or don't!) to our behaviors reflected through Ai's actions.

I don't know that Ai fully recognizes his failures or weaknesses. I suspect we're intended to see and grow from them, not Ai.

exosferablog reviewed La Mano Izquierda de La Oscuridad by Ursula K. Le Guin

Review of 'La Mano Izquierda de La Oscuridad' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Una reflexión sobre las relaciones humanas, el género, el poder, el nacionalismo, la guerra y la política dentro de un marco de ciencia ficción, en un planeta inhóspito y frío, que invita al recogimiento. Los mensajes que deja el libro son como el frío de Invierno, se filtran hasta los huesos. Una vez lo empecé no pude parar. Cualquiera diría que es de 1969, con cuestionamientos y reflexiones muy actuales.

Daniel Lawson reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

Thought provoking story and a compelling writing style.

epw reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

It feels weird to give an out-of-five star rating, the same way I'd rate a USB cable I bought online, to a book like this.

It's like the worst of asking lay people whether they like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect. Yes, of course, but that's almost beside the point now, and focusing on it distracts from the true importance.

This is an incredible story, from the nature of the telling, to the glimpses given of a vast science fiction universe that say a lot in few words in Le Guin's classic manner, to its depiction of gender that, as I understand it, feels less shocking now in part due to the impact it had when it first came out. My only regret for this book is that it took me so long to finally start to read it. It's even a fast and easy …

the_lirazel reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

4.5 stars

AndySoc1al reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

I see why this is considered a classic of speculative fiction, and don't know why it took me decades to get around to reading it. The story and ideas clearly influenced entire generations of modern writers.

Arturo Urbanos reviewed La Mano Izquierda de La Oscuridad by Ursula K. Le Guin

Review of 'La Mano Izquierda de La Oscuridad' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Llevo muchísimo tiempo queriendo leer esta novela pero cuando Le Guin no ganó el Nobel me dió un arrebato y me puse enseguida a leerla.

Quizás el principio de esta novela es algo difícil de comprender pero al cabo del tiempo lo vas haciendo y te vas enamorando de la narración de esta autora y del mundo tan guay que ha construido.

Sin duda es una novela imprescindible por lo que cuenta y por la forma de contarlo.

stinkingpig reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness (Penguin Galaxy) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Review of 'The Left Hand of Darkness (Penguin Galaxy)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Mildly dated but clearly written and well thought out

Bastian Greshake Tzovaras reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

Largely agree with Philipp's review of this one, though I feel the gender aspects don't play such a minor role in the book.

What I really enjoyed was how the use of the special vocabulary made you as the reader be as clueless as the main character of the book is in the beginning. And the latter parts of the book make a great travel/wilderness story.

Steen Christiansen reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

The quantum leap in Le Guin’s Hainish series. Astonishing exploration of identity and landscape as contrast and supplement.

Erin reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

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

4 stars

My second reading of this was different, I think. I enjoyed it more, probably because I have more patience now for the slow, quiet story that it is.

This story is oddly both dated and ahead of its time. It includes an ambisexual people, presenting as androgynous, male, or female at different times. But at the same time Genly talks about men/women as if their earthly, Western tendencies are universal and timeless. It’s odd to project that into the future.

When the story gets to the snowy trek in the north, I thought I’d get bored, and probably did on my first read. But this read I found it wonderful. I didn’t remember that Genly and Therem fall in love of a sort, that they grow close in survival together. There were multiple beautiful moments and lines in that part of the book.

A few favorite quotes:

I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy.

And I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with the fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was.

And I wondered, not for the first time, what patriotism is, what the love of country truly consists of, how that yearning loyalty that had shaken my friend’s voice arises, and how so real a love can become, too often, so foolish and vile a bigotry. Where does it go wrong?

johnny dangerously. reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

5 stars

Straight up, this is one of my favorite books ever, so I'm invariably going to be more than a little bit biased when discussing it. I think it's gorgeous. A fantastic example of economizing the plot until only the essentials are used, the story never feels sparse or minimalist. The plot zig-zags at a leisurely pace, but neither does it ever feel slow or rushed. It's a true classic. I'll stop before I get ahead of myself. This book is absolutely wonderful, and that's all I can really say about it without revealing too much.

Thomas Gaffney reviewed The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Hainish Cycle, #4)

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

4 stars

My first Ursula K. Le Guin book and I thought it was fantastic! Tipped to the book from watching "The Jane Austin Book Club" on cable, it's probably one of the reasons the 70s is considered the heyday of sci-fi novels.

Highly recommended for sci-fi lovers and novices and anyone who hasn't read any Le Guin yet.