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Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness (EBook, 2000, Penguin Publishing Group)

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

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, …