Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Left Hand of Darkness

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

54 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The premise of this book is that a man comes from outer-space, to a world different to ours, on a peaceful mission of communication; as is often the case when worlds collide, it's more about the journey than the destination.

As is often the case with hard science fiction, we break into this story feeling like and Alice (in Wonderland). We don't know what half the words mean and we are a little out of our depth, but through the ignorance of the protagonist, we learn our way around by their experiences. Despite having a world with some different names for things, and a slightly different calendar and clock, the new world is fairly easy to understand once you get over the initial shock, and I think that's pretty much the point of it. Our protagonist comes at this new place with curiosity, but with his own preconceptions, some of which slowly grow and change over the course of the book.

The core of this book explores a premise whereby there can be no "battle of the sexes" if there are no distinctly different sexes. This story tells of a people who go through a monthly fertile time, during which they become either male or female depending on the conditions. They have no sexual need outside of that fertile time, and their society is arranged to accommodate it. In coupling either of the partners could be the child-bearer so there is no division of labour as we have in out "bi-sexual" society. I can see how this would be a popular read today, as our society's friction over accepting non-binary gender identities becomes even more prominent.

As an aside, I find it amusing that the people in the new world can't pronounce the protagonist's name properly, and the Audiobook narrator has a tiny lisp. It's barely noticable but, when he has to say a soft "th" sound he uses an "ff" sound.. so death becomes deff, breath becomes breff. Typically this sort of thing annoys me, but I just think it's quite charming in such an alien story. ... aaaanyway.

There is an incisive foreword from the author at the start of the audiobook, where Ursula Le Guin says some valuable things about the roles and lying ways of speculative fiction writers, and how they are not to be trusted, or treated as though they are experts, profits or sages.

Without the relationship building in this story, it might have been quite a dry affair. After helping to introduce the protagonist to those in charge of the land, his main contact is exiled as a traitor, and the two of them are caught in the wheels and machinations of the politics of the place. They undertake a journey to find friends, and need to work together to survive the hostile climate. I was reminded of the film Enemy Mine (1985 w. Louis Gosset Jnr, Dennis Quaid) and I find it hard to imagine that a film like that (based on a 1979 novella by Barry B. Longyear) was made without the influence of this 1969 book.

The story is quite an adventurous tale, one of exploration and survival and understanding. I think the style in which it is written may be an acquired taste, but it's a must-read Classic for any fans of science fiction.

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dhiyanah's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

I tried reading this a few years ago, excited by the hype of it, a gender-smashing sci-fi adventure promised by the synopsis. I didn't get past the first few chapters that time. Picked it back up this year out of a nostalgia for classic sci-fi, more readily aware of the slow pace and dense narration that comes with the territory.

I appreciate Ursula's treatment of imaginative concepts, how easily she weaves a story that serves as a potent reflection for real-life considerations. The frustrations and complications of gender showcased through this slow interplanetary adventure is both intriguing and irritating. I enjoyed the melding-together of landscape, political science, and character growth in this story.

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sharene91's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow. I really loved this book. I had it in my collection for a while and just couldn’t get started. I’m really glad I pushed through.

So why not a perfect score? It started a bit slow and I didn’t know what to expect, but it was engaging enough to keep me reading. Around the halfway mark, though, I couldn’t put it down!

I learned a lot and this one really made me think about the meaning of community/cooperation, coexistence, love, friendship, ignorance, openness, fear, loss and death. Also, super interesting thoughts on androgyny, sexuality, desire, and gender. I know it sounds like a lot but it’s all superbly folded into the journey.

Ok this book made me feel like a normal human being and also made me reflect on how I view the intentions of others, how I judge them, and how I should seek to understand. Not in a new agey way, but just through the power of the themes.

I really saw myself in Ai, and I really admired Estraven though I don’t fully understand why he did what he did at the end. I’m really excited to read more of this series and explore the author. I highly recommend.

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fabioca's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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wormgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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bl4m3s's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I have a very complicated relationship with this book. We are thrown straight into the world of Gethen, with it's own language and terms and weather that is only explained as you read. This made the first half of the story difficult to get through and I had to Google the meaning of several words multiple times in order to understand what was actually happening. However, once I became familiar with the language the second half of the novel was much smoother sailing. It's definitely a read that requires your full attention and focus.

Other reviews have mentioned that this is much more of a speculative fiction novel than a science fiction one, and while this is true I don't believe it is a bad thing. The weather, politics and species being something we can relate back to earth and the human race allows greater focus to be placed on what does differentiate humans from gethenians. The societies on Winter are very similar to that on earth: with Orgoreyn having a communist government similar to that of the USSR in the 60s, and Karhide having a government closely resembling a monarchy. The benefits and drawbacks of both nations are discussed throughout the novel, which in term is a criticism of earthly governments.

What I find most interesting is the discussion of gender. Gethenians are androgynous people and only present with male or female genitals for 6 days each month. Anyone can become pregnant and anyone can impregnate - the father of one child can be the mother of another. This then means that all Gethenian societies are not influenced by gender. No one is expected to be the stay at home house wife, and no one is expected to be the breadwinner. Connotations such as "strength, courage, assertiveness = masculinity" and "sensitivity, gentleness, fragility = femininity" simply do not exist on Gethen. Most intriguingly, this has led to a world that has never once experienced war, as there is no pride or greed that is associated with male dominance. Gethenians are also very in touch with their emotions and experience no shame in outwardly expressing grief, anger and joy. It's very entertaining to watch Gently Ai, our male human protagonist, come to terms with and understand Gethenian biology and how he desperately tries to relate each person back to what is traditionally masculine and femine throughout the story.

"My efforts took the form of self-consciously seeing a Gethenian first as a man, then as a woman, forcing him into those categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to my own"

These notions are gradually broken down as the story progresses and eventually Ai reaches a point where seeing men and women of his own race is more alien and off-putting than the gethenians - the real aliens to him.

While the writing is strange and the pacing somewhat hard to make sense of, the messages and topics discussed in this novel are compelling and reflective. While there are some parts that have perhaps not aged so well, to say this novel was written in the 60s it is relatively progressive and innovative for its age, and the ideas put forward within it are topics still widely discussed and relevant to this day. I'd absolutely recommend reading this novel, especially as a queer person. Incredibly insightful and has left me with much to think about.

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dawntin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

There’s a lot to unpack in this book. LeGuin tackles politics, discrimination, and the gender binary throughout the novel. All of the alien Gethenians in the book are addressed with he/him pronouns, but I don’t actually see that as a huge issue considering this book was written in 1969. I think if it was published today, the Gethenians would have been referred to with gender-neutral pronouns. It was funny to read “The king was pregnant.” The book is beautifully written and the descriptions of scenery make this fictional world feel real and even cozy at times, but there’s also a lot of other things that are missing. What I found strange was the way families in Gethen were handled. There was not that much about what Gethenian kids are like, and the parents in the only established family in the book were estranged. I also feel like the author threw in

incest as an acceptable part of Gethenian society, even between siblings

for extra squick. It seemed so unnecessary to me. The relationship

between Genly and Estraven was kind of reductive, since Estraven presented as a woman when Genly realized his feelings

but I guess it was a good way to have Genly deal with his biases. I’m still not over that ending.

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