Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

29 reviews

acemummerz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Deportation, Death, Gun violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Violence, Torture, Child death, Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, War, Suicide, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Incest

brassmonkey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Incest

Moderate: Grief and Violence

Minor: Homophobia and Misogyny

sunn_bleach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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

4.25

I read "The Left Hand of Darkness" in 2018 and didn't really get it. Yeah, I got the subversion of man-as-default, but I didn't get some of the deeper considerations Le Guin was going for regarding societies that previously did not know war and totalitarian systems that don't match one-for-one to our earthly systems. I also found Genly and Estraven's trip over the icefield monotonous - but after four years of serious mountaineering pursuits, it's anything but that, and Le Guin masterfully captured the sheer stress of being on the run for one's lives while also underneath the beauty of the stars. I'm tempted to argue that the gender fiction aspect falls prey to TVTropes' "Seinfeld is Unfunny" given how much has progressed in half a century (like the he/him pronoun aspect not being as radical), but the fact it still makes me think shows it's relevant 25 years into the new millennium. Masterful book, and a good example of "the worst criticism I have is that it could be longer"... and the ending felt a little saccharine, losing the conceit of it being a report. But still!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, and Death

Moderate: Incest, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Child death, War, Pregnancy, and Sexism

renicula's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Xenophobia

Moderate: Transphobia, Sexism, and Violence

waxwwing's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book is so complicated, man. (Yes, I understand how ironic the use of the word 'man' is here). I'm very grumpy about

Estraven's death

but I think the ending of the novel is, ultimately, very fitting. This is the sort of novel that I believe I would enjoy much more if I was studying it - there's so many layers to this text and what is has to say about gender, and I'm particularly interested in the role

incest (god)

plays into the narrative. TLDR; Ursula Le Guin would be massively fascinated by modern ABO fanfic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Incest, and Violence

alsira98's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gun violence

Moderate: Incest, Violence, and Xenophobia

bookishperseus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It did take a while for me to be able to start this book, and at times I found it incredibly slow, complex or tedious.

I did keep reading it because there was a small interest as to what would happen, even though this book is following what could be considered a 'usual every day life'.

Towards the end, I found the final 3 or 4 chapters actually quite interesting. Not something I'd read again, but glad I finished it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Violence

Minor: Misogyny, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Violence, Body shaming, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Child death, War, Chronic illness, Deportation, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Rape, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Xenophobia, and Confinement

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Plot: 4.75★
Prose: 4.7★
Pace: 4.5★
Concept/Execution: 5★/5★
Characters: 5★
Worldbuilding: 5★
Ending: 4.5★

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Torture, Xenophobia, and Sexism

Minor: Violence, War, Blood, Miscarriage, and Suicide

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Homophobia

Minor: Incest and Pregnancy

jodar's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

I admire how Le Guin writes – it’s a distinctive, often poetical and meditative style that I can readily recognise and immerse myself in.

This SF novel is about the first contact by a single envoy (the MC) to an icy planet (Winter) inhabited by a human species unique in their sequential hermaphroditism. The envoy comes from a benign, intergalactic ‘cooperative’ consisting of scores of planets who over thousands of years have made contact across a human diaspora from long ago.

Le Guin here focuses, as is typical, on social, personal and political themes. Notably here, the MC strikes cultural misunderstandings in both directions, often without realising till later on that a misunderstanding has occurred. The envoy gradually learns, with the help of a key ally in Winter and after considerable physical suffering, how to approach the cultures of Winter effectively. We also read events from the perspective of the MC’s ally.

Originally written in 1969, the novel has elements of the cold war, with ideological differences between states, one of which is essentially communist and has secret police and brutal prisons reminiscent of the Soviet Union. Le Guin also, as often, brings in eastern thought, such as yin and yang, deep meditation and theology-free religious life. Though to me there are also shades of the Judeo-Christian story of prophets coming to a people from ‘another place’, there the spiritual realm, here the intergalactic cooperative. These political, religious and interpersonal/sexuality threads are teased out in an interweaving, complex way, which is one of Le Guin’s fortes. Nothing didactic, but a lot to mull over by the reader.

I read this first in November 1985 and I hugely enjoyed this challenging, but wonderful novel again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Miscarriage