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

The Left Hand of Darkness is consistently listed by the internets as one of the best science fiction books and I can certainly see why. Contrary to many modern sci-fis, which are action-packed to the brim, this book is much more introspective. It moves at a slower pace, but never so slow that it became uninteresting. Admittedly, it took me a little bit to get into. As with any other fantasy or sci-fi book, there's a great deal of worldbuilding to do (and here in just about 300 pages), and it can be hard to follow a plot as you're trying to understand new terms like shifgrethor or kemmering . But for me, personally, the early discussions of politics and gender held my interest until the plot picked up.

I thought it was fascinating for much of the story to be told from Genly Ai's perspective, a human not unlike us who's still adjusting to the world of Gethen. And in more ways than one, he certainly struggles with their sexual fluidity, but also with their customs and norms. (And also with the casual -40 degree temperatures, oof). What Le Guin did really well was create not one new world, but multiple, and made clear distinctions between the ways of Karhide and the ways of Orgoreyn.

But let me get into the discussion of gender, because that was the book's primary purpose. Honestly, coming into this book, I expected this discussion to be more heavy-handed. There are certainly a few times where Le Guin takes the time to write out how lack of sexuality (and therefore gender norms and expectations) distinguishes Gethen/Winter from Terran/Earth ( chapter 7, if you're curious ). However, a lot more of her commentary was very subtle, such as when Ai wonders whether his companion's precise rationing of food should be interpreted as "house-wifely or scientific" p. 242. Like Ai, it was difficult for me to keep in mind that, while there is sexuality during kemmer, there is no gender on Gethen, despite the use of the male pronouns to describe everyone he encountered. We see this lack of gender play out in some very subtle ways, which I won't get into in order to avoid spoiling anything of the book.

Tl;dr, sex and gender are different and this book is a great exploration/explanation of that.

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dan2's review

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adventurous challenging emotional 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

started a bit boring, but got better with every chapter. the "folklore" chapters were really interesting. as someone who has never seen snow and cant imagine a glacier, this was a very wild read. the political plot isn't really my cup of tea, but the journey of genly through this alien world made me want to keep reading.

i adored the symbolism of the temperature and weather as a reflection of the story. in the very first scene, genly is hot and sweaty, but then he proceeds to spend the rest of the book absolutely freezing. EXCEPT when

he is in a tent in a glacier with estraven... oh, estraven. i love them. i don't know why, but i do.
i am absolutely in love and obsessed with the character dynamics between genly and estraven, because they're constrasting, opposite. where genly comes from a warm planet, estraven comes from a cold one. genly is naive and honest, estraven is reserved and calculistic. even the fact that genly is tall and estraven is short, genly is thin and estraven is chubby.
genly is banned from orgoryen, estraven is banned from karhide .
what makes this parallel even more powerful is that estraven was the only person in the planet who trusted genly, and estraven was the only person in the planet genly didn't trust.
and yet, they love each other.
estraven's death was devastating. i truly was not expecting it. i thought their death would mirror one of the myths, but it didnt, i think, which was a little disappointing.

character dynamics cannot get better than this!!!!!

so many descriptions of snow and ice.... it's so interesting how central to the story the cold is.

also, something something "after the journey you cannot come home".... insane to think of a human from earth in an alien planet, hundreds of years after they were born......

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alostpenguin's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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readerette's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I'm glad I read the afterword in this book, as it called to my attention the benefit of some of the things I disliked, such as the main human character using "he" as a neutral pronoun and seemingly finding every opportunity to disrespect "feminine" characteristics in a gender-neutral world. Turns out that Le Guin later regretted using "he" as gender-neutral, and that on inspection, the main character is not as progressive as he likes to think he is, with his gender bias proving that out.

What I enjoyed regardless was the poetic definition of this new world so different from ours and so much the same. I also liked the relationship between Genly and Therem, which was appropriately complex and believable. Some parts were too slow or detailed for my taste so I did some skimming, but it was still wonderful world-building and sociological exploration.

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littlegoodfrog's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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

The best book

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leocancer's review

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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fondueturtles's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

3.25

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valereads's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The Left Hand of Darkness was a beautifully written character-driven novel filled with amazing prose and a fantastically realised world more reminiscent of a high quality fantasy novel that your typical sci-fi.

I loved the world this story was set it, it was original and felt truly real. I especially loved some of the short stories in between the main story chapters which told some stories from the world in which it was set and gave the whole thing more depth.

I shall definitely be rereading this book soon and I highly recommend it even (especially?) if science fiction isn’t typically your genre.

Content warnings: exorsexism, sexism, anti-intersex slur, abuse (specifically abuse of prisoners), incest

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