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bl4m3s's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Slavery, Grief, and Transphobia
Moderate: Incest and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death and Suicide
dawntin's review
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Incest and Sexism
Minor: Suicide
potatodel's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Incest and Suicide
beereads27's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Incest and Misogyny
vulturetime's review
4.0
I’m really glad to have read this book, and I will be thinking about this for a while. I read the 50th anniversary edition, and I would recommend reading the Afterword by Charlie Jane Anders, as it does discuss aspects of the book that I think are important (the history of the book, some of its failings, and some of Genly Ai’s own failings).
Content Warnings
Minor: Incest
monim6's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest, Misogyny, Death, and Torture
Minor: Suicide
aoifefthomas's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I was excited to read this book after hearing about the premise (a human comes into contact with an alien race of androgynous beings) and in knowing it was a well-regarded sci-fi novel (I'm wanting to read more of this genre). Unfortunately, I didn't love the book.
Firstly, the book is very dry, serious, and cerebrial in tone. The second half was a lot more readable, I will say, as the stakes were raised: it became more about life-or-death survival and Ursula decided to finally focus on the relationship between two of the characters.
Storygraph asks if the book is more character or plot driven and, more than anything, it's world/concept- driven. Ursula is big into her world-building in this novel, throwing unknown terms at you left, right, and centre from the first few pages. It didn't really feel like I had time to build an internal glossary or map of the world/culture although I'm sure this wasn't helped by the long breaks I took from the book during the first half. The main character and narrator has a detached, cerebral narrative style, himself. I have no idea what truly motivates him personally to have undertaken his mission or what his background is like. (Nor did I truly understand or appreciate the politics of Gethen, but perhaps this is merely a failure of comprehension on my part.)
Despite discussing the concept of gender, the book didn't cause me, as the reader, to think or question my ideas about gender. Nor did the main character's ideas about gender seem to substantially or concretely change/evolve (he just became more familiar and accustomed to the differences, and, in a general kind of way, less defensive and superior in tone). He doesn't end up questioning gender norms on earth by the end of the book, for example. So, does the character really grow or develop that much? Only in relation to his feelings toward one character. For a book that seems to care a lot about ideas, the main character rarely concretely discusses any of his own. He merely observes, like an anthropologist, and may hint at general aversion or attraction. The why is left out of it.
In this way, the main character, and all the characters, lacked depth, for me. I wasn't emotionally invested.
Firstly, the book is very dry, serious, and cerebrial in tone. The second half was a lot more readable, I will say, as the stakes were raised: it became more about life-or-death survival and Ursula decided to finally focus on the relationship between two of the characters.
Storygraph asks if the book is more character or plot driven and, more than anything, it's world/concept- driven. Ursula is big into her world-building in this novel, throwing unknown terms at you left, right, and centre from the first few pages. It didn't really feel like I had time to build an internal glossary or map of the world/culture although I'm sure this wasn't helped by the long breaks I took from the book during the first half. The main character and narrator has a detached, cerebral narrative style, himself. I have no idea what truly motivates him personally to have undertaken his mission or what his background is like. (Nor did I truly understand or appreciate the politics of Gethen, but perhaps this is merely a failure of comprehension on my part.)
Despite discussing the concept of gender, the book didn't cause me, as the reader, to think or question my ideas about gender. Nor did the main character's ideas about gender seem to substantially or concretely change/evolve (he just became more familiar and accustomed to the differences, and, in a general kind of way, less defensive and superior in tone). He doesn't end up questioning gender norms on earth by the end of the book, for example. So, does the character really grow or develop that much? Only in relation to his feelings toward one character. For a book that seems to care a lot about ideas, the main character rarely concretely discusses any of his own. He merely observes, like an anthropologist, and may hint at general aversion or attraction. The why is left out of it.
In this way, the main character, and all the characters, lacked depth, for me. I wasn't emotionally invested.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Incest
nannahnannah's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
This is a difficult book for me to review. I don’t think I fully appreciated it until I read the final word and everything came together. There’s a lot to think about, and even after sleeping on it, I find there’s more and more to mull over. It’s an incredible book with phenomenal writing.
Representation:
- I believe everyone (besides the MC) is based on Inuit peoples
- everyone besides the MC is also ambisexual--both male and female
- the MC is (presumably) Black and gay/bi
(I’m going to use they/them pronouns for the people of Gethen in this review)
Genly Ai is an envoy sent to the planet Gethen in the hopes that it will join an interplanetary alliance. Gethen is in the midst of an ice age, and its two largest lands are in the midst of a quarrel. Genly has studied the planet's cultures and some of its languages, and prepares himself as best he can for the intense cold, but he can’t quite accept the ambisexuality of Gethen's people. If he can’t even find a way to overcome his prejudices and connect with the one person who trusts him, his mission will never succeed.
It’s hard to describe how I feel about this book. Without a doubt, the best part about it is its writing, seconded by the satisfying way the plot comes together at the very end. But it took me a while to become invested in the story and the characters (I loved Estraven from the start, but only them). And although the numerous made-up terms didn’t confuse me, the sheer number of them introduced at times felt a little ridiculous. However, the second half of this book was magnificent. Stakes became higher and more personal, and when Genly and Estraven began to cross the glacier, I was engrossed.
The use of he/him pronouns for the people of Gethen didn’t bother me like it did other reviewers. Especially since I had read a little bit of Ursula K. Le Guin’s afterword before getting into the novel first. In the afterword written in 1994, Le Guin regrets not using gender-neutral pronouns as she had “believed then that the masculine pronoun in English was genuinely generic, including both male and female referents” (she wrote the book in 1969, after all).
I’m not even sure what more to say. I’ll probably have to think more about it before I can arrange my thoughts better.
Representation:
- I believe everyone (besides the MC) is based on Inuit peoples
- everyone besides the MC is also ambisexual--both male and female
- the MC is (presumably) Black and gay/bi
(I’m going to use they/them pronouns for the people of Gethen in this review)
Genly Ai is an envoy sent to the planet Gethen in the hopes that it will join an interplanetary alliance. Gethen is in the midst of an ice age, and its two largest lands are in the midst of a quarrel. Genly has studied the planet's cultures and some of its languages, and prepares himself as best he can for the intense cold, but he can’t quite accept the ambisexuality of Gethen's people. If he can’t even find a way to overcome his prejudices and connect with the one person who trusts him, his mission will never succeed.
It’s hard to describe how I feel about this book. Without a doubt, the best part about it is its writing, seconded by the satisfying way the plot comes together at the very end. But it took me a while to become invested in the story and the characters (I loved Estraven from the start, but only them). And although the numerous made-up terms didn’t confuse me, the sheer number of them introduced at times felt a little ridiculous. However, the second half of this book was magnificent. Stakes became higher and more personal, and when Genly and Estraven began to cross the glacier, I was engrossed.
The use of he/him pronouns for the people of Gethen didn’t bother me like it did other reviewers. Especially since I had read a little bit of Ursula K. Le Guin’s afterword before getting into the novel first. In the afterword written in 1994, Le Guin regrets not using gender-neutral pronouns as she had “believed then that the masculine pronoun in English was genuinely generic, including both male and female referents” (she wrote the book in 1969, after all).
I’m not even sure what more to say. I’ll probably have to think more about it before I can arrange my thoughts better.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest
booitsnathalie's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Happy to have finally read something by Le Guin. I enjoyed the pseudo-epistolary structure and concept of a fully gender fluid civilization, but the book's age really shows through in the limits of how far this queerness can go (all relationships "become" heterosexual, for instance, because reproduction I guess).
I think I'm missing some important context for when this was written, as it has both a lot of vaguely anti-communist sentiment and also seems to be pulling from Catholic mission trips to East Asian countries, but I can't quite pinpoint a through line. A bubbling pot of challenging political ideas that are not so much unexplored as they are too large for a 300-page scifi novel. Very curious to check out some of Le Guin's later work, but this seems as good a place as any of, like me, you've been meaning to check her out.
I think I'm missing some important context for when this was written, as it has both a lot of vaguely anti-communist sentiment and also seems to be pulling from Catholic mission trips to East Asian countries, but I can't quite pinpoint a through line. A bubbling pot of challenging political ideas that are not so much unexplored as they are too large for a 300-page scifi novel. Very curious to check out some of Le Guin's later work, but this seems as good a place as any of, like me, you've been meaning to check her out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Incest
fireswatch's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Incest