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dawntin's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Incest and Sexism
Minor: Suicide
booitsnathalie's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Incest
madamenovelist's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Blood, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Vomit, Excrement, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Incest, Grief, and Gore
Moderate: Confinement, Addiction, and Child death
blueteacup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Confinement, and Torture
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Miscarriage and Suicide
elizlizabeth's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
The various POVs only clarify the world building tangentially which makes you feel like you too are seeing a culture from afar, and in turn this gives the similarities and critiques of our own culture a bigger "punch". The language and slang however can be confusing especially if you're (like me) not used to sci-fi, but honestly once I realized there's no way I'm going to get every single reference on my first reading and just plowed on, my experience improved by 100x. Some books are meant to be read more than once to truly get them and this is one of them.
Graphic: Police brutality, Confinement, and Torture
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Animal death
One of the characters hunts small game for food; this is not described in detail. A group of characters has a biological variation that makes them able to predict the future, this is framed as painful for them, yet a different character points out that it's a "gift" not to be "cured" even if they're hurting. The characters of the planet present cyclical sexual dymorphism, the narrative goes into detail about the biology of this which could trigger dysphoria in some readers.moonytoast's review against another edition
3.0
It’s a very dense, slow sci-fi with long “travelogue” sequences that help to build a richly complex and vivid world while also examining the nature of Gethenian ‘ambisexual’ anatomy. Right off the bat, The Left Hand of Darkness has a dense but lush sense of world-building — similar to Frank Herbert’s Dune,* but with a much preferred writing style.
The narrative is reserved to a primarily first-person perspective that switches between both our Envoy, Genly Ai, and his advocate and eventual traitor-turned-travel-companion, Estraven, with the occasional break in order to provide the reader with certain folklore and stories from the world of Winter. In doing so, it avoids what I would call the Frustrating Omnipotence™ of Frank Herbert, whose writing style tends to lean a bit heavy on telling the reader exactly what each character is thinking in every moment as though we are inside their head and experiencing those thoughts as the character.
That being said: if you’re coming into this story for character work or a more extensive interrogation of how mankind can build connections across different sociological perspectives, then you may be slightly disappointed. Genly Ai and Estraven have an interesting relationship dynamic which morphs throughout the course of the story, but on their own they aren’t the most compelling characters. If you’re not prepared for a VERY, VERY slow burn of a sci-fi book, then you will probably hate this.
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Torture, and Confinement
Moderate: Body shaming and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicide
keeganrb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Death and Confinement
Moderate: Incest, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Suicide
ghostcities's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Confinement and Death
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Child death
featherwoman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Confinement
Moderate: Incest and Violence
abbyeck's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Torture and Confinement
Moderate: Death
Minor: Suicide