Reviews

I loved Le Guin’s writing style and the world building of this nice is impressive in a relatively short novel.

I was disappointed the political intrigue didn’t go deeper and fizzled out. The back 1/3 of the novel becomes an adventure novel and drags. The book felt slow but also rushed right at the end.

I intent to read more of the Hainish cycle. It’s a short read if you’re on the fence. It’s interesting to see where modern sci-fi got inspiration from. The cozier parts of the book and focus on friendship really reminded me of Becky Chambers.

gregdv's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

maxgoatcher's review against another edition

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I'd like to come back to this at some point, but I'm not in an intellectual reading place at the moment. The bit I've read is good, I just can't seem to absorb more than half a page without feeling dumb!

vanillabee's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

dimmie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

luyc's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

ketreads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

I think this is my first sci-fi genre book from this author, Ursula Le Guin, as I've read and LOVED her fantastic Earthsea series. I've always heard good things about her other works but couldn't even imagine how her style would work in a more sci-fi setting.

It turns out, it works fantastically!
The Left Hand of Darkness is a methodical thought experiment on a society of non-gendered people, only having to experience a specific gender for a set time of month. While this sounds very surface level, Le Guin is able to weave in a story about first-contact, societal expectations, what it MEANS to have gender in a non-gendered society, and themes of cultural barriers. To say I liked this would be a bit of an understatement. The two focal characters where written with fantastic depth and nuance. Watching them slowly come together for their eventual 'hero's journey' was done with a lot more tact and evolution than I was expecting. The time given to alien cultures and societies that feel so familiar yet alien was another surprising, but loved, detail to Le Guin's writing.

This books blurb focuses on the journey these two characters take, but the story itself is much more than that. The journey itself does not start until half-way through the book but this only means we spend more time coming to intimately understand these characters. Once the journey starts, it's hard not to get emotionally invested in the whole thing.

Overall this is a fantastic book and I'm excited to read more of her work in the future!

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