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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★
Prose: 4.7★
Pace: 4.5★
Concept/Execution: 5★/5★
Characters: 5★
Worldbuilding: 5★
Ending: 4.5★
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
ka_cam's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
While I liked this less than others by Le Guin, it was still a thought provoking read with themes on intercultural communication, time, friendship and relationships, gender and sexuality, faith, patriotism, and politics set on a distant in time and space, very cold, planet populated by humans who have different sexual organs and cycles than on Earth/terra. The gender analysis is a bit sideways to the modern reader due to the narrator, Genly Ai, using exclusively he/him pronouns for folks and being pretty openly misogynist. Still lots to chew on, I read this in a book group and I think having people to discuss with added a lot to the reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Misogyny
Moderate: Pregnancy
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Homophobia
Minor: Incest and Pregnancy
jodar's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Death, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Miscarriage
kmhst25's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
3.5
The positives:
I couldn’t put it down, it contains some wisdom and interesting philosophical thought, and it perfectly depicts the conflicts that arise between people with different ideas of politeness and social norms.
The negatives:
In the intro, Le Guin says that sci-fi tells us nothing about the future and a lot about the present. And this book, written in the 60s, is a great example of that. The narrator disdains women, and his notions about men and women are dated and grating. And even knowing that the content is reflective of the time, it is still displeasing to me to read of a future where very few women are mathematicians or abstract thinkers, and a man, when asked if women are mentally deficient, says, “I don’t know.” It’s a blocker for me; it detracts from the experience.
Additionally, the impact of a man trying to understand gender in an ambisexual society is completely undercut by the narrative using “he” pronouns for everyone; your brain reads “he” as “man”, in much the same way that the narrator reads the locals as men, which I’m sure is at least half the point, but completely dulls the effect.
Finally, the second half of the book contains an absurd number of descriptions of snow and ice that don’t really add anything to the experience.
I couldn’t put it down, it contains some wisdom and interesting philosophical thought, and it perfectly depicts the conflicts that arise between people with different ideas of politeness and social norms.
The negatives:
In the intro, Le Guin says that sci-fi tells us nothing about the future and a lot about the present. And this book, written in the 60s, is a great example of that. The narrator disdains women, and his notions about men and women are dated and grating. And even knowing that the content is reflective of the time, it is still displeasing to me to read of a future where very few women are mathematicians or abstract thinkers, and a man, when asked if women are mentally deficient, says, “I don’t know.” It’s a blocker for me; it detracts from the experience.
Additionally, the impact of a man trying to understand gender in an ambisexual society is completely undercut by the narrative using “he” pronouns for everyone; your brain reads “he” as “man”, in much the same way that the narrator reads the locals as men, which I’m sure is at least half the point, but completely dulls the effect.
Finally, the second half of the book contains an absurd number of descriptions of snow and ice that don’t really add anything to the experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
Moderate: Sexism and Torture
Minor: Vomit, Blood, and Excrement
turing_tested's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Incest and Suicide
subrosian's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization and Death
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Incest
kaziaroo's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Synopsis: an envoy is sent from a vast, interplanetary alliance to a wintery planet to recruit its inhabitants, a people of no gender whose bodies instead develop sexual organs for just a few days each month; in his quest, the envoy becomes embroiled in the politics both within and between two feuding countries, while being drawn to one figure in particular.
This was very interesting to read, especially from a 21st century perspective where we are accustomed to the boundaries of the gender binary being pushed, twisted, and ignored in wonderful diversity. We are also mostly familiar with, and accepting of, the gender neutral pronoun "they" being used exclusively to refer to a particular person.
In The Left Hand of Darkness, the main character, Genly Ai, is a poor representative of planet Earth in this respect; he is frequently disgusted by the Gethenians' bodies and attitudes towards sex and constantly tries to fit them and their characteristics into gendered boxes. He refers to the Gethenians using masculine pronouns, and seems to reject their femininity; it is only when one of them cries, or flirts, or is distressed, that he thinks "Ah ha! There is his femininity!" when it has been there all along. Genly's awkwardness around the Gethenians' sex and even his own fumbling description of what defines a woman, paired with the fact that he is the minority, the alien, on this planet, betray the notion that perhaps it is us earthlings who are the silly ones, forcing divides and highlighting differences between genders where there are none, and believing ourselves superior because of it. The Gethenians have no gender, yet they also have so far had no testosterone-fueled war or sexism (although they are not perfect; some parts of the book had strong echoes of 1984). On the other hand, the society of Earth that we see glimpses of is cisnormative and allonormative; at the beginning of the book, Genly cannot fathom a sexless and genderless society and yet by the end he is in the beginnings of what I would tentatively call a queerplatonic relationship with no sex and no gender roles .
I enjoyed this book a lot, and although I would have liked an earlier explanation of certain concepts (mostly kemmer), once I understood them I could fully immerse myself in the world. The Gethenians' societies and customs felt incredibly detailed and well thought out for such a short novel. It was interesting reading from the perspective of both the alien visitor and the visited, except this time it's us earthlings who are the visitors. I particularly loved the scenes journeying across the icy landscape. I highly recommend this book, but it's important to remember the publication date before complaining about the intricacies of gender politics – it was ahead of its time.
This was very interesting to read, especially from a 21st century perspective where we are accustomed to the boundaries of the gender binary being pushed, twisted, and ignored in wonderful diversity. We are also mostly familiar with, and accepting of, the gender neutral pronoun "they" being used exclusively to refer to a particular person.
In The Left Hand of Darkness, the main character, Genly Ai, is a poor representative of planet Earth in this respect; he is frequently disgusted by the Gethenians' bodies and attitudes towards sex and constantly tries to fit them and their characteristics into gendered boxes. He refers to the Gethenians using masculine pronouns, and seems to reject their femininity; it is only when one of them cries, or flirts, or is distressed, that he thinks "Ah ha! There is his femininity!" when it has been there all along. Genly's awkwardness around the Gethenians' sex and even his own fumbling description of what defines a woman, paired with the fact that he is the minority, the alien, on this planet, betray the notion that perhaps it is us earthlings who are the silly ones, forcing divides and highlighting differences between genders where there are none, and believing ourselves superior because of it. The Gethenians have no gender, yet they also have so far had no testosterone-fueled war or sexism (although they are not perfect; some parts of the book had strong echoes of 1984). On the other hand, the society of Earth that we see glimpses of is cisnormative and allonormative; at the beginning of the book, Genly cannot fathom a sexless and genderless society
I enjoyed this book a lot, and although I would have liked an earlier explanation of certain concepts (mostly kemmer), once I understood them I could fully immerse myself in the world. The Gethenians' societies and customs felt incredibly detailed and well thought out for such a short novel. It was interesting reading from the perspective of both the alien visitor and the visited, except this time it's us earthlings who are the visitors. I particularly loved the scenes journeying across the icy landscape. I highly recommend this book, but it's important to remember the publication date before complaining about the intricacies of gender politics – it was ahead of its time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Incest, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Medical content
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Gun violence, Sexism, Excrement, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Child death, and War
maryellen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Child death, Physical abuse, and Incest
Minor: Kidnapping, Torture, Misogyny, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexism, Suicide, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Child death, and Death
lastonedown's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest, Suicide, Transphobia, and Death
Minor: Homophobia and Violence