Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - The Left Hand of Darkness

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.

Personally, I think I might have to give this a reread in order to have a more definite take on this book, but I am glad that this introduced me to the subgenre of speculative fiction referred to as queernorm, which includes such entries as Sing the Four Quarters by Tanya Huff and Avalon by Mary J. Jones.

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bibliocinephile's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-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

4.5

absolutely beautiful. took me a long time to finish, but not because of its quality just because im so busy. it was stunning how little physical action can still be so gripping and engaging, and how deep the relationships in the book go. so beautiful

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idajoh's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

At some point I thought it contained somewhat of an internalised mysoginistic tone, however, I think it was mostly the voice of the main character, rather than the authors opinion

Overall, a very good read where you are taken to a vast world in outer space

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featherwoman's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

4.25

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swampmonster's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A story very focused on political intrigue, the concept of home and humanity, and, most of all, nationalism and it's impacts. Not my favorite on a personal level, but well-done.

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surelyinthefountain's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

Love this book; it's the romance of the century, though I admit I have so much personal attachment to it because of the care and nuance with which Le Guin writes nonbinary characters. Estraven is the nonbinary rep we all deserve, and Genry's growing understanding of who they were outside of the gender binary was just SO formative for me and helpful in my own journey. There's a lot of wisdom there and at least in my opinion, not very dated. The use of "he/him" for androgynous characters perhaps isn't what Le Guin might have chosen had she been writing today, but it's well-justified, I think, based on who Genry Ai is that he would use that pronoun set when writing his report. A couple of passages seem rooted in a more overtly sexist society, but to be honest, we unfortunately still live in a world where many people still fundamentally believe those things, even if they know what they're "supposed to" say, and those attitudes still do great harm out in the world. So this book is more relevant than ever, I think.
But then, maybe I'm just biased. This book is beautiful and I'm not afraid to gush forever about it! A world where people aren't seen as male or female, just as human beings -- what's not to love??

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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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