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dhiyanah's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
I tried reading this a few years ago, excited by the hype of it, a gender-smashing sci-fi adventure promised by the synopsis. I didn't get past the first few chapters that time. Picked it back up this year out of a nostalgia for classic sci-fi, more readily aware of the slow pace and dense narration that comes with the territory.
I appreciate Ursula's treatment of imaginative concepts, how easily she weaves a story that serves as a potent reflection for real-life considerations. The frustrations and complications of gender showcased through this slow interplanetary adventure is both intriguing and irritating. I enjoyed the melding-together of landscape, political science, and character growth in this story.
I appreciate Ursula's treatment of imaginative concepts, how easily she weaves a story that serves as a potent reflection for real-life considerations. The frustrations and complications of gender showcased through this slow interplanetary adventure is both intriguing and irritating. I enjoyed the melding-together of landscape, political science, and character growth in this story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Torture, Suicide, and Body horror
Minor: Death and Violence
sharene91's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
slow-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
4.75
Wow. I really loved this book. I had it in my collection for a while and just couldn’t get started. I’m really glad I pushed through.
So why not a perfect score? It started a bit slow and I didn’t know what to expect, but it was engaging enough to keep me reading. Around the halfway mark, though, I couldn’t put it down!
I learned a lot and this one really made me think about the meaning of community/cooperation, coexistence, love, friendship, ignorance, openness, fear, loss and death. Also, super interesting thoughts on androgyny, sexuality, desire, and gender. I know it sounds like a lot but it’s all superbly folded into the journey.
Ok this book made me feel like a normal human being and also made me reflect on how I view the intentions of others, how I judge them, and how I should seek to understand. Not in a new agey way, but just through the power of the themes.
I really saw myself in Ai, and I really admired Estraven though I don’t fully understand why he did what he did at the end. I’m really excited to read more of this series and explore the author. I highly recommend.
So why not a perfect score? It started a bit slow and I didn’t know what to expect, but it was engaging enough to keep me reading. Around the halfway mark, though, I couldn’t put it down!
I learned a lot and this one really made me think about the meaning of community/cooperation, coexistence, love, friendship, ignorance, openness, fear, loss and death. Also, super interesting thoughts on androgyny, sexuality, desire, and gender. I know it sounds like a lot but it’s all superbly folded into the journey.
Ok this book made me feel like a normal human being and also made me reflect on how I view the intentions of others, how I judge them, and how I should seek to understand. Not in a new agey way, but just through the power of the themes.
I really saw myself in Ai, and I really admired Estraven though I don’t fully understand why he did what he did at the end. I’m really excited to read more of this series and explore the author. I highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicide
Minor: Torture and Slavery
fabioca's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Torture, and Misogyny
Minor: Suicide, Incest, and Miscarriage
annalu's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Misogyny and Torture
Minor: Incest, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage
wormgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture and Misogyny
Minor: Incest, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Deportation
dawntin's review against another edition
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
monim6's review against another edition
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
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 against another edition
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