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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
Muy interesante y reflexivo, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta la época en la que está escrito. Por otro lado, lento y confuso. Me ha costado leerlo, aunque ha merecido la pena
I read this on a recommendation from my professor, and I'm glad I did.
I've never read anything like The Left Hand of Darkness, not just in the profoundness of it, but in that I have never been a sci-fi reader. Fantasy resides in more safety from my experience, with magic systems and such that are generally easy to follow as they don't differ from each other too much. Whereas in this book, it's a whole other world. Societies and culture thought out so deep as to where customs and relationship standard stem from.
The gender philosophy(?) of this book isn't anything new to me. Being a genderqueer individual in the 2020's, you tend to analyze gender-norms from the perspective of an outsider. But I have never seen it applied in such an explorative way (or at all), especially not from so long ago.
I all in all loved this book, and just struggled with vocabulary and with emotional disconnect due to less interiority and more observational storytelling. Which served the goal perfectly, of course.
Also I say I struggled with emotional disconnect, but that's not meant to be a critique, but more an experience. You're experiencing a world and its people, and Genly himself is feeling a disconnect. Which may lend itself to effective character execution.
I've never read anything like The Left Hand of Darkness, not just in the profoundness of it, but in that I have never been a sci-fi reader. Fantasy resides in more safety from my experience, with magic systems and such that are generally easy to follow as they don't differ from each other too much. Whereas in this book, it's a whole other world. Societies and culture thought out so deep as to where customs and relationship standard stem from.
The gender philosophy(?) of this book isn't anything new to me. Being a genderqueer individual in the 2020's, you tend to analyze gender-norms from the perspective of an outsider. But I have never seen it applied in such an explorative way (or at all), especially not from so long ago.
I all in all loved this book, and just struggled with vocabulary and with emotional disconnect due to less interiority and more observational storytelling. Which served the goal perfectly, of course.
Also I say I struggled with emotional disconnect, but that's not meant to be a critique, but more an experience. You're experiencing a world and its people, and Genly himself is feeling a disconnect. Which may lend itself to effective character execution.
i read this for my science fiction course in college, and i’ll be honest im surprised this was picked, since the subject matter may seem touchy. our main character, Genly Ai, is sent to the planet of Winter to introduce the people there to add them to a galactic collective. turns out, the people there are genderless most of the time and genderfluid when their time of the month comes, which leads to a very different society from our own. this book is no doubt extremely important. however, it still was hard to follow at times. i highly recommend for anyone getting into classic scifi, but not to newbies.
its also a total coincidence that i’ll be reading quite a few scifi for fun in the near future! it was a goal of mine this year to do so, so im glad im checking that off.
its also a total coincidence that i’ll be reading quite a few scifi for fun in the near future! it was a goal of mine this year to do so, so im glad im checking that off.
This book was a slow burner for me, but I was utterly captivated by the final third. This is largely due to Le Guin’s fantastically atmospheric writing, where the brutal and suffocating presence of the environment is expertly contrasted with moments of genuinely moving tenderness.
My main gripe with The Left Hand of Darkness, and the reason for a four, rather than five star review, is the constant likening of negative character traits as feminine. On the one hand this is a really interesting thought experiment about gender, sexual drive, and the impact this has on society and human development. On the other hand, Le Guin’s idea of an ‘ambisexual’ human race depends too heavily on gender essentialism in the rest of the universe, whereby being a man or a woman are presented as having fixed traits and characteristics. I can interpret this as a result of the narrator’s limited life experience, and I can also see how Le Guin perhaps intended for the novel to act as a criticism, or deconstruction of masculinity and the often toxic traits associated with it (the desire for war being a prominent one). However, as a modern reader this felt flat and dated, serving simply to reinforce, rather than challenge, a gender binary.
Despite its flaws, The Left Hand of Darkness is still a beautifully written, thought-provoking read.
My main gripe with The Left Hand of Darkness, and the reason for a four, rather than five star review, is the constant likening of negative character traits as feminine. On the one hand this is a really interesting thought experiment about gender, sexual drive, and the impact this has on society and human development. On the other hand, Le Guin’s idea of an ‘ambisexual’ human race depends too heavily on gender essentialism in the rest of the universe, whereby being a man or a woman are presented as having fixed traits and characteristics. I can interpret this as a result of the narrator’s limited life experience, and I can also see how Le Guin perhaps intended for the novel to act as a criticism, or deconstruction of masculinity and the often toxic traits associated with it (the desire for war being a prominent one). However, as a modern reader this felt flat and dated, serving simply to reinforce, rather than challenge, a gender binary.
Despite its flaws, The Left Hand of Darkness is still a beautifully written, thought-provoking read.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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:
N/A
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Audiobook read by George Guidall, who did an alright job, but without much variation between characters.
This is my first Le Guin I've read for the pleasure of doing so and the first after a long, long time, having read the Dispossessed in grad school over 10 years ago. I wasn't sure how I would feel as I started the book, but The Left Hand of Darkness is compelling, while being almost entirely introspective of the main protagonist, the Envoy.
Left Hand is a great example of why students who are assigned Le Guin in their English class end up loving her work outside academia. In more than a few instances, the events of the book mirror 2025 current events regarding immigration, governmental paranoia, and misinterpreted benign ignorance due to culture clash.
This is my first Le Guin I've read for the pleasure of doing so and the first after a long, long time, having read the Dispossessed in grad school over 10 years ago. I wasn't sure how I would feel as I started the book, but The Left Hand of Darkness is compelling, while being almost entirely introspective of the main protagonist, the Envoy.
Left Hand is a great example of why students who are assigned Le Guin in their English class end up loving her work outside academia. In more than a few instances, the events of the book mirror 2025 current events regarding immigration, governmental paranoia, and misinterpreted benign ignorance due to culture clash.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment
Moderate: Eating disorder, Incest, Excrement, Vomit
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm giving this three stars simply because I think it's just a not for me book so it has to fall middle of the road. Not a sci-fi girly and I have basically zero clue what actually happened in this book. I even slowed down my reading speed to try and make sense of what was happening and it didn't help. Can't recommend this book, can't not recommend this book! 🤷