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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
This book definitely influenced my ongoing gender identity and sci-fi tastes simultaneously.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Oh no — a properly lovely book that didn’t come close to meeting any of my personal expectations. What I understood to be an early and pivotal probe of gender-bending sci-fi turns out to be about 15% of the content on offer.
The text reads much more like fantasy, complete with fables and kings and meticulous world-building of my least favorite kind: confusing nomenclatures, tangents about diets and calendars, minute details about the climate and weather. For a while, there was at least some political intrigue and a central interplanetary premise — but this is dropped in favor of 100+ pages spent journeying across the ice, setting up tents, rationing food, and describing various types of crags.
Not what I wanted and not for me!
The text reads much more like fantasy, complete with fables and kings and meticulous world-building of my least favorite kind: confusing nomenclatures, tangents about diets and calendars, minute details about the climate and weather. For a while, there was at least some political intrigue and a central interplanetary premise — but this is dropped in favor of 100+ pages spent journeying across the ice, setting up tents, rationing food, and describing various types of crags.
Not what I wanted and not for me!
adventurous
challenging
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.