Reviews

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

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cinchona's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is the rare book that I liked more at the end than I did at the beginning. Usually I'm a rising-action guy: I like the build-up, the slow development of world and relationships, the characters as they are introduced and gradually complexified, the expectations as they are set up to be later torn down.

But this book: it's written backwards. Not in an intentional, timeline messy mindbending way. Just in a narrative pacing way -- all that slow relationship buildup and learning the characters (there are only two!) happens in the final third. The clash of nations and drama of failure and betrayal happens in the first third. The question of whether the characters succeed in their goal is inarguably and correctly settled early second act, and there is no wavering from its certainty. It's a...weird way to structure a book. Worth a read for sure, incredibly artful sci-fi, but strangely not satisfying as a story.

* * *

The premise is cool and sciencey enough to be interesting: sequential hermaphroditism and estrus cycles in humanoids. The implausibility is pretty effectively explained away, and there are some decent anthropological guesses about how society would differ with such a biology. In places, these speculations feel dated. But it's not too onerous and the core coolness of it comes through.

The world-building is thick on the ground early; as it unspools all the completely indiscernible terms work out kinda-sorta. Pretty effective in that it makes you feel, reading, like a foreigner trying to understand a culture; pretty annoying in that for many pages you are reading confused. If you can tolerate that, the planet Gethen is worth learning about -- cool features of weather, culture, and language sewn together adroitly.

The plot, such as it is, is thin. Complete plot spoiler: Spoiler The Federation sends an alien to establish first contact. Political tensions ensue. Miscommunication ensues. The alien makes one friend. Friend gives his life making sure planet joins the Federation. That's it: there's no B-plot, no C-plot, no other characters, no other motivations. The characters are instantly and completely transparent in motives (despite much talk of dissembling); one is an unfailing asshole, the other is unfailingly nice. It is ENTIRELY like a 22-minute Star Trek bottle episode written as a book. Competently and artfully written, to be sure, but without narrative depth.

In lieu of plot complexity, the author offers a lot of artful pieces of mythology, as well as direct conversation of the characters about their personal and cultural philosophies of sex, gender, and social organization. There's a LOT of that, and some parts of it are interesting, but YMMV. Too much for my taste, but I appreciated the premise getting some exercise in the dialogue if not in the plot.

Glad I read it, despite all my gripes: it was quite unique, easier to read the more I read it, and the end was effectively moving.