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redruedun 's review for:
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Probably not the most appropriate book to read during a July heatwave, in hindsight...
- Spoiler Free Review -
This is such a hard book to rate because, if I'm being objective about it, I do think it was a good book. I just didn't enjoy it all that much as I was reading.
What's it about?
Genly Ai is an envoy to the planet Winter from the Ekumen - a league of eighty-something planets spread across the galaxy. His job is to bring the people of Winter into union with the Ekumen, but he is caught between the political manoeuvring of two rival factions and the cultural complications of a race of androgynous humans - male and female do not exist on Winter.
What did I like about it?
Ursula K Le Guin is a really remarkable writer. She has a very unique way with words and her prose is truly just beautiful to read. It's almost poetry in places.
There are also a lot of interesting ideas and concepts here: what would human society look like without clearly defined male and female? How do you go about bridging an interplanetary cultural divide? There are also some nice moments exploring crossing boundaries with friendship.
So why didn't I love it?
I'd say this was a very theme-heavy, rather than character focused, book - which could be a positive or a negative, depending on what you prefer. While there were some nice character moments in the second half, I just never ended up feeling much for any of the main characters. Because I didn't feel much for them, I found it a bit hard to care what happened to them, or whether they achieved their goals.
While I enjoyed some of the themes Le Guin chose, I felt like she didn't go all that deeply into some of the things I was most interested in, but would then spend a long time detailing other things I didn't much care about. Obviously, this is just personal preference, another reader could feel the total opposite.
I think I'd just sum up by saying I didn't hate my time with this book, and I think the right reader would really enjoy it, but I never felt excited to pick it up again and there were some patches that definitely felt like a bit of a chore to get through.
Overall: objectively, probably a good book. Just not one that clicked for me.
- Spoiler Free Review -
This is such a hard book to rate because, if I'm being objective about it, I do think it was a good book. I just didn't enjoy it all that much as I was reading.
What's it about?
Genly Ai is an envoy to the planet Winter from the Ekumen - a league of eighty-something planets spread across the galaxy. His job is to bring the people of Winter into union with the Ekumen, but he is caught between the political manoeuvring of two rival factions and the cultural complications of a race of androgynous humans - male and female do not exist on Winter.
What did I like about it?
Ursula K Le Guin is a really remarkable writer. She has a very unique way with words and her prose is truly just beautiful to read. It's almost poetry in places.
There are also a lot of interesting ideas and concepts here: what would human society look like without clearly defined male and female? How do you go about bridging an interplanetary cultural divide? There are also some nice moments exploring crossing boundaries with friendship.
So why didn't I love it?
I'd say this was a very theme-heavy, rather than character focused, book - which could be a positive or a negative, depending on what you prefer. While there were some nice character moments in the second half, I just never ended up feeling much for any of the main characters. Because I didn't feel much for them, I found it a bit hard to care what happened to them, or whether they achieved their goals.
While I enjoyed some of the themes Le Guin chose, I felt like she didn't go all that deeply into some of the things I was most interested in, but would then spend a long time detailing other things I didn't much care about. Obviously, this is just personal preference, another reader could feel the total opposite.
I think I'd just sum up by saying I didn't hate my time with this book, and I think the right reader would really enjoy it, but I never felt excited to pick it up again and there were some patches that definitely felt like a bit of a chore to get through.
Overall: objectively, probably a good book. Just not one that clicked for me.