A review by trilbynorton
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

5.0

Though written in the late 1960s, and so beholden to that periods mores (male pronouns abound), Le Guin's travelogue/anthropological fiction/culture shock SF feels in many ways written for the current cultural moment. The book deals with several themes, including loyalty, cultural progress, and mysticism, but it is its treatment of gender that stands out the most. The people of the wintry planet Gethen are ambisexual, only entering into a sexual state at the end of their lunar cycle, at which point they assume, without choice, male or female gender. Genly Ai, an envoy of a galactic federation, has been sent to invite the Gethenians to join the rest of humankind. Gender has almost no meaning for the Gethenians, yet to Ai it is the most importanrt thing about them and central to his understanding of the Gethenians. In this way, The Left Hand of Darkness reveals gender as both arbitrary and all-encompassing.