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A review by ketreads
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
I think this is my first sci-fi genre book from this author, Ursula Le Guin, as I've read and LOVED her fantastic Earthsea series. I've always heard good things about her other works but couldn't even imagine how her style would work in a more sci-fi setting.
It turns out, it works fantastically!
The Left Hand of Darkness is a methodical thought experiment on a society of non-gendered people, only having to experience a specific gender for a set time of month. While this sounds very surface level, Le Guin is able to weave in a story about first-contact, societal expectations, what it MEANS to have gender in a non-gendered society, and themes of cultural barriers. To say I liked this would be a bit of an understatement. The two focal characters where written with fantastic depth and nuance. Watching them slowly come together for their eventual 'hero's journey' was done with a lot more tact and evolution than I was expecting. The time given to alien cultures and societies that feel so familiar yet alien was another surprising, but loved, detail to Le Guin's writing.
This books blurb focuses on the journey these two characters take, but the story itself is much more than that. The journey itself does not start until half-way through the book but this only means we spend more time coming to intimately understand these characters. Once the journey starts, it's hard not to get emotionally invested in the whole thing.
Overall this is a fantastic book and I'm excited to read more of her work in the future!
It turns out, it works fantastically!
The Left Hand of Darkness is a methodical thought experiment on a society of non-gendered people, only having to experience a specific gender for a set time of month. While this sounds very surface level, Le Guin is able to weave in a story about first-contact, societal expectations, what it MEANS to have gender in a non-gendered society, and themes of cultural barriers. To say I liked this would be a bit of an understatement. The two focal characters where written with fantastic depth and nuance. Watching them slowly come together for their eventual 'hero's journey' was done with a lot more tact and evolution than I was expecting. The time given to alien cultures and societies that feel so familiar yet alien was another surprising, but loved, detail to Le Guin's writing.
This books blurb focuses on the journey these two characters take, but the story itself is much more than that. The journey itself does not start until half-way through the book but this only means we spend more time coming to intimately understand these characters. Once the journey starts, it's hard not to get emotionally invested in the whole thing.
Overall this is a fantastic book and I'm excited to read more of her work in the future!