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davybaby 's review for:
Planet of Exile
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Taken from my review of The Left Hand of Darkness:
I tried a new experiment when I started The Left Hand of Darkness. I found several other Le Guin books on Hoopla, so in the course of reading this, I also listened to [b:Planet of Exile|201882|Planet of Exile|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334148719s/201882.jpg|1642607] and [b:City of Illusions|201889|City of Illusions|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1382955526s/201889.jpg|89334]. Doing this was interesting, because it allowed me to see a few themes in the Hainish cycle that I wouldn't necessarily have noticed.
For example, LHoD's interest in the space between genders signals a theme in her work. Each book deals with the space between elements that are often clearly demarcated in our society. Genly Ai's relationship with a Winter local develops into something between friendship and love, but isn't easy to label (for me anyway) due to its mostly asexual nature. Likewise, because the other political players in the novel are constantly manipulating Ai to improve their position, it creates a strange middle ground between cooperation and betrayal.
The other books in the series also deal with this space between: In City of Illusions, the protagonist, Falk, spends the entire novel seeking out and fearing the Shing, rumored to be monstrous rulers of the planet who erased his memory. As his journey continues, they prove to be somewhere between human and alien, friend and enemy. The book is less effective than LHoD, because it ends up answering this question in a simpler and more traditional way than I hoped for.
City of Illusions also explores a middle ground in identity. By the end of the book (minor spoiler), Falk finds that due to his loss of memory, he has lived 2 completely separate lives. It's only by coming to terms with both lives and both sets of memories that he can achieve his ultimate goal. In the midst of a fairly typical sci-fi read, it was only by reading others at the same time that I noticed the interesting similarity in theme.
(spoiler over)
Finally, I listened to Planet of Exile at the same time, which also deals with the space between. It follows two rival societies on the planet Werel who have to find peace in order to survive the coming years-long winter. They spend most of the book vacillating between enemy and ally, and each views the other as something other than human. In an interesting execution that I don't believe I've seen before, each community refers only to themselves as human. So as the reader switches back and forth between perspectives, the society that is "human" changes with them.
(mild spoiler ahead) PoE also deals with identity, but on a societal level. We come to discover that one of the rival societies is the dying remains of an Earth colony, who are dying out specifically because of the League of All Worlds' rules against interfering with the development of prospective planets. Because they've had to forget Earth's technology and remain somewhat isolated, they've been in decline for decades. By the end of the novel, their only chance of long-term survival is to combine their society with their rival's, which further blurs the line between human/alien, and between home/exile.
(spoiler over)
This was my first foray into Le Guin, and I enjoyed it largely because of these parallels. While the Hainish cycle is by no means my favorite sci-fi series, The Left Hand of Darkness was well-written and thoughtful, and the others improved by reading them with it. I think my experiment was a success, and that I'll probably stack books by the same author again as time goes on.
I tried a new experiment when I started The Left Hand of Darkness. I found several other Le Guin books on Hoopla, so in the course of reading this, I also listened to [b:Planet of Exile|201882|Planet of Exile|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1334148719s/201882.jpg|1642607] and [b:City of Illusions|201889|City of Illusions|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1382955526s/201889.jpg|89334]. Doing this was interesting, because it allowed me to see a few themes in the Hainish cycle that I wouldn't necessarily have noticed.
For example, LHoD's interest in the space between genders signals a theme in her work. Each book deals with the space between elements that are often clearly demarcated in our society. Genly Ai's relationship with a Winter local develops into something between friendship and love, but isn't easy to label (for me anyway) due to its mostly asexual nature. Likewise, because the other political players in the novel are constantly manipulating Ai to improve their position, it creates a strange middle ground between cooperation and betrayal.
The other books in the series also deal with this space between: In City of Illusions, the protagonist, Falk, spends the entire novel seeking out and fearing the Shing, rumored to be monstrous rulers of the planet who erased his memory. As his journey continues, they prove to be somewhere between human and alien, friend and enemy. The book is less effective than LHoD, because it ends up answering this question in a simpler and more traditional way than I hoped for.
City of Illusions also explores a middle ground in identity. By the end of the book (minor spoiler), Falk finds that due to his loss of memory, he has lived 2 completely separate lives. It's only by coming to terms with both lives and both sets of memories that he can achieve his ultimate goal. In the midst of a fairly typical sci-fi read, it was only by reading others at the same time that I noticed the interesting similarity in theme.
(spoiler over)
Finally, I listened to Planet of Exile at the same time, which also deals with the space between. It follows two rival societies on the planet Werel who have to find peace in order to survive the coming years-long winter. They spend most of the book vacillating between enemy and ally, and each views the other as something other than human. In an interesting execution that I don't believe I've seen before, each community refers only to themselves as human. So as the reader switches back and forth between perspectives, the society that is "human" changes with them.
(mild spoiler ahead) PoE also deals with identity, but on a societal level. We come to discover that one of the rival societies is the dying remains of an Earth colony, who are dying out specifically because of the League of All Worlds' rules against interfering with the development of prospective planets. Because they've had to forget Earth's technology and remain somewhat isolated, they've been in decline for decades. By the end of the novel, their only chance of long-term survival is to combine their society with their rival's, which further blurs the line between human/alien, and between home/exile.
(spoiler over)
This was my first foray into Le Guin, and I enjoyed it largely because of these parallels. While the Hainish cycle is by no means my favorite sci-fi series, The Left Hand of Darkness was well-written and thoughtful, and the others improved by reading them with it. I think my experiment was a success, and that I'll probably stack books by the same author again as time goes on.