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A review by smithjasont01
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"Alone, I cannot change your world. But I can be changed by it."
A new world is identified to invited into the Ekumen, a confederation of planets inhabited by humionds. Genly Ai is sent alone as an envoy to this icy world to persuade the various counties. The Gethenian's, while human, are physically quite different from Genly the Terrain. For all but a few days out of each month, they are physically and biologically androgynous. However, for a few days each month they enter a reproductive state taking on either a male or female state depending on who they are with at the time.
This makes Genly an outsider in more ways than just being an alien. He is taken aback by more than just their sexual habits. While having cars they have no mode of air travel or rocketry, they don't engage in large scale wars, and other quirks. Before he can talk to the monarch of one realm his only defender on the planet is forced into exile. Genly is then forced to wander and learn what it takes to convince these people to join them.
There is so much to take in throughout this novel, from Le Guin flipping the stereotypical sci-fi protagonist trope on its head with him being a heterosexual on a planet of gender fluid humans, the power dynamics and cultural dynamics or lack there of that this sexuality brings about. We see aspects of the cold war as one of the nations on the planet is a full bureaucracy akin to what a Soviet was supposed to be before power corruption. She asks questions like is war a gendered concept if we were all even and genders didn't have differences, would we have war? Or if we weren't constantly being driven sexually would we have wars?
For a book written in 1969 she broke huge ground with the concepts in this one.
A new world is identified to invited into the Ekumen, a confederation of planets inhabited by humionds. Genly Ai is sent alone as an envoy to this icy world to persuade the various counties. The Gethenian's, while human, are physically quite different from Genly the Terrain. For all but a few days out of each month, they are physically and biologically androgynous. However, for a few days each month they enter a reproductive state taking on either a male or female state depending on who they are with at the time.
This makes Genly an outsider in more ways than just being an alien. He is taken aback by more than just their sexual habits. While having cars they have no mode of air travel or rocketry, they don't engage in large scale wars, and other quirks. Before he can talk to the monarch of one realm his only defender on the planet is forced into exile. Genly is then forced to wander and learn what it takes to convince these people to join them.
There is so much to take in throughout this novel, from Le Guin flipping the stereotypical sci-fi protagonist trope on its head with him being a heterosexual on a planet of gender fluid humans, the power dynamics and cultural dynamics or lack there of that this sexuality brings about. We see aspects of the cold war as one of the nations on the planet is a full bureaucracy akin to what a Soviet was supposed to be before power corruption. She asks questions like is war a gendered concept if we were all even and genders didn't have differences, would we have war? Or if we weren't constantly being driven sexually would we have wars?
For a book written in 1969 she broke huge ground with the concepts in this one.