The Left Hand of Darkness

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Le Guin, Ursula	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Le Guin, Ursula	4-week checkout	Due 05-11-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Le Guin, Ursula K.	4-week checkout	Due 04-21-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / Classic / Le Guin, Ursula K.	4-week checkout	Due 05-08-2024

Includes new introduction by David Mitchell and a new afterword by Charlie Jane Anders
1. A Parade in Erhenrang -- 2. The Place Inside the Blizzard -- 3. The Mad King -- 4. The Nineteenth Day -- 5. The Domestication of Hunch -- 6. One Way into Orgoreyn -- 7. The Question of Sex -- 8. Another Way into Orgoreyn -- 9. Estraven the Traitor -- 10. Conversations in Mishnory -- 11. Soliloquies in Mishnory -- 12. On Time and Darkness -- 13. Down on the Farm -- 14. The Escape -- 15. To the Ice --16. Between Drumner and Dremegole -- 17. An Orgota Creation Myth -- 18. On the Ice -- 19. Homecoming -- 20. A Fool's Errand -- The Gethenian Calendar and Clock.
Le Guin's Hainish series begins with the assumption that centuries ago humanoids from the planet Hain ventured through the solar system establishing colonies on various planets including Earth. For mysterious reasons these colonies lose all contact and knowledge of each other until the 21st century when an attempt is made to establish a galactic league. Individual stories in this loosely organized series explore the inherent communication difficulties in the mingling and clash of cultures that, over the centuries of separation, have developed widely disparate social and political structures as well as a range of biological differences.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Unique world but too dry submitted by marielle on July 14, 2011, 4:46pm The Eukumen have sent Genly Ai, alone, to the planet Gethen to be its first contact with alien life. There he must convince the leaders of that world of the truth of his origin and to join the Ekumen, an organization of planets which serves to ease trade between worlds.

Ai's journey is long and hard, as it is also for those who wish to help- and destroy him. The book itself is well written, with an intense sense of realism. The people, customs, and biology of the men living on Gethen is well thought out and creates a unique world.

That said, I feel like the core of the story itself lacked something. It did not feel like an action adventure, or a mystery, or a thriller; it felt more as if one was reading historical chronicles (which is what the beginning of the book purports to be.) Many science fiction novels have used this tactic (i.e. Foundation series) but still managed to be exciting; this book did not.

Great book! submitted by ashflowtuff on August 18, 2011, 10:45am This is the book that hooked me on science fiction and fantasy as a teenager. Very thought-provoking and interesting.

Interesting World submitted by SolaireFQ on July 28, 2016, 4:36pm Ursula LeGuin crafts a very interesting world populated by hermaphroditic beings. It makes you contemplate gender, war, colonization, and more.

Still thinking about it submitted by EJZ on June 16, 2018, 9:04pm I read this after reading The Dispossessed. I personally preferred The Dispossessed as a whole, it felt like the ideas and truths told were more groundbreaking, more relevant perhaps. Still I enjoyed reading this story of two people from very different backgrounds learning to understand each other, and finally form a bond of trust.

Glad I finally read this submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 12, 2021, 9:07pm I really, really wish I had read this earlier in my life. I know that it’s considered seminal in SF writing, and I completely see why. LeGuin tells a compelling story, creates a new world with interesting characters, and explores a mind-bending concept using a creative medium in ways that 1979 science fiction allowed her to invite readers to consider.

The challenge for me is that I’m not reading it in 1979, or the 1980’s, or the 1990’s. I’m reading it for the first time in 2020. LeGuin tells the story of an entire planet of non-gendered people, and has the narrator gender every single one of them as male, with occasional feminine traits in EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE. All pronouns are masculine. All nouns are male (gentleman, man, king, etc.). From here, I find it astonishing to consider that an author would envision a world of non-gendered people, and not invent language to go with that… not even appear to try. Why is the leader a king? Why not use “Ruler” or “Leader” or “Monarch” (even president, mayor, senator, and representative may have been *affiliated* with gender in 1979, but are not words that are gendered inherently)? We have ungendered words for this job, but LeGuin chose a male word. It feels like it undermines the goal of the book… to get readers to consider roles separate from sex and gender. I just couldn’t get past it.

But the story of the book and the questions it raised (then and now) are wonderful. LeGuin is a wonderful storyteller, and I’m glad I finally read this.

Good read! submitted by pk on June 30, 2021, 11:09am I came to LeGuin through her essays, but wanted to read her fiction as well. This is a great SciFi book, with lots of meaning and interest beyond the the interesting alien races, alien worlds etc of many other books. Exploring gender, power structures and how they all come together makes this a very thought provoking and interesting read.

Interesting concept submitted by Xris on August 12, 2021, 10:21pm I’m glad I finally read it, but it was rough going at the beginning. Also, using the pronouns”he” all the time instead of “they” threw me off. I didn’t much like the political intrigue parts, but it was better when the story was about the relationships between the Envoy and the people of the planet. But a good story nonetheless.

Before its time- but dry submitted by cbitsko on June 16, 2022, 6:20pm I can certainly see why this book is highly regarded in feminist sci-fi circles. The concept of being genderless and an entire planet ruled by this concept is incredibly complex. LeGuin takes the time to flesh out many of the implications made. However, the bulk of the plot lies within exploration of the political landscape of this alien planet. This was not very engaging for me, especially because of the new words introduced by LeGuin to immerse the reader in the planet's culture. TLDR; amazing concepts which laid a foundation for new ways of thinking, but I felt like I had to take detailed notes to understand the story.

hard to follow as audiobook submitted by camelsamba on August 11, 2022, 11:05pm I listened to this as an audiobook, in part because I wanted to broaden my Le Guin horizons and this was immediately available. Because I was listening and not seeing the names in print, I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. It was an interesting story though, so I may eventually read the print book, although the fact that it is 4th in a series is a bit daunting.