Left Hand Darkness

by Ursula K. Le Guin

• ISBN10: 0441478107
• ISBN13: 9780441478101
• Publish Date: 15 October 1984 (first published 1 August 1982)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Ace Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Language: English

Reviews

[smartflutist661]

As the science fiction of the 50s was shadowed by the spectre of nuclear annihilation, so the science fiction of the 60s is shadowed by the spectre of communism. Despite this, The Left Hand of Darkness isn't really a political book, though there is an undertone of political commentary. As a whole, though, it does what I think few books do successfully (certainly not with this scale of Otherness): not only looking into the mind of the Other, but allowing us to see through them for a time, to experience a world through the eyes of an existence fundamentally different from our own, and in so doing reflects upon ourselves. In particular, we look upon a world where sex is indeterminate (or, more accurately, nonexistent for most of the month) and the cold is ever-present and unforgiving, and are asked to contemplate the effects upon society of these (not-so-small) changes. As usual, these questions don't get perfect answers, but the contemplation is worth it in and of itself.