The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness (Penguin Galaxy)

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Winter is an Earth-like planet with two major differences: conditions are semi artic even at the warmest time of the year, and the inhabitants are all of the same sex. Tucked away in a remote corner of the universe, they have no knowledge of space travel or of life beyond their own world. And when a strange envoy from space brings news of a vast coalition of planets which they are invited to join, he is met with fear, mistrust and disbelief. . .

'The Left Hand of Darkness' is a groundbreaking work of feminist science fiction, an imaginative masterpiece which poses challenging questions about sexuality, sexism and the organisation of society.

Reviewed by brokentune on

2 of 5 stars

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"The old days or the new times, somer or kemmer, love is love."

Ok, so I really have mixed feelings about this book. I really liked the, for its time, daring message and play on gender and roles, and the journey that the characters go on, but I really could not get invested in the characters or the story.

The setting and use of words that are obviously "other-worldly" made me feel alien to the story, which I guess is part of the books point. It kept me from wanting to follow the subtleties in the dialogues closely, tho, so I was tempted to skim read a substantial part of the book - as I really could not get into it.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 28 April, 2016: Finished reading
  • 28 April, 2016: Reviewed