The Left Hand of Darkness: 50th Anniversary Edition

Ursula K. Le Guin

Jul 2000 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION—WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS

Ursula K. Le Guin’s groundbreaking work of science fiction—winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Ratings and reviews

Not bad, a bit repetitious and predictable (to a certain degree) but enjoyable, to a point. She has quite an amazing gift for and using vocabulary, usually w/out overbearing, preaching, the inverted "tell vs show" or pretentious AOA, allowing for real conversations and background descriptions a chance to develope in real-time as the reader imagines. I enjoy her writing, but I'm not one to place this particular piece or her alongside the greats, such as Card, Heinlein, Wells, Matheson & Co.

The vast majority of this book Is Nothing But descriptions of landscape, societies, homes, Etc. It was quite tedious because it was also peppered with a great deal of alien phrases and verbiage that was very rarely explained. Not to mention being difficult to pronounce. Only the last quarter of the story is interesting, but the tediousness of the rest outweighs the eventual story.

The story seemed slow at first, but it picked up speed soon enough... It ends up being not only intriguing and entertaining, but also thought provoking. As is her custom, Le Guin manages paint such a vivid and colorful picture, rich in detail both in the world and its people, that after reading the book I almost felt as if I was coming back from a vacation on Gethen. I'll seriously consider reading it again in the future.

About the author

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929. She was the bestselling author of the Earthsea books and the Hainish books, including The Left Hand of Darkness, which was awarded both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards. With the awarding of the 1975 Hugo and Nebula Awards to The Dispossessed, she became the first author to win both awards twice for novels. She passed away in 2018.