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The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
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Showing 1-5 of 93 (next | show all)
Le Guin is an author who grows as you grow. You can read and admire her at thirteen, and you can read and admire her at forty-three. As I have done. Because I think it must be around thirty years since I last read The Left Hand of Darkness. I'd never really felt the need to reread it because I knew the story. It's one of those novels whose plot and characters have entered science fiction common knowledge - we all know about it even if we've not read it.

Which is a shame. Because it's definitely worth reading, and certainly stands up to rereading.

The book is set in Le Guin's Ekumen, a loose mystical/economic interstellar polity of eighty-odd human planets with the world of Hain at its centre. Earth was seeded by the Hainish. The Left Hand of Darkness is set on Gethen, also known as Winter, which has just been invited to join.

For the rest of the review see http://justhastobeplausible.blogspot.... ( )
  iansales | Oct 13, 2009 |
D-This is such an atmospheric and thought-provoking book. Over the years the actual plot has washed away from my memories, and all that is left is the world that Le Guin imagined. ( )
  bramon | Oct 12, 2009 |
Wonderful novel and a timeless classic.
This work has the potential to open the mind of the reader to other ways of approaching life and considering the role of men and women in society.
The story is deceptively simple and a familiar format for science fiction but Le Guin creates a world so believable you will be convinced it must exist somewhere in the universe.
Themes of love, friendship, compassion and sacrifice are subtly drawn to give the reader an experience at once satisfying and uplifting.
James Pope ( )
  Seamusoz | Oct 9, 2009 |
Wonderful idea but poor execution. Too schematic, rational, predictable. No real exploration of how it would feel, no nuances, no small and mysterious shades of interaction.

Het idee is hartstikke leuk: hoe zou het zijn - mensachtige wezens zonder de gender dichotomie. Hoe zouden ze ons zien, hoe wij hen. Maar de uitvoering laat te wensen over. Te rationeel, niet genoeg kleine details en interactietjes die verbeelden hoe je het aan den lijve zou ervaren. Te schematisch. Ook, de invulling op een manier die allerlei onrealistische cliché's incorporeert, bv, in het gedeelte over de treinreis, dat "eenvoudige" mensen vanzelf ook "goed" zijn. Het geheel heeft iets voorspelbaars en iets oppervlakkigs. ( )
  pingdjip | Sep 15, 2009 |
What a fantastic novel! Just finished reading it and while it started slowly, it built up and really ended up grabbing me by the end. Such an interesting world she creates here, as seen through the eyes of both an inhabitant and an outsider (an earthling). It tackles issues of gender and society in such a unique way; very thought provoking. ( )
  danahlongley | Sep 8, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 93 (next | show all)
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
For Charles, sine qua non
First words
I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive.
Quotations
Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.
Alone, I cannot change your world. But I can be changed by it. Alone, I must listen, as well as speak. Alone, the relationship I finally make, if I make one, is not impersonal and not only political: it is individual, it is personal, it is both more or less than political. Not We and They; not I and It; but I and Thou.
"Praise then darkness and Creation unfinished,"
A friend. What is a friend in a world where any friend may be a lover at a new phase of the moon? Not I, locked in my virility: no friend to Therem Harth or any other of his race. Neither man nor woman, neither and both, cyclic, lunar, metamorphosing under the hand's touch, changelings in the human cradle, they were no flesh of mine, no friends; no love between us.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleThe Left Hand of Darkness
Original publication date1969
SeriesHainish Cycle (4), Hainish Cycle, Chronological (6)
People/CharactersTherem Harth rem ir Estraven, Genly Ai
Important placesGethen (Winter)
Awards and honorsHugo (Novel, 1970), Nebula (Novel, 1969), James Tiptree, Jr. Award (Retrospective), Gaylactic Spectrum Shortlist (Hall of Fame, 2001), Gaylactic Spectrum (Hall of Fame, 2003), Guardian 1000 (Science Fiction & Fantasy) (show all 7)
DedicationFor Charles, sine qua non
First wordsI’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic ... (show all)
QuotationsLight is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light. Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way., Alone, I cannot change your world. But I can be changed by it. Alone, I must listen, as well as speak. Alone, the relationship I finally make, if I make one, is not impersonal and not only political: it is individual, it is p... (show all)
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
BlurbersMoorcock, Michael, Herbert, Frank, Knight, Damon
DescriptionThe Left Hand of Darkness is the account of the efforts of a man named Genly Ai, a representative from a galactic federation of worlds (the Ekumen), who seeks to bring the world of Gethen into that society. The inhabitants of... (show all)
Book description
The Left Hand of Darkness is the account of the efforts of a man named Genly Ai, a representative from a galactic federation of worlds (the Ekumen), who seeks to bring the world of Gethen into that society. The inhabitants of Gethen are sequentially hermaphroditic humans; for twenty-four days of each twenty-six day lunar cycle they are sexually latent androgynes, and for the remaining two days (kemmer) are male or female, as determined by pheromonal negotiation with an interested sex partner. Thus each individual can both sire and bear children.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0441478123, Paperback)

Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning, groundbreaking science fiction classic takes us to the world of Winter, and introduces us to its inhabitants, the Gethenians-whose society is not based on gender roles.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)

(see all 3 descriptions)

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