The Left Hand of Darkness (Ace SF, 47805) (urspr publ 1972; utgåvan 1976)

Imaginative ideas and unforgettable world-building on a frigid winter planet. Not the easiest novel to tread through but the societal complexities and gender-bending themes are completely fascinating. ( )

An undeniable game changer with its treatment of gender and sexuality, Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is not without its glaring flaws. Primarily, it does not delve deep enough with hermaphroditism. And as much as it normalises this, even challenges the earthling belief that it's a disorder, and suggests a better society with sexual ambiguity and androgyny it creates more questions (** "To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness." I know, I know) rather than answers (could it be that the acceptance of incest contributed to this?). But the best part of it all is that biological sex does not determine the opportunities and privileges of its people. There is only monogamy and there is no concept of re-marrying. There is no rape either since its people, I guess much like penguins, have their "mating season", also called kemmering (occurs monthly). Parenting is not very complicated since the ridiculous Freudian theories do not exist and fit. Of course despite not having any choice with their sex, as anyone could be a man / woman during kemmering, there is still the usage, though not widely, of "hormone derivatives".

All these concepts are quite fascinating and most of it are narrated by an envoy from Terra, Genly Ai, who is on a mission to persuade the countries of cold and bleak planet Gethen to join the intergalactic alliance. At the present, in real life, spectrum of sex and gender continue to evolve and curiously, I find Genly Ai's ignorance (or must I say chosen unawareness?), say of intersex people in his own world, a little questionable. But other than this, The Left Hand of Darkness is also a tale of deceit and revenge. Dismayingly but unsurprisingly, even in foreign worlds the political air is tense. And though the people of Gethen never experienced wars, anything that's different, alien, still poses a threat. It triggers fear that often results in disastrous decisions and unalterable repercussions thereby the politics also becomes muddled with self-interest. Social issues persist and the judicial system is also fraught with corruption and abuse of power in different ways. It seems to be a much better world but it is not perfect.

** "A man who doesn't detest a bad government is a fool. And if there were such a thing as a good government on earth, it would be a great joy to serve it." (p213)

With its fascinating world-building and heartwarming camaraderie between one native of Gethen, Estraven, and Genly Ai that flourishes against the harsh climate conditions and struggle for survival, it does suffer in telling a narrative littered with its own jargons which I did not care enough to remember. Regrettably, with its distinct exploration of intriguing themes removed, it is rather predictable. ( )

While I enjoy Le Guin's essays and I adored The Dispossessed, this was only okay for me. I had a hard time getting into the story in general and keeping some of the characters straight was difficult. The idea of a humanoid species that is genderless is fascinating and she dealt with it masterfully. I wish the explanation of "kemmer" had come earlier in the book, which would have helped me from feeling so lost.

Halfway through, a major event turned the story from ho-hum to can't put down, which lasted for the remainder of the book. The cold and desolation were palpable and I raced through to the end. But even with my interest in the last half, I don't warm to sci-fi well and Le Guin's mastery of language and storytelling could not overcome that. The story was great and the problem is me, not the book. ( )

I didn't love the first half (approximately -- maybe more like 60%) of the book. It felt like a pretty ho-hum story with the added speed bump of having to learn weird new names and intuit things about culture and language within the story. That exercise on its own isn't terribly interesting to me (and is a mite annoying, in fact). There were some neat bits (the foretelling we witness is pretty vivid and neat, and there's some good stuff about how ambisexuality frees the society from gender-specific roles, etc.), but on the whole, I found the first half or so of the book to be a little bit of a slog. Things improved me as the long journey across the ice began. There was more here about human connection, and it was generally more appealing to me than the other anthropological bits earlier in the book. Really this is somewhere between a 2-star and a 3-star for me. I think I'd go back to the Earthsea series (I liked book 1 a lot) before picking up more random selections from LeGuin. ( )

This book is another one of those listed on the NPR list that I'm very slowly chipping away at, and it was highly recommended by someone whose reading judgment I appreciate; therefore, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that it turned out to be one of the more enjoyable reads from the list thus far. I found the political and cultural nuances of the storytelling to be intriguing, the plot by turns nerve-wracking and infuriating. I'll definitely be adding more books by this author to the "to-read" list. ( )