General Information
Author – Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre – Science Fiction
Publication Year – 1969
Synopsis – A groundbreaking work of science fiction, “The Left Hand of Darkness” tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. 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 completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.
Review
It is crazy to think how monumental a science fiction novel can still be sixty years after its publication. There are a few that are able to stand the test of time, especially in this genre. When this was selected as the monthly choice for The Interstellar Book Club, I was excited to dive in and see what all of the hype was about. While I can see what made this novel so impactful at the time of its release, it felt like something was missing from the story overall.
Genly Ai, a human representative travels to the icy planet Gethen (also known as Winter) to convince them to join the coalition of humanoid worlds, Ekuman. Upon arrival, Ai notices that the individuals of Winter are genderless, assuming this is the reason why their society has a lot of issues politically. Throughout his mission, we see Ai travel to many worlds, experience hardships and learn to move past his biases as they are the prevention to his future safety.
This novel has been studied time and time again for its messaging that was so ahead of its time. A big focus of the novel was the idea of what sex and gender mean in a society. Those who live on Winter find the idea of gender pointless. How one identifies should not be how we are judged when there are so many more important traits that make a person who they are. With the novel being written in the late 60s, there are a lot of traditionally masculine traits that Ai has. Over the course of the story, we learn alongside him how irrelevant it is of how someone identifies. There are some moments when it seems like this well-meaning theme falls flat, bringing down the story as a whole on an enjoyment level. While the credit is deserved for branching out and being one of the earliest works to focus on the message of gender identity, it still suffers from stereotypes of its time period.
The first half of the story is mostly focusing on Ai and him trying to complete his mission and a lot of it feels like it drags. At times, it was a true struggle to get through. But when everything goes wrong for Ai, the story picks up a lot. Most of that is thanks to the side character we meet, Estraven. The connection and bond they form is the best part of the novel, reminding you that there are good people out in the world.
With good themes and messaging, the story takes a while to build to its impactful moments, making you question if the journey was completely worth it in the end.
