Sunday, April 8, 2018

Book Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness has been on my to-read list for a very long time. It's recognized as one of Ursula K. Le Guin's best novels and a hallmark of science fiction literature having won countless awards. With her passing a few months ago, I realized it was past time I get to this book and finally found the time to read it. Here's the official blurb:
On the planet Winter, there is no gender. The Gethenians can become male or female during each mating cycle, and this is something that humans find incomprehensible. 
The Ekumen of Known Worlds has sent an ethnologist to study the Gethenians on their forbidding, ice-bound world. At first he finds his subjects difficult and off-putting, with their elaborate social systems and alien minds. But in the course of a long journey across the ice, he reaches an understanding with one of the Gethenians — it might even be a kind of love
See below for my spoiler-free review.