The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

The first 1960's book chosen by the group was The Left Hand of Darkness. Whether you have already read it or plan to do so feel free to discuss here.

I read The Left Hand of Darkness many years ago. It has always been one of my very favorite books. I've requested it from my local library to reread.

What a strange book wonderful book. Quintessence of Le Guin's style, with hints and nuances and that strange permeating atmosphere of mystery and regret.It's about memories of a time gone, of a special friendship and the regret of a survivor.

I've tried this book several times over the years & it never gripped me. I'm listening to it now & managing to get through it, but it's not wowing me at all.

Jim wrote: "I've tried this book several times over the years & it never gripped me. I'm listening to it now & managing to get through it, but it's not wowing me at all."

I have the library book in hand, but I have a few others to read before I get to it. I so enjoyed it years ago. I hope I won't be disappointed in the reread.

I've tried to read this several times over the years. While I loved her Earth Sea trilogy, The Lathe of Heaven & several other books including 2 earlier ones in this series, I could never get into this one, so I decided to listen to it. Never loved it, barely got through it, still I gave it 3 stars because it finally gets around to making a decent story. Really it's more of a 2.5 star read, though.

My full review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

There is a spoiler warning in bold about halfway through the review. Nothing above that is one, though. I'd love to discuss it because so many seem to think this was a great book. It just didn't read that way for me.

i tried reading it this year for the first time and put it down. I might try again in the future.

It's a strange thing about Le Guin. The Left Hand of Darkness was the first book of hers that I read, years ago. I thought it was great. I abandoned the next two. And then after that I've read a couple that were quite good.

I've just got back from holiday today and had been planning to read this during my hols. For some reason I thought I had this but when I checked on my Kindle I actually had The Dispossessed. I'm going to have to chase up a copy of this (although it seems to be getting quite mixed reviews.) I am going to start Lord of Light instead.

One thing that I forgot to mention, one of the many oddities that detracted from the main points, was the way they numbered their years. I wish she'd developed that concept a bit more. As it was, it just seemed a cumbersome oddity.

I haven't finished - I'm only about a fifth of the way through - but I wanted to wax a bit rhapsodic about what I've read. The thing that always impresses me anew with Le Guin is the gentle, poetic magnificence of her writing. Generally I start one of her books with a skeptical response, an "I'm not really getting into this plot" reaction, and then thirty or so pages later I find that I am completely enveloped by the awesome way she has with words.

An example: "I thought, shivering, that there are things that outweigh comfort, unless one is an old woman or a cat." This is such efficient character building, and yet humorously formed. From this one sentence, we know that Genly is suffering from the cold, that he's having doubts about whether his mission is worth facing this cold, and that not only is he talking himself into further resolve, but he's mocking himself as he does it (and in such a way that we know a bit more of his attitude about women and cats). I read writing like that with delight and awe.

I realize, as I write this, that the book has engaged in a huge amount of explanation, describing the Winter culture, and yet I haven't yet felt at any point that it was "telling" me, or even that it was particularly expository.

It's a big jump, going from the heavily plot-oriented story "Lord of Light" to this very character-focused one, but so far I'm making the transition. I like both approaches, when they're done well.

The Left Hand of Darkness is sitting on my reading table, under Zelazny's Lord of Light. I just started The Martian by Andy Weir. I'll read Lord of Light after finishing The Martian, so I'll be joining this discussion late. But I just can't help myself...

I read The Left Hand of Darkness a long long time ago. It is one of my all time favorite books. I'm looking forward to rereading it with a little apprehension of being disappointed.

Le Guin is a master at creating fictional cultures. Some of her work is more anthropological fiction than science fiction. I remember the sexual dimorphism as being part and parcel of the culture of the planet, but I don't remember it as being the be all and end all of the book. I remember the book being interspersed with the creation myths of the cold planet. But the thing that made me like the book so much was the the plot - the political intrigue and adventure aspects, and near the end the desperate trek across the glaciers and snowfields.

The left hand of darkness was the first time I heard of the ansible, a device that allows instantaneous communications across vast distances. Orson Scott Card employs ansibles in his Ender series, and I think I've come across it in other works. As far as I know, it originated with Le Guin.

Even though it seems to be getting mixed reviews here, now that I have it in hand I'm anticipating with relish rereading The Left Hand of Darkness towards the end of this month.

I've started reading this now and am up to chapter 5. It's certainly a contrast with Lord of Light. Interestingly Lord of Light made me wonder what the definition of sci-fi was and other than the visitor from another planet I could ask the same question here. I've not really got a strong opinion on this book yet so I will wait for the plot to develop further.

I've just finished reading this this morning. At the beginning I wasn't sure, in the middle I really loved it and then I was disappointed with the end. I liked the style of writing it's beautifully descriptive and the characterisation is very good. I'm always a fan of political intrigue in a book and this did it well. The only thing I didn't like was the end, probably just me but it didn't seem in line with the rest of the book.

I was reticent to reread the Left Hand of Darkness for years, thinking I might be disappointed, that I might not find it as good as it was when I had read it long ago, shortly after it was published. I'm glad to report that I was not disappointed. It is superlative. This was the first of LeGuin's books that I read, some of which are quite good. This one excels.

Ursula K. LeGuin's strength is her ability to create a culture, a completely fictitious society, which is complex and natural and believable. She writes science fiction. It could as well be called anthropological fiction. The Left Hand of Darkness is an exemplar of that ability.

The story (view spoiler)[takes place on an icy world named Gethen, also known as Winter. Genly Ai is the First Envoy from the Ekumen whose mission it is to make contact with the inhabitants of Winter and ask them to ally themselves with the worlds of the Ekumen in the interest of trade and cultural exchange. He comes alone alone because one is a visitor but two is an invasion. After two years in the kingdom of Karhide, Ai finally gains an audience with the mad king, through the help of the prime minister Estreven. On the eve of the meeting Estreven falls into royal disfavor and is banished as a traitor. He flees to Karhide's neighboring adversary, Orgoreyn, a country with a heavily bureaucratic government. The king is suspicious of Ai and the meeting is unproductive. Ai travels the countryside and eventually crosses into Orgoreyn. There he is openly welcomed by Orgoreyn officials and runs into Estreven at a banquet. Estreven warns Ai about being used as a pawn for political ambitions by his Orgoreyn hosts, but Ai mistrusts Estreven and ignore the warning. Ai is arrested by the Orgoreyn secret police and sent to a Voluntary Farm, a prison work camp. The conditions are horrid and Ai will not survive much longer when Estreven breaks him out of jail. Estreven tells Ai, “I was the only one who trusted you, but you never trusted me.” In their desperate escape across miles of arctic wilderness, they become close friends. After their return to Karhide, Estreven the Traitor is discovered and is shot trying to cross the border back into Orgoreyn. He dies in Genly Ai's arms. Orgoreyn had reported that Ai had died of natural causes months earlier. When it becomes known that Ai lived and Estreven had been killed, both governments fell. (hide spoiler)]

Much has been made of the Gethenian's andogeneity, their ambisexual nature, aside from which they are human. There are no genders on Gethen. The people move in and out of maleness and femaleness, and either member of a couple may bear children. This obviously has profound implications on their culture. Many reviewers have dwelt on this aspect of the book, citing the times in which it was written, the burgeoning feminist movement, the awakenings of the gay rights movement, etc. For me it simply was a way that the Gethenians were so very alien from Genly Ai, and from us.

The book is very well written, literary fiction. The chapters are interspersed with little mini-chapters of Gethenian folklore. They help us to understand the alien culture in which Ai finds himself. These literary interstices are short stories by themselves. The story is told mostly through the eyes of Genly Ai, but later in the book, a few chapters are from Estreven's journal. The differing points of view help our understanding while keeping the novel relatively short. The story is not fast paced, but it never lags. It moves steadily along all the way through to reach its tragic climax.

The Left Hand of Darkness well deserves its status as a science fiction classic. All lovers of science fiction should read it.

This book is great in ways that I had never thought about SF being great before. It challenged my ideas of what the genre could do. Specifically, commenting on sociology on a personal rather than a governmental level. 1984 and its ilk are all aimed at a top-down view of society affecting the individual, but this is about individual experience affecting society. UKL manages delicate balance of plot vs. theme and the elements within the theme.

The closest comparison I can think of is Stranger in a Strange Land, which is a big sloppy, annoying mess. Putting those two books in the same category is like saying that haiku and limericks are both poems. It's true, but it's missing the point.