Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous
Review: A voracious reader of s&sf, particularly enjoying fun and extremely well-written, stories with reference to mythology, wonderful female characters, and alternative social structures, this book is the book I will always refer to as the SF classic. I just re-read it, and wanted to make sure that I'm ALWAYS notified of anything remotely similar in print - so here is my review.I realize that the most interesting thing about this book, when I read it first back in the 70's, was that it was the first real discussion of gender roles. I'm amused to read some of the reviews of this book - I think that perhaps some younger readers my not understand how pivotal was Left Hand of Darkness. Virtually a banned book for years in my midwestern hometown, it was a simple first and second word on gender, sexuality, and difference. Elegantly simple. The haunting tone of the book survived its plot, in my mind, and though on re-reading it, it does not have the contextual detail I enjoy in the wealth of the post-1990 "genre" (is this still a genre?), I still find it haunting. The anatomy of a relationship, the uneven odd emotions provoked by difference in biology and culture including mild paranoia, the realistic political confusion, the tragedy - this is a complex novel, and ranks as literature. Nothing is oversimplified. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: A book not to be forgotten
Review: The Left Hand of Darkness is rich with themes on cultures, trust, the nature of truth, the roles of the sexes, and much more. The book is not dry at all - LeGuin incorporates beauty into language like no other author can accomplish. And instead of strong declarations of what's right, the book merely asks questions and states the ideas, leaving the reader free to believe what they choose. I enjoyed the gentle pace with beautiful prose, moist philosophy, and watching the well-developed characters. If you expect a great adventure story, you will be disappointed. This is a window into the world of Winter/Gethen, the lives and works of Genly Ai and Estraven, and the insight it offers for our own world. The last part of the novel was slightly inferior to the rest, but I wasn't disappointed. I read this 300 page book in two school days, and it's the best thing I've read since Anna Karenina.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst (psudo) ethnography I have ever read
Review: I was just forced to read this book for a class. It was assigned under the false pretenses that my classmates and I would take away some kind of meaning from it about notions of gender and sexuality. By the end of the first half, I wanted to hurl this book out the window. My understanding of LeGuin's groundbreaking so-called genderless society is that they A) are all sterile or suffering from mental defect as humans born with chromosomal problems (which these people must suffer from since humans that are not XX or XY tend to have many problems.) B) have all since died of heart disease or other obesity related illness since all they seem to do is eat all day and live on a planet where outdoor activity seems to just about kill everyone. C) overrun the planet with an excess population since according to the author nearly everyone gets pregnant at one point or another, making that many more people capable of gestating. D) in their sexually recptive constantly due to pheremones in the air. The characters are bull-headed and completely unlikable. When Ai and Estraven crossed the Ice, I wanted them to freeze to death already just to put me out of my misery. The prose is choppy and shift between narrators without any notice making it rather difficult to figure out just what is going on. I the end I have to say that I understand why this book won the awards that it did when it did (1969) but is by no means a well written book or likable story. The author only deserves credit for having the gal to pose some issues to society. I just wish she could write, making such assignments easier to bear. Hopefully all of the professors who grew up on this drivel in the 1960's will re-read things like this before assigning them and realize that what was great then just isn't now, or in the case of "Darkness" never was.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: A wonderful, deliberate book that works on many levels, as a fascinating intellectual/philosophical look at various concepts, particularly gender (obviously, since the inhabitants of Genthen are androgynous, but there's really no grounds for calling this a "gay/lesbian" work) and dualism. Although it's relatively short, and other books take hundreds of pages to relate their created worlds, Le Guin manages to give a solid sense of the planet Genthen by using several devices, including some in-between chapters that consist of different myths folk stories or scientific reports. These serve to heighten and highlight the themes of the novel and to ellucidate them as well. Readers who complain about this, or the shifting point-of-view narration are simply missing the point. However, ideas, no matter how compelling, do not give a book heart, and so the most affecting aspect of the story is the bond that develops between Earth-man Genly Ai and the Genthen Estraven. From original misunderstanding and distrust, they learn to trust and understand each other, despite their cultural differences. This friendship is truly poignant and well-wrought. While it is not an action-adventure book, and thus will disappoint anyone looking for extended action sequences (not Le Guin's forte), it's a deliberate, evocative book, and would be so judged by the standards of any genre.
Rating:
Summary: A trek to question one's perceptions.
Review: This book won the 1969 Nebula Award and the 1970 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel of the year. I recall first reading this book when it first appeared and being stunned at the originality and the beauty. I have read every Hugo and Nebula winner (and most of the nominees) and this is still near the top. In this classic novel, all of the action takes place on the planet known as Gethen or Winter, a frozen world set in Le Guin's Hainish universe. All of the humanoid inhabitants of Winter are exactly the same as the humans of Earth except in the means of reproduction. They are all of a single sex and can assume either sex when in "heat." If one person of a couple becomes female, the other automatically becomes male. The culture and society of this world is shaped not only by the harsh environment but by this sexual structure. A main portion of the novel is concerned with the trek of a human ambassador and ethnologist, Genly Ai, across Winter's surface with a Getthenian. The man from Earth and the manwoman from Winter grow to know and understand each other. The novel not only raises issues about our perceptions of sex but the problems associated with cultural chauvinism. It is a book that all serious students of science fiction literature should read. For those earlier reviewers who awarded this book a low rating because it wasn't "classic" science fiction, you have to recall that psychology, sociology, and anthropology are all sciences (remember that the author's father, T. Kroeber, was the first Chairman of the Anthropology Department at U.C. Berkeley), just like physics, chemistry, or, in my case, biochemistry. And to the reviewer from Washington, D.C., (of March 3, 1999) who complained that Genly Ai was too uninteresting as the main character. Perhaps that was the point. Have you forgotten your Heisenberg?
Rating: 
Summary: Considering the possibilities
Review: In her introduction, the author makes some compelling statements about the nature of science fiction as descriptive and not predictive. Her work addresses the real world using the metaphor of the future, of science, of alternative biologies and cultures. What are the elements of her story metaphors for? "If I could have said it non-metaphorically, I would not have written all these words, this novel." Right now I am trying to decide which of the two viewpoint characters serves as the best metaphor for the novel as a whole. On the one hand, we have Genly Ai, the envoy from an interstellar community of worlds that has just decided to invite the desolate planet Winter to join, after years of secret observation. Genly arrives alone and unarmed, bearing only words and ideas: the possibility of flight, travel between the stars, other shards of humanity living on distant worlds. Likewise, this book comes in peace, bringing you not action and adventure but an invitation to participate in a thought experiment, possibly expand your horizons. On the other hand is Estraven, a member of this alien race of humans considering Genly's message. As Genly's main point of interaction with the inhabitants of Winter, he brings to life the alienness of all his kind. In the same way, a novel brings to life ideas that perhaps can only be expressed in story. Estraven is still recognizably human, but his people's sexual androgyny renders him somehow fundamentally estranged from the familiar. Echoing Estraven's interactions with Genly, this novel does not offer any straight answers, but time spent getting to know it yields a measure of understanding and even affection. I'm afraid I can draw no conclusion from my perhaps pointless exercise, except that you'll have to read this deservingly classic science fiction novel and judge for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: More than science fiction
Review: With a few exceptions, I don't usually enjoy the usual science fiction books. But this one is different. If I had just seen the cover and the description on this page, it would have sounded like a horrible book. But the book is so much deeper than that. It brings up political, philosophical, and moral questions. This book is more about the nature of the human race than science fiction, disguised as a story about another planet. The story is addicting, the main character is easy to relate to, and the language is thoughtful and deep.
Rating:
Summary: A classic, that's all there is to it.
Review: A double award-winner (Nebula and Hugo, and Mrs. LeGuin will receive the Grandmaster Award this year), this 1960s novel stands as one of the most respected SF tales ever because the depth of its alien society; so human in so many ways (the residents of the planet Gethen are actually termed 'humans'), yet so far away in their sexuality. The people of Gethen are androgynous most of the year, with a monthly period where they can change into either males or females for mating. LeGuin crafts a fascinating view of how this one change in physiology creates a unique society. The depth of the culture rivals that of that in _Dune_. The plot follows an envoy from an alliance of human planets trying to convince Gethen to join the union, who then runs afoul of Gethen's cultural differences and twisty politics. The story moves slowly, allowing a close examination of the alien culture, and reaches its height with the growing friendship between envoy Genly Ai and exiled politician Estraven. In an interesting departure from the customary use of point-of-view, LeGuin switches between two different first person narrators. It's a daring device, but LeGuin makes it work after its first confusing appearance. If you have any intereset in science fiction, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. It's one of the basic texts of the genre.
Rating:
Summary: A classic, well worth your time
Review: This novel presents a richly detailed alien world and culture, and gives you a regular human as your ambassador as well as a powerfully rendered native in Estraven. The plot is a mix of intrigue, communication, and learning, but also of survival when political and environmental forces are pitted against the main characters. So far, it has all the things that make a good book: great setting and characters, plus intrigue and conflict. But Ms. Le Guin takes it up a notch with a very intriguing exploration of how gender, as well as climate, can shape a world. For me, this heightened an already engrossing character study.
Rating:
Summary: An Honest Letter
Review: I had no idea how to review this book, so I wrote Ms. Le Guin a letter. I thought I would include part of it as my review. She responded to me, and it was a real thrill. See the letter below: Ms. Le Guin, I am a 33 year old school teacher in Edinburg, IL. I teach English to middle school students. I occasionally teach college composition classes as an adjunct faculty member. I am also an avid reader and a struggling writer. I have always believed that in order to write good fiction one has to read a lot of good fiction and a lot of bad fiction. I have done both. I began a quest to read all of the Hugo Award winners to give myself an impression of what many consider to be good writing. That is when I discovered your novel THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS. It was sitting quietly in a used bookstore with a tattered cover and a well-read spine. As I began to read it, I have to admit that at first I wasn't particularly impressed. It seemed an odd world, and I was having a hard time getting into the story. This did not last long. The greatness of the book began to emerge. I began to read at a quicker pace. I became so enthralled with the culture you had created that I could think of little else. You took me to the places that you had fashioned and made me live as one of your characters. I remember your descriptions of the snow and ice. I actually felt cold most of the time I read your novel. Perhaps this degree of identification is unusual, but your work moved me so much that I can only describe it as awe-inspiring. I truly felt that I was in the presence of a true master. I cannot say for certain why the book is so wondrous. I have tried to analyze it many times in my mind. I am a huge fan of writing reviews but have put off writing one for this novel because I honestly do not know what to say. Long after the last page was read, I kept thinking about it. I am still thinking about it today. It is everything I want to accomplish in a book of my own one day. It has a timeless quality, and a sort of class that sets it apart from many other works. The magic of it is that I cannot put my finger on why I like it so much. I have wasted many hours reading bad books, and I have spent many hours reading books that can only be described as wonders. Yours is among the wondrous. Yours is beyond them. The experience of the novel touched my life, and it truly taught me what good character development is. It taught me what good setting is. It taught me that no matter what we write about it comes down to humanity. The problems we all face each day are paramount in our minds. The solutions, though sometimes out of reach, are what we all strive for. I am sure you have received many letters about your works over the course of your career, but I humbly submit mine. I felt that I could never put to rest the feelings that THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS evoked from me unless I wrote to thank you personally. I am glad for the opportunity. I hope that it does you good to know that you have encouraged a humble teacher to continue to strive to create a story as great and wondrous as yours. Perhaps one day you will read something of mine and be able to know that you had a hand in my inspiration. Thank you so very much.
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