C
Science Fiction is at its best when it is used to challenge commonly accepted beliefs and societal norms, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it done better than in The Left Hand of Darkness. This book is challenging and rewarding in both its lexicon (real and fictitious) and its examination of sex and gender, and how that shapes and is shaped by our environment and culture. In addition, it is also one of the most believable stories about first contact, with a fully realized and complex world that feels as alien in the beginning as it does familiar by the end. The way the story and world are presented through multiple points of view interspersed with mythic parables does a fantastic job of revealing the intricacies of life on the planet Winter, the differences between each nation’s perspective on life and that of the envoy’s union of planets, and how each character perceives the other and the events that they are caught up in. This book should be on everyone’s reading list, science fiction fan or not.
Science Fiction is at its best when it is used to challenge commonly accepted beliefs and societal norms, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen it done better than in The Left Hand of Darkness. This book is challenging and rewarding in both its lexicon (real and fictitious) and its examination of sex and gender, and how that shapes and is shaped by our environment and culture. In addition, it is also one of the most believable stories about first contact, with a fully realized and complex world that feels as alien in the beginning as it does familiar by the end. The way the story and world are presented through multiple points of view interspersed with mythic parables does a fantastic job of revealing the intricacies of life on the planet Winter, the differences between each nation’s perspective on life and that of the envoy’s union of planets, and how each character perceives the other and the events that they are caught up in. This book should be on everyone’s reading list, science fiction fan or not.