Outstanding groundbreaking novel, great characterization, and about 1/3 of the plot consists of one of the best outdoor adventure stories I've ever read, reminiscent of the true story of the Shackleton Expedition.

There are a few prolific science fiction writers that I have had on my TBR list for some time, and Ursula K. Le Guin is one of them. I decided to tackle The Left Hand of Darkness because of it’s many awards and stellar reviews. Unfortunately, despite it’s many accolades, I did not personally enjoy it. I do, however, understand why it has received the praise bestowed upon it. It is a rather revolutionary work, both for the time it was written and the current time, and it is deeply philosophical….too philosophical for me. Although I do like a book that expands my thinking, I found it to be boring. Gethen as a setting sounds like my personal hell – cold and icy. The ambisexual nature of the native people was interesting, but there was not any particular character that I especially liked. The pacing of the book is hard to describe because to me it felt slow in some parts and rushed in others. All things considered, it is unlikely that I will read anymore books by Le Guin, but nevertheless I can say that I truly appreciate what she has done for the science fiction genre.

This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I felt changed by the journey the characters went on in the back half of the novel. I would recommend to anyone

This is the first book I read from Ursula K. Le Guin and I have to say that I compare her to the writing of Cormac McCarthy. Like McCarthy, I had to dedicate long periods of time in order to try to understand what the author is saying. Her writing is beautiful, but not easy for me to decipher.

It’s really interesting how there is a vast sci-fi genre, but in almost every book biological sex is the same as humans. Sci-fi authors are able to create hundreds of planets with the most creative technology, but Le Guin is the first to think biological sex doesn’t need to mimic humans in sci-fi.

She creates a group of people that have a 26 day cycle that aligns with their lunar cycle and for 24 days, they share traits of both male and female. But for the last two days, they will become either “male” or “female” in order to “kemmer” and have offspring. This is a fascinating idea from an evolutionary standpoint because reproduction is costly and risky, but the benefits is passage of one’s genetics. Since reproduction is not limited to a single gender, it is not possible for one group to take advantage of another in terms of labor due to the fluidity of sex. Most species have a cyclical mating period, but humans do not. The entire book is fascinating from a Biologist standpoint.

There’s also a good story, the author focuses on the political and communicative aspects of two alien species meeting. I found this in stark contrast to movies like Independence Day or Signs where the point of the aliens is to take resources or kill. It felt like the main character was an ambassador from the UN and he was meeting a newly created government (country).

I know and knew before reading that this is largely considered a bit of a gender studies book, but honestly most of the themes in here don't have anything to do with gender. LeGuin has a lot to say about order vs disorder, patriotism and fear, corruption by power, ego, ignorance vs knowledge, loyalty, and happiness. So, even though I typically have a strong dislike for books with social-justicey themes, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would recommend it to anyone as a classic piece of science fiction (though it's more of a fantasy novel if you ask me).

A striking, beautiful, and profound journey. Though fiction, this book should be required educational reading for all humans.

This book is really uneven. The concept is very good. The main story is very good. But every few chapters, the author feels the need to completely break the flow of the story and insert a chapter that's a tangentially related legend or historical tidbit. In only one case did I feel like that tangent added enough to the story to have been worth my while. I would have preferred for the story to have flowed better and, if the legends were necessary, to include them as part of a prologue or epilogue.

Essentially, this novel is an exploration of what it would be like to encounter a world that was mostly without gender (except for a few days a month). The conceptualization of how that could work (and still allow the species to propagate) was clever. Unfortunately, the author chose to use the pronoun 'he' for the genderless individuals and that really didn't work for me. I appreciate that the book was written in the 70s, but I completely disagree with the explanation given within the text that 'he' is a more gender neutral pronoun than 'she' or 'it'. I think it would have been far better for her to have invented a new pronoun as 'he' makes me think male - and I don't think I'm the only one. Something linguistically similar to 'he' and 'she' like 'ze' or something like that. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that he main character (a visitor to the planet) was actually male.

Incredible book. Deep and beautiful, moving and thought provoking, full of connections and meaning.

One of the few books I would put on my personal list as transformational. I first read it as a teen, and it gave me a whole new way to look at my own life and world. It did for me the best thing a book can do - broadened my mind.

Le Guin achieves a significant feat, creating a world without gender politics, but still a lot of political intrigue.

This book always gets me in the end. I’m not sure what to say about it. Most of this, until about the second half, is not something I would normally read. Yet, I’ve enjoyed it twice now.

Le Guin calls the Genethians androgynous, though I think I see them more as intersex, and somewhat similar to the Wraeththu of Storm Constantine’s books of the same name.