The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin is absolutely, no doubt, one of the greatest sci fi books of all time. It also could not have broken the glass ceiling in a more awesome, on the nose way. Our first unanimous 5 out of 5.
In this episode we review Left Hand of Darkness, talk about the things that make it so timeless and fun to read, Ursula K Le Guin's real life experiences that inspired the book, and how it transcends sci fi and becomes 'literary' fiction that everyone can and should enjoy.
As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar stories if you're looking for more great books to read:
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Any of Ted Chiang's short story collections
City and the City - China Mieville
Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein (this one is controversial)
Spoiler-free book summary: Left Hand of Darkness follows Genly Ai, the first Envoy from the other human worlds of the galaxy to the planet Winter.
Winter is a cold, hostile world in the depths of a never-ending ice age, and the Gethenians who live there are biologically different than most humans. They spend most of their lives as hermaphrodites, but enter kemmer once a month, the time when they become sexually active and express male or female sex organs depending on the month. Genly’s assignment is to get the nations of Winter to join the Ekumen, a loose collection of human worlds that share knowledge and try to improve the lives of all humankind.
Genly has to navigate an alien culture, a mad king, and two feuding nations to try and complete his mission. Most importantly, he must learn who to trust, and how to build a relationship with people so different from himself.