The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K Le Guin

Release Date: 5th Nov 2009
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 978 1 8414 9606 1
RRP: £12.99

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A classic Sci-fi title gets a 40th anniversary make-over...

The Left Hand of Darkness is Sci-fi, but not as would be recognisable to most Sci-fi fans of this modern age. Mr Ai is an alien; an envoy from a peaceful organisation that oversees the smooth operation of a contingent of planetary alliances. His presence on Winter is met with unsurprising fear, distrust and scepticism –his claim of being other-worldly even being held to scrutiny and debate. Undeniable, though, is his sexual ‘perversion’; for on Winter there are no single-sex humans. All are non-gendered individuals whom take on reproductive abilities for only one-sixth of the time. Also, undeniable is the existence of his ‘ship’ and “ansible”, which is a form of instantaneous interplanetary communicator. Despite this, his mission to enlist Winter as a new member of Ekumen falls into difficulties; not least due to the bizarre political nuances and social intricacies that make up this lesser known human species.

A cold world, Winter is in some respects recognisable with its landboat vehicles that move across the snow on caterpillar treads, its monarchy and political system and the existence of a general religion. In many others, it is a veritable maze of obscurity, incomprehensible logic and peculiar niceties; all of which culminate to create a wondrous, if somewhat complicated and intellectually challenging new world. And this is the crux of Le Guin’s extraordinary prowess as an author: her Winter is vague, subtle, intensely similar and yet unfamiliar, complex yet extraordinarily simple, a barrage of light and dark that surely epitomises the very nature of humanity.

It is not hard to believe this novel is 40 years old – it comes from a time when nuance and subtleties conjoined with incongruous meaning were enlisted by an author to create a mental image that required more cerebral input from the reader than it is today. The “story” is more documentary narrative, with its depersonalised objectivity and impassive regurgitation of events, thoughts and feelings.

The Left Hand of Darkness was hailed as a literary masterpiece all those years ago; a simple statement of fact that remains, if anything, even truer today. Le Guin is a singularly brilliant writer: an individual capable of embracing complex sociological and psychological and wrapping them within an accessible covering.

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28 January 2010: Anonymous wrote:
it is a while since i read this book as usually science fiction would'nt tempt but the concepts are without doubt relevant to a modern world , the concept that a person can go through a period of kemmer to have a family with whoever they fell in love with regardless of gender,are our souls really given a gender as a person or are same sex souls placed in the wrong bodies a read that you don't forget and stays with you like a cold at winter