# Reading > Forum Book Club >  April'11 Sci-Fi Reading: Left Hand of Darkness

## Scheherazade

*In April we will reading Left Hand of Darkness  by Ursula Le Guin.

Please post your thoughts and opinions in this thread.*

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## Mutatis-Mutandis

I would give it a 4.5, but I usually round up. The originality of the world and culture Le Gun creates is enough to warrant a high rating.

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## OrphanPip

Ya, the novel has a pretty brilliant, yet simplistic, basic premise. What would a society without traditional binaries be like? The most obvious of those binaries absent from the people of Winter is the male/female gender binary. The second most prominent is the summer/winter one, since the planet is nearly always cold. 

That's of course reflected in the title, Left Hand of Darkness, taking one half from two different binaries and putting them together

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## Paulclem

Sounds good. I'll have to see if I can get a copy. 

I don't think I've read any Le Guin. I've heard some good things though.

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## Paulclem

Just started the novel. It's interesting how sci fi writers establish the setting. She uses a complex time reference which included 1490 - which immediately put me in mind of the 15th C - especially combined with the Henry VIII type figure of the King. I suppose it's important to establish some terms of reference.

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## OrphanPip

The book is part of a series as well, which is probably why she makes a point of the year, but it's not really important to be aware of the other books and short stories that make up the Hainish Cycle.

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## Calidore

> Sounds good. I'll have to see if I can get a copy. 
> 
> I don't think I've read any Le Guin. I've heard some good things though.


Her original Earthsea trilogy is amazing. And short. There's a lesson in them that few other fantasy authors have learned: You don't need a couple thousand pages to build a world.

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## Paulclem

> The book is part of a series as well, which is probably why she makes a point of the year, but it's not really important to be aware of the other books and short stories that make up the Hainish Cycle.


Do you think it helps in your imaginary conception of how the world appears? It's got a castle, and they all wear elaborate robes, and we've just had a procession with the King. 

It's a winter world. Ideally it's one I'd like to read in Winter to get into the feel of it - you know - curl up in a cosy corner etc.

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## Mutatis-Mutandis

TLHoD is part of a series? I didn't know this. What else is part of the series, and is it worth reading?

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## OrphanPip

It's a very loosely connected series, more of a shared universe. The premise being that an interplanetary civilization settled all these planets, then collapsed. Almost all the novels involve emissaries visiting the different planets during the reconstruction of a new interplanetary civilization. Like Genly in Left Hand of Darkness.

The other highly regarded stories in the series are The Dispossessed and the novella The Word for World is Forest. There are a few other novels in the series, but I haven't read them.

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## Paulclem

This could be where Iain M Banks got his inspiration for the culture novels which invlve the management of civilisations' technological ability through covert and overt means until they can join the culture or interact with it.

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## Scheherazade

I am still waiting for my copy to be delivered by the library.

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## Abu3li

I will start reading it today. As it was hard to get a printed copy, I've downloaded it to my PC :Frown:

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## Paulclem

I'm cracking on with the book. It raises some very interesting points, but seems to conform to the sci-fi genre's pre-occupation with and commentry on present conditions - which is not a criticism. I'm thinking of the two societies on Winter.

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## Scheherazade

Soooo, finally my copy has arrived apparently. Tomorrow I will go and pick it up from the library and start reading.

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## Paulclem

> Her original Earthsea trilogy is amazing. And short. There's a lesson in them that few other fantasy authors have learned: You don't need a couple thousand pages to build a world.


She's done a good job of this with The Left Hand of Darkness. 

Another author I like for their world building is China Mieville. Reading his stuff is like being on a train and constantly seeing interesting thngs that flash by you, but there's no time to look or investigate in detail. The effect of that is to have this colourfully textured setting where the action takes place, but which complements the wierdness of the stories.

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## Mutatis-Mutandis

I have _The City and the City_ waiting to be read. It's my first Meiville book.

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## Paulclem

> I have _The City and the City_ waiting to be read. It's my first Meiville book.


I've read three of his - Perdido Street Station, The Iron Council and The City and The City. All three I enjoyed, though The City... has a wierd central idea around a more conventional plot. 

He's an nteresting writer - unconventional and imaginative.

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## Paulclem

I've finished the LHOD, and quite liked it, but I wondered if it merely served to explore the central theme of hermaphroditism. It was bitty in some respects. We got a good initial description of both societies, but, this didn't seem to go anywhere except as possible ciphers for monarchies and communist societies. Their respective traits were laid out, and I suppose the book seemed to endorse the more individualistic monarchic society rather than the centrally controlled one.

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## Scheherazade

I am very sorry that I could not read this book. It is still sitting on my bedside table, waiting to be picked up.

I will try to give it a go this week.

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## Paulclem

> I am very sorry that I could not read this book. It is still sitting on my bedside table, waiting to be picked up.
> 
> I will try to give it a go this week.


It's no problem. Life happens.  :Wave:

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## Paulclem

Historical fiction soon. I've just finished a book, and so I'm ready for that one.

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## Scheherazade

The beginning of the book has reminded me of _Handmaid's Tale._

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