The Left Hand Of Darkness
Superficially, this novel is the story of Genly Ai, first ambassador (“Mobile”) of Hain, to the people of the kingdom of Karhide on the planet they call Winter, and what happens to him there when he becomes entangled in an accusation of treason. He is imprisoned and escapes, and there is a considerable amount of suspense and action as Genly navigates his way around Winter and its kingdoms, eventually finding his way back to safety.
I say “superficially” because this book really has nothing to do with any of those things at all. They are merely the framework that Le Guin uses to arrange the true story upon.
The Hainish people, Ais people, are human as we would recognize them. Le Guins future universe is populated by the Hainish and non-Hainish, and her best work is typically a story of what happens when Hainish ambassadors go into the field — become “Mobiles” — as first contacts to non-Hainish worlds. The Left Hand of Darkness is no exception. The true story is how the experience of immersion in a wholly different culture transforms the Mobile.
Le Guins worlds are intricately drawn and usually radically different from our own. Gethen, or, as the natives
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