The Left Hand Of Darkness

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Great novels reflect the era when they were written. Yes I know that we are talking science fiction and distant make-believe planets, aliens and starships but under all of the surface differences is a novel about real people on Earth. Us. You and me. The readers, and the challenges we are currently facing. No one does this better than LeGuin. Before she wrote The Left Hand of Darkness most science fiction centered on male issues from male writers. She blew open the door by introducing feminism, gender and identity questions and human sexuality from a female perspective. Published in 1969 she won the Hugo and Nebula awards and from that time forward this novel is frequently listed near the top of nearly every all-time best science fiction novels list. It remains relevant, powerful and just as good as it was 45 years ago. This is a Vietnam era, post birth-control pill era novel when women in America began to take back possession of their own bodies and reproduction. We call this feminist science fiction.

Books in Hainish Cycle Series (8)

The Lathe Of Heaven

Rocannon's World

City Of Illusions

The Dispossessed

The Word For World Is Forest

Four Ways To Forgiveness

The Telling

The Dispossessed