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I love some of Le Guin's works, although I found that some are much better than others. I would definitely recommend reading The Left Hand Of Darkness, I think
by adriand 11y ago
I love some of Le Guin's works, although I found that some are much better than others. I would definitely recommend reading The Left Hand Of Darkness, I think it stands out among her best.
The follow-up, The Dispossessed, I thought was much weaker and less interesting and in fact I couldn't even finish it, which was odd given how much I loved Darkness. But in general she's a more intelligent, perceptive, engaging and literary writer than many of her (usually male) science fiction counterparts, whose work is often barely readable (flimsy characters, lousy dialogue) or is reminiscent of what you'd expect if you asked a teenage boy to write the plot to a science fiction action movie (e.g. much of Neal Stephenson's work).
I read The Telling quite recently and enjoyed it as well. The Earthsea fantasy series is also excellent.
- knodi123 11y agoI also found her hit-or-miss. But in case you wanted another reccomendation, we read The Word For World Is Forest in my science fiction literature course in college, and it was excellent.
- djur 11y agoThe Dispossessed is one of my favorite books; different strokes, and all that. I thought her recent book Lavinia was superb.
- adriand 11y ago> The Dispossessed is one of my favorite books; different strokes, and all that. Interesting. Did you like The Left Hand Of Darkness as well? How do you feel they compare? I will check out Lavinia - thanks for the reco.
- foobarbecue 11y agoThe Dispossessed has always been one of my favorites, and I was incredibly disappointed when I read LHoD! I found LHoD sort of boring. So much focus on this gender-bending stuff which I found pointless... I actually thought there was a lot in there that was downright mysogenistic. In fact, I made a list of quotes a few years ago when I read it. These are mostly said by the narrator, who's supposed to come from some elevated society where they've got everything figured out. I've been waiting for someone to explain to me how exactly U. K. LG is a feminist, maybe the article above will help, going to read now. Here's that list... please read: http://files.aaroncurt.is/lhodGender.txt http://files.aaroncurt.is/lhodGender.txt
- djur 11y agoGenly Ai, the book's narrator, is pretty sexist and arrogant. He is repulsed and confused by the way gender works on the planet. He observes what he sees like an anthropologist from an "enlightened" Earth society, comparing their folkways to his own and finding them insufficient. The other Hainish Cycle books make it pretty clear that the Ekumen is not a utopia, and Genly's faith in it is naive. By the end, Genly has a deeper understanding of Gethenian society, contrasted with his earlier arrogance.
- djur 11y agoI love both books. Left Hand is much more melancholy and anthropological, while The Dispossessed is more political and speaks to themes of trying to find one's place in society, accomplishing great works, "selling out", being heard when nobody wants to hear you, etc. They're books for different moods, for me.
- bsder 11y ago> I would definitely recommend reading The Left Hand Of Darkness, I think it stands out among her best. I slogged through "The Left Hand of Darkness". I was bored most of the time. And the whole gender thing felt very hamfisted and very at odds with real biology (reproduction generally tends to shut down when organisms are under extreme stress and need to conserve energy). However, I do recognize that I am reading it in a different time from when it was written.