By Ursula K. Le Guin

I found this perusing the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror/Western section of the local Goodwill. Happy to find cheap Sci-Fi classics, It was a little disappointing to find that it had a contemporary style cover rather than a tattered and faded classic cover. I am unashamed to say that I always judge books by their covers, at least when I am buying them. This was a classic, though and I convinced myself that it looked like soft serve vanilla ice cream, which I also happen to like.

I finished this book some time ago, and have only now got around to writing this. I grew to love it, though at first I found myslef wondering where this was all giong and when we would get there. By the end of the 2nd act I was drawn in as my questions began to be answered. Throughout, it is well written and the world that Le Guin creates is near total There is much cultural detail about the Gethenians, their customs, their governments, their conflicts, their sexuality, their folklore. This is not technology science fiction. This is social science fiction, and in this age of laser beams and interplanetary war, this is novel and intelligent.

Genly Ai, is an earthling, an ambassador from an interplanetary federation, sent to study the Gethenians and potentially bring them into the fold of the Ekumen. In the fictional Hainish universe, of which this story is apart; humans did not evolve on earth but spread out to various planets including earth and Gethen in its distant past. The Genethenians are human, yet they have evolved to be gender-less until their mating cycle, known as Kemer begins. During Kemer they may take on either male or female roles.

Genly seen as an oddity by the Gethenians. Some do not believe he is an alien from another planet. Some are slightly disturbed by the fact that he permanently seems to be in Kemer. Genly Ai, misunderstands Gethenian culture, partly because they do not exhibit the same gender based power roles that he is used to. His offer to bring Gethen into the Ekumen fold is rejected by one of the 2 nations of Gethen, Karhide. His main advocate, the prime minister Estraven, is accused of treason and sent into exile. Genly eventually travels to the other nation of Gethen, called Orgoreyn. At first he is well received but then he is imprisoned in a labor camp in a cold distant part of the interior, and a story of his accidental death is circulated.

Through these trials, his escape aided by the fugitive Estraven, their journey through the wilderness together, and a tragic ending, Genly comes to a more thorough understanding of Gethenian culture, and how the right hand of light is balanced by the left hand of darkness.