by Ursula K. Le Guin
This review is a long time coming. Mostly because I just sat on it, and mostly because I moved. Or whatever excuse I can think of. I think I was getting too engrossed in other books and simply forgot. Oh well…
This book reminds me of why I love to read. It took me to a place I’ve never been before and confronted me with a people of a totally different culture on a totally different world and a totally different species of man (woman?). That’s why I took to reading at a young age in the first place. To visit new places and meet new people. Learn interesting things about them and where they’re from. How do they handle life, death, politics, family, friends, egos, and even the weather. This book has all of that and more. I’m planning on re-reading it later.
However, if I did have one complaint, which I don’t, it’s that every chapter changes perspective from one antagonist to the other without much of a heads up. After a few chapters I picked up on that, which is my fault. That’s why I don’t have a complaint. After all, Ms Le Guin has earned the Hugo and Nebula awards, so who am I to complain? I am a bit jealous of her use of prose. So as you can see, any negative comments coming from me is not worthy of the book or the author. I can be a bit slow sometimes, so sue me.
From what I understand this book, or rather the story, is a series without being a series. Basically it’s an attempt to include different cultures to join in a galactic league, so every book is different based on the planet. But there’s no time line to follow, every story stands on its own. That’s kind of cool. One of the reasons I gave up reading for a spell was because of a series I was reading where a certain event was supposed to happen but the author kept milking it to make more books. I got sick of that after the fourth book.
This story follows Genly Ai, a representative of as he maneuvers through the different social and political aspects of the planet Winter, his name for it. The people of the planet call it Gethen. And from there begins the comparative struggle between what off-worlders know and what the Gethens know. Most of it is about gender, because the people on Gethen have only one, although at certain times they can become either a receptor or transmitter of genetic material. While off-worlders see that as something alien (no pun intended) the people of Gethen are amazed at the off-worlders inability to switch genders. This is the starting point of the story as it progresses through the political and societal norms and traditions of a land so far away
Ms. Le Guin has created not just a story, but a world. It’s grand in its scope, greater than the sum of its parts, and deeply immersed. She has an eye for detail while not being wordy. Her use of words are not wasted, being colorful and imaginative. She describes a world that I’d like to visit, while also not want to visit (too cold). It’s an epic sci-fi thriller, and I’m not a real fan of thrillers. But this book has changed not just my mind, but me as well. I recommend it for everyone.
This review has been a long time coming. Writing it has renewed my enthusiasm for the book. Yes, I will be re-reading it later. I find that when I read it everything in the real world falls away, leaving me on a frozen planet, and wondering about the length of my shadow (Gethen euphemism). Perhaps I’ll pick up some of her other books. But I have other books to read first. And many more miles to go.
Arid Testimony 