The Left Hand Of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Orbit have published a new hardback edition. It's one of those lovely sized small hardbacks, that are almost paperback size, handy and yet sturdy. I like them. The cover is nice too, two figures trudging into blinding white. And as befits an anniversary edition there are extras: a foreword by Le Guin, some hand drawn maps, some notes on calendar and language, and a short story. All in all a nice book.

I'd never read anything by Le Guin before, another name on my endless to-read list (and The Dispossessed sitting on my shelf), so I wasn't sure what to expect other than its reputation as a classic.

The story starts with the standard stranger-in-a-strange land idea, with some nice description but disappointingly a whole raft of Fantasy baggage: I mean, can a Science Fiction story really use the word 'breeches'? ;-) The story then gets interesting, with three big ideas:

• Firstly the stranger is revealed is an alien ambassador, first contact to a lower tech planet which has been invited to join the galactic community.
• Secondly the planet itself is harsh and cold, not quite Hoth but definitely Arctic circle climate.
• Thirdly the people of the planet have no gender divide, becoming male or female for a couple of days each month, depending on circumstances.

The story is very political, outlining a struggle between two countries, but framed from a personal perspective. All of these threads are blended skilfully, none of it forced, and the end result is masterfully natural.

Unfortunately I got bored. The initial set of ideas melted away and we're left with a personal survival story. Endless trudging across ice and snow. It's like all those dull bits of Lord Of The Rings. Trudge, trudge trudge. I didn't really care about the characters by that point, I just wanted it to end. It's not the subject that's the problem here, but the way it was handled: Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica, which also tackles winter survival head on, managed to awe me with the harsh weather and landscape and make me care deeply about his characters. No such joy with The Left Hand Of Darkness.

The gender idea of the story seems to be the one that people talk about the most, but it left me feeling "so what?". It's an interesting thought experiment, but not one that changed my thinking, or even sparked me to think. Somehow it feels a bit old fashioned. Is that because I'm reading it in 2009, or because I'm a man, or because I'm an enlightened New Man(!), or because I find Feminist issues dreary, or [insert rude comment here]? I don't know.

In parts the book reminded me of Iain Banks Culture novels, but without the fun bits. Yes, I know that's backwards, and maybe that's the problem, I read this book first in 2009 and not 1969.

I can't go back to 1969 to see and feel the impact, I can only tell you the impact on me right now. It's like trying to imagine hearing Jimi Hendrix for the first time in 1965 after growing up listening to Van Halen. Impossible.