The Left Hand of Darkness

Image of book cover for The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (50th Anniversary Edition)
 
Image of book cover for The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Penguin Galaxy Edition))
 

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Winner of the 1969 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 1995 Retrospective Otherwise Award

The Left Hand of Darkness was originally published in 1969 by Ace Books. Though it is often considered the fourth book of the Hainish Cycle, Ursula maintained that there is no particular cycle or order for the Ekumen novels. It is included in The Hainish Novels and Stories, published in 2017 by Library of America.

Praise

“The Left Hand of Darkness surprises me again every time I reread it. There are so many wonderful ideas and stark emotional moments, and Le Guin’s language always startles me with its sheer power and wonder. And every detail in the book has little stories embedded inside it, and these stories keep intersecting and building on each other every time I revisit them—until you start to realize that everything is made of stories. As Genly Ai says on the very first page, ‘Truth is a matter of the imagination.’”

—Charlie Jane Anders, in the afterword to the 50th anniversary edition

“Perhaps it is enough to say that The Left Hand of Darkness is relevant, full stop. That’s what I see as Le Guin’s ultimate triumph with this book—not the impact it had on me, not the impact it had on the genre, not the exquisite prose that sings with every step. It is one thing to write a good story, or a great story. It is a whole other accomplishment, for an author of fiction, to write a true story.”

—Becky Chambers, in the introduction to the Folio Society edition

“This is my sacred scripture. This is what science fiction and fantasy can do. In much the same way that Star Trek shows us what the future can be like if we set aside our differences in pursuit of a common goal, Le Guin’s novel imagines how bridges can be built, chasms crossed. By the end, the book has changed us. Thus, the author not only demonstrates how to build worlds. She shows why we build worlds in the first place.”

—Robert Repino, Tor.com

“Probably one of the most extraordinary examples of soft-core sf is Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), which reflects the author's formidable background in anthropology as well as her overriding ethical and artistic concerns.”

—Susan Schwartz, The New York Times

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