The Left Hand of Darkness

I received The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin as a birthday gift from one of my best friends from college. Another friend of ours absolutely raved about it. I, however, do not share their enthusiasm. Of course, I'm not a sci-fi fan, so I'm not really the right audience for this book. I was convinced to read it, however, when the friend who gave it to me reminded me that it was a favorite book of the cute guy in The Jane Austen Book Club.

The book is about an envoy to a distant planet where the people are ambisexual: they are asexual most of the time, only taking on gender for a few days each month. They do not always take the same gender, and they are free to mate with different people, or swear a partnership with one person. Now, I appreciate the talent and imagination it takes to create these alternate worlds. I don't doubt LeGuin's genius--or that of Tolkein and the other sci-fi/fantasy greats. I'm just not a fan myself . . . Harry Potter being the obvious exception. I read an article once on the difference between sci-fi and fantasy. Sci-fi is based on fact: set in this world and using technology that exists or is possible. In fantasy, as the name suggests, anything goes; it does not rely on the rules of this world. With this ambisexual race, I would put Left Hand in the fantasy category, although it is packaged as sci-fi.

I probably would have stopped reading this halfway through, but my friends' enthusiasm for the book and the love story mentioned in the jacket copy made me keep going. At least I thought the jacket copy mentioned a love story. I reread the blurb when I was 2/3 of the way through the book and still no romance. What it actually says is "in the course of a long journey across the ice he reaches an understanding with one of the Gethenians--it might even be a kind of love . . . " Well, it might be a kind of love does not a love story make. So, chalk this one up to literature appreciation. Now that I'm headed to Vegas for the weekend, I'm looking forward to some utterly trashy chick lit!

For those keeping count: 4 down, 55 to go!