Pages : 304
Overall Mark : 8/10
Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the winter-world Gethen. The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they become male or female at the peak of their sexual cycle. He becomes drawn into the complex politics of the planet and, during a long tortuous journey across the ice with a disgraced, outcast politician, loses his professional detachment and reaches a painful understanding of the true nature of Gethenians and, in moving and memorable sequence, even finds love…
URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929-)
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honour. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
VERDICT
In comparison to the rest of her Hainish stories, this one in my opinion gives the best background to the race of androgynous aliens. There is much more in-depth descriptions and explanations of exactly what their society is like, whereas the other books seemed to assume you already know. Of the series that I have read, this is probably the best one so far.
