The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin blends philosophy, religion, sociology, gender studies, and probably all of the "hard" sciences. It's a remarkable read. The protagonist is a human ambassador to an alien world where the inhabitants have no fixed sex: they are able to switch (like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park!) to fit the needs of whatever breeding cycle they're in. The ambassador attempts to coerce this species to join a type of intergalactic alliance, and the plot more or less tracks that process. More important, though, is the vivid world of spirituality and cultural exchange, echoing around through different voices, that make up the narrative.

I enjoyed this novel. The first book of LeGuin's I read, called Lavinia, was about Aeneas' wife, a minor character in The Aeneid. It was fantastic. LeGuin died recently, and she was an Oregon writer, and I'm just now beginning to read her works. What made me put it off for so long was the trappings of genre. Something about our culture's propensity to treat superheroes and space fantasies with an adult seriousness makes science fiction really off-putting to me. It's usually derivative and stupid, something that I might have consumed when I was 11, but have outgrown a long time ago. LeGuin is something else though, and she spent her entire life considering herself a literary writer first. She's the real deal, and I look forward to reading many more of her books in the coming year.