This book was recommended to me on Twitter (by Elizabeth Bear who did a month of LGBTQIA+ book recommendations for Pride Month). I have attempted to read Le Guin before but have always struggled with the relatively dense prose, but I decided to give this book a try. I won’t lie, I had to force my way through it. I know a lot of recommendations out there say to not read books you aren’t enjoying because life is too short, but I wanted to read this, and in the end I am very glad I did. The world is terribly interesting on multiple (sexual, geological, social) levels and the last third is a classic adventure story.
Obviously, the reason this book was recommended for Pride Month was that the inhabitants of ”Winter,” an ice age planet stuck in Medevial-like era because of the protracted cold, evolved (or were placed, it isn’t clear) as a hermaphroditic species. For 26 of the 28 (tidally locked) days of the month, they are not sexually active, and have no sexual desire. Then, on the last two days of the month, they enter ”Kemmer,” and become either male or female. Their sexuality can enhance the sexuality of another, making them become the opposite gender. The book goes into a little detail on the evolutionary advantage of developing this way on a cold planet, but not a lot. The alien visitor, a human from Terra, Genly Ai, is only male, and is thus a pervert, a deviant. His job is to try to get the planet to join the Ekumen, a collection of governed worlds, should they desire it.
The first third or half of the book is political intrigue and a lot of it went over my head. The storytelling is dense, and episodic. The two main POV characters are Genly Ai and his partner/confidant/helper Therem Estraven (though it is only the closest siblings and friends that use first names), and the story is told through a combination of first person POV from Ai, journal entries from Estraven, and historical documents (myths, fables). As such, the narrative is relatively non-linear, but I did notice that the chapters that followed the myths and fables generally followed up closely, using the themes of the preceding chapter.
The edition I read, the 50th anniversary edition, had an introduction to the book, an authors note, and a post-script with some more analysis. That was much appreciated, as the book would definitely have gone over my head otherwise. I feel like this is a book I will need to re-read again in the future to get the most out of it.
I am giving the book 3 stars. I can’t always like everything I read, but I felt that this was important, and I’m glad I read it. I think, for me, a better way to honor and give representation to the LGBTIA+ community will be reading modern fiction from authors who identify in that group, which I have been doing with some degree of intent for the last 2-2.5 years. I should probably also read something by Bear…