The Left Hand of Darkness   by Ursula K. Le Guin

Had high hopes for this one, expecting a difficult-to-read, thought-provoking piece of relative abstraction. Instead I had no problem following the plot, and found a simple adventure story adorned with some strange ideas.

The central idea is that an Earthling-type finds a planet on which everyone is created equal: there is no distinction between the sexes, except that for a few days every month people pair up and randomly one assumes the male form while the other becomes female. Children are nurtured for a year, and then are taken care of by wider society, at which the bearer returns to being androgynous. Living wills are not allowed, and the state takes everything. So everybody really does start out with an equal chance at life. Except that right at the end it transpires that the natural son of a lord inherits the title.

While the strange sexuality enters and shapes the story to some extent, it is not really explored too much. Feminists have criticised the book for still being too masculine and not taking full advantage of the equality angle, but this really is a book of imaginative fiction and really not an allegory of the world we live in.

PLOT: The main characters are Ai, the Earth-like who is visiting with the intention to get the planet to join a trade federation of planets, and his local supporter Estevan who starts out as Prime Minister of the ‘first’ state.

However, King Argavan is insanely mad and against the idea of relinquishing any power over his kingdom. He banishes the Prime Minister from the state, and so begins an adventurous road trip for the two protagonists who variously find themselves living in luxury and eking out life in a gulag.

Eventually they make an escape and a daring trip across an ice cap to return by the ‘back door’ to the original state, which turns out to be the more altruistic one and the best to receive the alien envoy in the first place.

At this point the book becomes quite boring and drags out a day-to-day diary. There is a minor interlude where the sexuality of the two comes into play. But that is pretty much dismissed as expeditiously as possible.

The ending comes quickly and is exactly the outcome one expects to get.

The protagonists are by far the most important characters, and, while one does get quite attached to them as they quest for a better world, one does not come to know them very well. Ai certainly has no back-story to offer, and that of Estrevan only comes out right at the end where it is revealed he has a son and heir.