Light is The Left Hand Of Darkness

So that is the answer to the rather cryptic title of this book.

It took me more than one year to finish this book, and the book has accompanied on 2 working trips to Japan. This has been one difficult book to 'digest' , although Ursula K. Leguin has always has my deepest respect and admiration for her Earthsea series.

This book about the world of Genthen has two interesting concepts as its basis : that it is an icy and genderless world.

It is really fascinating to see how Genthenians adapt to a world stuck in perpetual Ice Age. From clothes to transport to housing and the physiological aspect, the Genthenians has evolved to adapt to the harsh environment. It is thought-provoking to ponder what will happen to us, human beings when another Ice Age strike Earth, for surely we will survive, but how ?

The concept of being genderless most of the time is interesting too. For the Genthenians will only turn into a male or female during the "kemmering" state, a few days in a month when they are sexually active. For the rest of the time, they are neither a she nor a he, with no sex drive at all. As the world is not divided into the dominant and docile sex, the concept of war and agression is unknown to them. Thus, Genthen turns out to be a peaceful but harsh world. It really makes one rethink about "All men are equal" in a new light.

Although this is one interesting story, the pace of the story crawled slowly, as the writer lavishly create this world. This is certainly not a page-turner , but an elegant story set in a interesting world that rightly deserve its status as a sci-fi classic.