I seem to have less patience these days with fiction that doesn’t grab the reader into it right away or doesn’t explain much at the beginning. But I stuck with The Left Hand of Darkness despite these facts and found the unique aspects of the gender neutral alien society of the Gethen made for thought provoking reading. And I wasn’t drawn into the book until nearly the end during the struggles and journey of the main characters. The book might be better served by rereading some of the beginning to understand the characters and their motives better, but overall the book wasn’t good enough for me to want to do that.

Rating: 5 out of 10