wrong narrator.

George Guidal is an amazing narrator but this wasn't the best book for hom considering the premise. I left the story and he is a good narrator just could have been someone with a larger range.

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1 personne a trouvé cela utile

A good story with the wrong voice actor.

George Guidall, who narrates, is apparently a big deal in the audiobook world, but I think his deep voice was wrong for this book. The Left Hand of Darkness is set on a planet where individuals are both male and female becoming more feminine or masculine from month to month. Guidall has a super deep voice and not a lot of range. This is my gripe about most audiobooks generally; 80 per cent of narrators are dudes with deep voices who can't bring a whole cast of characters to life. Many are not as good as Guidall, but he sticks out more than usual here because of the story. I preferred reading the book to listening.

The story itself is beautiful and, in Guidall's defence, almost purposefully undramatic. Its charm is in its subtlety; there isn't the same huge symbolism as in the Earthsea series; no dragons or evil wizards. Just a hyper-political winter planet where it's difficult to figure out what is right and who is good. Betrayal is a cool matters of business. A prison system that resembles a concentration camp is described with helpless sorrow instead of moral outrage. And yet the struggle of two main characters, Genly and Estrehaven, to come to terms with each other in a political whirlwind is beautifully written. Worth a read, and perhaps a listen.

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8 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Easy to listen to

This writer is talented and the words are easy to listen to. I'm left feeling like there was little point to the story. It is distant in tone. Emotion is stripped and detail strung out far longer than necessary. Is it cautionary or does it reflect biblical stories or both?

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A Classic!

I'm really glad I took the time to read this - a classic, feminist SciFi novel! It took me a bit of time to get into it, and it has that distinct 1960s/1970s writing vibe to it. But I thought it was an interesting perspective on gender norms, the ways in which we view ourselves and others, and the way power influences us.

If you haven't read this, I highly recommend it!

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apt interpretation for a really good scifi story

The performance is quite good, but another actor, reading the part of Estraven would have brought even more depth and ambiguity to this duo of characters. The story was wonderfully imaginative and thought provoking for its time, and it retains most of its evocative power today. 2020's use of gender neutral pronouns makes the use of He/him in this book quite dated, but it shouldn't prevent one from enjoying and engaging with the writer's treatment of a genderless society

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mini sagas are the best part

A long long audiobook. Although the narration was terrific, I had to play it at 90% speed because there was so much detail (omg the detail) and tiny specifics to learn and pay attention to, I just couldn't keep up otherwise. Nearly abandoned several times.
That said, I can appreciate that it's a classic, catching so many references to works written subsequently. The short sagas (legends? homilies?) that were interjected throughout were easily my favourite parts and caught myself waiting for those chapters! As well, the journey across the ice was pretty gripping and captivating.
However, despite the intriguing treatment of gender and sexuality (so ahead of its time!) and that our narrator kept getting referred to as a pervert (poignant as hell, I must say), the story itself isn't very interesting or novel -pardon the pun.
I'm not saying it was a waste of time, and I'm mostly glad to have read/listened to it, but I won't seek out others by this author.
Interesting note that her parents were renowned anthropologists. thanks for reading my review.

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Envoy to a new world

Overall I liked the book, it's different and worth reading. I especially liked the legend, backstory, and informative bits about the planet and society, though the hardships were well written and compelling. When the main character speaks of things being womanly or masculine, it's usually accompanied by his confessions of that being his own impressions due to his social conditioning, so I didn't find those parts dated or grating. Got attached to the characters by the end too.

The narrator's voice is deep and older, slightly breathy. It mostly only falls short of the aggressive, actiony parts.

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2 les gens ont trouvé cela utile

Rich and thoughtful novel

While some readers have described this book as an exploration of a different sexual modalities, I felt it was a deeply moving meditation on how human relationships can transcend differences to form very deep and loving bonds.

Ursula Le Guin’s stories are beautifully layered and can be appreciated differently by different readers or by the same reader at different times. I am a fan and have enjoyed more of her work through audio books in recent years.

The use of very alien pronouns sometimes made me wish I was actually looking at the page to see the words, but it wasn’t a barrier to enjoying the story.

I also loved the narrator’s performance. I’ve listened to the book several times now because I love the story and I hear new things I didn’t appreciateI in earlier readings. I also enjoy listening to it when I am having trouble falling asleep and invariably nod off well before the timer shuts it down.

I would love to see this on the screen. I’m thinking Idris Elba as an ideal Ginly Ai and Uma Therman as Estravan.

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An Alien, Alien Look at Humanity

As with many attempts by authors of science fiction to elucidate alien cultures, the risk run in communicating a too-strange vision of the future is that an author might alienate _the reader_ to too great a degree, ironically sacrificing the audience for the new ideas they wished to elaborate by the very fact of those ideas' "too-strangeness". Le Guin's exploration of a world in which sexual physicality and it's socio-political effect is so far removed from our own certainly tests the hard edges of that risk. Her great skill is that she succeeds, and masterfully so.

But ultimately, this reader is left with a two-fold response: that was beautiful, and... so what?

To be sure, the idea is a marvel, and its ramifications are well thought through. Her world-building is quite thorough and exacting, and her depiction of political manipulation and the near-insurmountable cultural barriers that can work, even unintentionally, to hinder true communication is quite striking and incisive.

Yet, none of that poli-sci machination and intrigue require the alien culture to be quite as alien as it is. There is nothing inherent in the differences of alien sexual arrangements that binds the political machine to work in the way it does. And I think that small disconnect - so that the entirety of the story is not quite as well-enveloped as perhaps it might be - is what ultimately deprives the novel of becoming a "whole-cloth" masterpiece, for me.

It is indeed magnificent, and a wonderfully executed exploration of new ideas, but it perhaps could have been a little bit more.

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Rich and unique world building and story

Leguin is an amazing author. Her work is rich, dense, and original. I'm glad to listened to this after so many years and it was even better the second time.

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