Genly has been sent by the Ekumen to bring the world of Winter into the Ekumen as a trading partner. Winter was apparently populated long ago by some gene hacking experiments. The people of winter are neuter for most of the month, but then can go into heat (paraphrasing) and can be either male or female for a few days of uncontrollable sex. The desire for sex is so strong that society have developed Kemmer (heat) houses where people can go and hook up with someone else that is also in kemmer. Genly, is and alien and always male, so they look at him as some kind of pervert.
The plot of the novel, while not bad although somewhat slow paced, takes a back seat to the effects of a never ending winter and gender non identification would have on a people. For instance, A king's heir must be born from the king. The king has to give birth to the heir. Also, because the planet has no flying birds native, the people have no concept of flight. It is a very interesting thought experiment.
The books downside is that all of this history and world building requires a lot of exposition, most is inserted as part of the dialogue, but it slows the story down quite a bit. I will admit that the book had a tendancy to put me to sleep at some points as it was almost like reading a text book on the people of Winter's culture. It was a slow, dense read but quite enjoyable.
I compared it to a text book and maybe it is; a text book on world building. If you are going to build a world, this is the kind of attention to detail that you need to employ. Maybe you don't have to reveal every detail about your planet, but preparing those details and knowing them can make the story flow better and seem less like things are coming out of no where. For example I bring you the many ways of travel in the Wonderful World of Harry Potter, every year it seamed that there was a new way to get around that everyone used. First there was the flu, then port keys are all the fad and the only way to travel, then you have people aspirating all over the place with hardly a mention of Flu's or portkeys as actual transportation. It is obvious that Rowling hadn't really planned this out.
Anyway, it was good book with great world building. If you are old enough to stick with this book you are old enough for the content which isn't graphic at all. I can see why this one is a classic. It won the Hugo and Nebula.
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9 comments:
Good review, Budd. I really liked TLHoD -- especially given the time that it was written, it forces the reader to challenge their preconceived notions. In our case, sexuality and orientation -- what would you do if they were removed?
It IS a dense book, which is surprising because LeGuin is so adept at writing concise beautiful books like Earthsea and the Lathe of Heaven.
it sounds amazing, Budd, I love the idea of the plot.
Since it won Hugo and Nebula, there's a chance my publisher will buy it since we usually publish the winners of those awards.
Steve-thanks, my book club is always opening my eyes to new things.
Dez-would you do the translation yourself?
I haven't read it, but based on your reveiw, I'm going to...
I would if they give it to me :) Earlier this Spring I translated STARSHIP TROOPERS which also won HUGO and NEBULA :)
Pat-wow, this internet thing is giving me too much influence.
Dez-Starship Troopers was excellent especially given when it was written. It must have been a great thrill being the one to translate it.
actually I was kinda shocked by the book for two reasons: first it's poorly written in terms of sentence structure and vocabulary, and secondly it promotes so many fascistic ideas, racism and other immoral things that we even argued whether to publish it or not. The good part about the book is Heinlein's detailed description of the army life.
I really need to read more Le Guin. Any book that takes home both the Hugo and Nebula is almost certainly worth a look. Do you read any Gene Wolfe, Budd?
Stu- I don't believe I haver read any Wolfe.
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