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The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin
1969 · 304 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
The Left Hand of Darkness is science fiction (social science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in an international setting, in the future, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, power and politics and friendship. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 304 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- international
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, one viewpoint
- Publication era
- classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, power and politics, friendship
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldHaruki MurakamiShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending
- I Who Have Never Known MenJacqueline HarpmanShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The gracekeepersKirsty LoganShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
The New WildernessDiane CookShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
1984George OrwellShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending, future setting- The Dream HotelLaila LalamiShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending, future setting
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