Justin Partridge’s Reviews > Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 1: Rocannon’s World / Planet of Exile / City of Illusions / The Left Hand of Darkness / The Dispossessed / Stories > Status Update

The Dispossessed (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️; or maybe 3 1/2 rounded down if I was one of you maniacs)

I’m likely taking a break on these after this but I don’t think for long. They are too fascinating to leave entirely. Them being more sedate dramas that just happen to take place in space and less actual science-fiction, they are crazy interesting (if a bit inert).

I swear to god I’m finishing this this week even if it kills me.

I love thinking “I should take a break on this” and then Le Guin going, “here’s like a Handmaid’s Tale planet and they are all bisexual and crazy into math and also they might be aging in an advanced way” and now I can’t focus on anything else today.

The Left Hand of Darkness (⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)

I should clarify maybe. I’ve skipped ahead to Left Hand because I’ve already read the first 3. The Tor Essentials collection of them was part of the first year of my dork book club.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Planet of the Enbys.

I’m skipping directly to The Left Hand of Darkness btw

“Methodical cosmos-makers make plans and charts and maps and timelines early in the whole process. I failed to do this. Any timeline for the books would resemble the web of a spider on LSD.(…) If, as some think, God is no longer speaking, maybe it’s because he looked at what he’d made and found himself unable to believe it.”

God, have I missed you, Ursula.