The Left Hand of Darkness

14 hrs. 59 min.

Language Russian

Author Ursula K. Le Guin

Narrator Yury Zaborovsky

It rarely happens that a single book, in the same year, receives both of the highest U.S. science-fiction awards— the “Hugo” and the “Nebula.” That was the case with “The Left Hand of Darkness” in 1969. It is a great, complex, and serious novel in which the author raises and resolves sweeping philosophical and moral issues.

The planet Gethen, which the aliens of the Ekumen named Winter, does not pamper its inhabitants with pleasant climate or a variety of life forms. In many respects, the Gethenians have no analogues in other worlds. For example, they do not even understand what “flight” is, because on Gethen there is not a single flying creature. Therefore, it is especially difficult for them to comprehend the appearance of a stranger who has arrived from another world. But they possess a gift of prediction—one that could enrich the Ekumen. And so, on Gethen, comes Genly Ai, a messenger of the galactic commonwealth.

Genly Ai is incredibly difficult. But Ursula Le Guin proves that mutual understanding is possible even between the most alien peoples and races. Ai does not remain alone. As with Rokan-non, he gains friends and like-minded people among the planet’s residents. And first among them is Estraven, prime minister of the state of Karhide. Tragic and majestic, Estraven steps into the foreground and almost eclipses Ai. Estraven thinks bigger than all the feudal rulers of Gethen. He thinks in terms of the universe and humankind—not an individual country or individual people. This leads him to make actions that are incomprehensible from the king’s and his courtiers’ point of view. It ruins him. Like Ai, Estraven understands that it doesn’t matter which of the two Gethenian states joins the Ekumen first, because the other will follow. And when Estraven and Ai realize that they cannot succeed in Karhide, they set off for the hostile state of Orgoreyn…

2. Planet of Exile (narrated by Maya Violina) 3. City of Illusions (narrated by Mila Rad) 4. The Left Hand of Darkness 5. Rocannon's World (narrated by Sergey Orobchuk) 6. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow (narrated by Sergey Orobchuk) 7. The Fisherman of the Inland Sea (narrated by Sergey Orobchuk) 7. The Telling (narrated by Sergey Orobchuk)