The Left Hand of Darkness

By: Ursula K. Le Guin, Charlie Jane Anders - afterword

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan, Michael Crouch

The queen of science fiction’s trailblazing novel about a planet full of genderless beings

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary’s mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose—and change—their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so, he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Exploring questions of psychology, society, and human emotion in an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of science fiction.

©1969 Ursula K. Le Guin / Author's Note ©1976 by Ursula K. Le Guin / Introduction reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of David Mitchell ©2000 by David Mitchell / Afterword by Charlie Jane Anders ©2019 by Charlie Jane Anders, from The Left Hand of Darkness: 50th Anniversary Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin, used by permission of Ace, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.","year":"1969 (P)2024 Recorded Books

Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood.

Interesting concept but she has done way better. There are some great one-liners. Something like, “Mountains should be seen, not heard.”

Expansive, thought-provoking creativity. Surprising story. Please fix upload!

Called customer service & was told this version was added without chapter divisions. Please fix!🤞🏿 HOWEVER... This is a BRILLIANT story! Deeply explores two different cultures... & turns out to be a story abut love.

A singularly great performance of a classic

An incredible rendering of one of the greatest books of all time. Crouch's love for this book brings light and warmth to Le Guin's cold and mysterious world.

Audio quality

I enjoyed the story. It was recommended by a contestant on Jeopardy. The recording had several bad audio occurrences that made it difficult to be sure you weren’t missing parts of the story. Could have done without the commentary at the end of the book.

A true masterpiece

This is one of those books that I re-read and get more every time. Beautiful prose, deep themes, and human characters.
While it's written in form of reports and correspondence from several characters, the book feels more like a mystical fable.