The political philosophy of the book is certainly intriguing. Le Guin makes anarchist philosophy about as approachable as anyone could. but the story itself is quite slow and plodding, and some of the metaphors are so thin it feels cheesy. I do greatly appreciate the inversion of the utopia trope (having someone from Utopia as the outsider instead) and do think that lent to a much better examination of the differences between the two worlds. ( )

The political philosophy of the book is certainly intriguing. Le Guin makes anarchist philosophy about as approachable as anyone could. but the story itself is quite slow and plodding, and some of the metaphors are so thin it feels cheesy. I do greatly appreciate the inversion of the utopia trope (having someone from Utopia as the outsider instead) and do think that lent to a much better examination of the differences between the two worlds. ( )

This is one of the most satisfying books about ideologies and intentionally-worn blinders I've ever read. Use of an SF world with two opposed cultures and their economies, social psychologies, and deeply-entrenched biases really allowed Le Guin to write clearly about realpolitik, more so even than most non-fiction writers with their own internal mechanisms.

And Shevek is simply a mensch for all seasons, you gotta love him. ( )

Another excellent example of speculative fiction by LeGuin. The first three Hainish novels are more traditional scifi, but like Left Hand of Darkness, this one is pure speculative fiction. On one of the world settled by humans long ago, a small group of people revolted from the capitalist society on Urras and moved to Anarres, a poor desert world in the same system. There they formed a perfectly socialist or communist society with no government, no leaders and a non-cash economy. Everyone works and everyone works where it is needed, no matter what the job. Enter into the world of Anarres Shevek, a brilliant physicist. When he struggles to complete his great theory, he goes to Urras to meet with other physicists. This disrupts both worlds and himself and his family.
This is a comparison of a egalitarian society vs. a capitalist society, without being idealistic. Really excellent and still relevant today. ( )

This is a transition novel, where Le Guin is beginning to move from straight SF and fantasy, to a mix of literary, philosophical, and sociological concerns. Though set in the future, the people of Urras and Annares are not future Earthlings, but, like us, descendant of the Hainish. Urras is a western capitalist culture. Annares is a large desert moon of Urras, settled by a self-titled anarchist group called the Odonians, after the revolutionary Odo, seen in the short story The Day before the Revolution. Annares is the ambiguous Utopia of the subtitle. The main character is a brilliant physicist Shevet, so wrapped up in theory, that most of the novel is his slow learning of how Annares has drifted from Odo's teachings, but also how Urras for all its comforts was worse and why it would breed revolutionaries. While there are long passages debating the issues, as befits a book in the Utopian mode, this is also a book with a strong emotional core and character development. One place felt very dated to me: the overt sexism of Urras seemed drawn straight from1950 pulp fiction and advertising and lacked the subtlety of the arguments about economics and social structure that occupy the rest of the novel.

Recommended. ( )