Embassytown and The Left Hand of Darkness

If forced to choose, I might say I preferred Embassytown by China Miéville simply because there was more plot. And what a crazily unique plot it has. Usrsula K Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness feels more like a thinking piece with excellent world building and asked better questions. Although I think I liked Embassytown more, I am sure I will read Left Hand again sooner and will recommend it more often. The big ideas raised by the legendary Le Guin need time to marinade before a return visit. Now that I wrote that sentence, I think I will recommend Left Hand at our next book club to have an excuse to reread it and some friends for discussion.

I am unsure how to articulate exactly why I link these two books together. All I can say is that when I read Left Hand, I instantly began comparing it to Embassytown. The closest I can come is that both books revolve around the uncanny valley of “human adjacency.” In one, the characters need special modifications to speak the language, in the other individuals are assigned temporary sexes for a brief period every month. These characteristics are similar enough to standard humanity but also so different that they fundamentally change everything.

Left Hand is probably the better book for discussion because it more explicitly and coherantly discusses the social changes that would occur in a world where anybody could get pregnant. The social commentary presented by Le Guin lends itself to better debates in our current society. The ideas in Embassytown are awesome, but a bit two far out and esoteric to have much grounding in reality. I can not imagine citing Miéville in a discussion about gender roles, but I can with this piece of work from Le Guin.