"2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke

Spanning across three million years, "2001" tells the story of humankind's meeting with an advanced extra-terrestrial race that visits us early in our evolution and leaves a buried artefact on the moon allowing our contemporary space-faring society (or at least the society of the near future) to make contact. The book is composed of three subsequent story-lines. In the first story-line an advanced extra-terrestrial race visits early hominoids three million years ago on the plains of Africa and imbues the struggling and nearly-extinct "man-apes" with the subconscious knowledge needed for our successful development as a species. The visitors provide a local tribe leader "Moon-Watcher" with the inspiration to use stone tools to hunt for food, fend off predators and conquer an opposing tribe. In the second story-line, three million years later in the year 1999, Dr. Heywood Floyd, chairman of the National Council of Astronautics, is heading to Clavius base on Earth's moon to visit a recently uncovered and highly secret artefact. The artefact is a large black monolith with side-lengths at a perfect ratio of 1:4:9, buried under geologically ancient moondust and therefore believed to be very old and of alien origin. The artefact has only recently been dug-up and coincidental to Dr. Floyd's arrival, the monolith is exposed to sunlight for the first time in three millions years, triggering a powerful radio signal to be broadcast out of the artefact to the deep reaches of the solar system.

In the third (and largest story-line) a manned space mission is sent to Saturn with the secret objective of tracking the calculated destination of the radio signal. The ship is co-piloted by David Bowman and Frank Poole, with three other crew members in suspended animation, due to be awakened when the ship arrives in the Saturnian system. During the trip, the ship's computer and artificial intelligence, HAL-9000, malfunctions through the reaction to a philosophical dilemma faced with concealing the secret about the mission from the ship's two awakened crew (who for security reasons were only to be told about the true purpose of the mission when the ship arrived at Saturn). HAL falsely reports that a component on the external region of the ship's hull is faulty, requiring Frank to perform an EVA to replace the part. When it is discovered that the component is working correctly, HAL fears that his crew mates will disconnect him. HAL informs Dave and Frank that the replaced unit has also malfunctioned and when Frank goes on a second EVA to replace the unit again HAL pilots an EVA pod into him at high speed, killing him and making the incident look like an accident. When Dave tries to re-animate the other crew members, HAL attempts to murder him by opening the pod bay doors and de-pressurising the ship's hull. Dave manages to survive by reaching an emergency vacuum-proof shelter in time, and proceeds to de-activate HAL, continuing with the mission with manual control of the ship and alone, after the sleeping crew members were killed during de-pressurisation.

When the ship arrives at Saturn, Dave pilots an EVA pod down to the surface of the moon of Japetus after discovering a second and much larger monolith. The monolith is a star gate that transports Dave across far reaches of the universe to what appears to be an automated outpost left behind by the same extra-terrestrial intelligence that visited early humans three million years ago. Dave is transformed into an being of pure energy, a star-child, and travels back to Earth deciding to eliminate the Earth's entire arsenal of orbiting nuclear weapons. The act appears to be a somewhat optimistic gesture that the threat of humanity destroying itself through nuclear war has been diffused.

Overall I really enjoyed this one. I thought it was much better than, for example, Childhood's End which tried to be a lot more epic, but ended up being a little bit dull for the most part. I just realised that all three of Clarke's books I've got on my list essentially deal with the same theme (humanity's encounter with extra-terrestrial intelligence). Although I did find this theme, and the bit of the book that dealt with it directly, very interesting, the bit that really drew me in was the scenes surrounding HAL's malfunction. I guess I just have a soft spot for stories of dangerous malfunctioning robots. I think I just liked the dramatic suspense, the feeling of claustrophobia and isolation from Earth and help, through the time delay of radio transmissions, although I think the suspense was drawn out better in the slightly different version of events in the movie (i.e. I really like the bit where David Bowman has to jump into the open airlock without a helmet, a nice man vs. machine moment).

Clarke draws such a vivid picture of the technological state of the future world (i.e. space planes, the operation of the ship etc.). I really appreciate the technical imagination that has gone in here, even though I guess it's a bit dated from the apollo moon mission-era. I guess Clarke was a true "futurist". I've never really got with the notion of "hard sci-fi" but I guess this is probably what it is; Clarke's books definitely have a certain charm in this area. It's also interesting how, like Childhood's End, the story presents an almost metaphysical experience by the central character in the presence of the utterly incomprehensible extra-terrestrial intelligence and explores the ultimate evolutionary end of humanity. I'm wondering if this theme runs through all other books of Clarke's, or if it's just coincidental.

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

In the year 632 A.F. (After Ford, the worshipped car manufacturer Henry Ford), everyone is happy now. Nations abolished, the unified world state is run as a well-oiled machine. Bred within a factory line of bottles and conditioned from a young age to love their job and accept their place in the social hierarchy, the world's population ensures economic stability through consistent production and encouraged consumption, and in return enjoys a steady stream of free-love, endless, mind-numbing entertainment, sport and "soma", a state-sponsored drug, which brings complete bliss, free from any nasty side effects. Art, science and history have all been abolished due to their tendency to promote social unrest; conformity is the order of the day. But Bernard Marx is unhappy. He is different from his peers; he abstains from promiscuous sex and social sport, doesn't taken soma and thinks of himself as an individual (all highly questionable and anti-social behaviours). Bernard is an "alpha plus", within the highest rank of society (i.e. within his bottle he was allowed to develop "normally", unlike the "gammas", "deltas" and "epsilons" who are all artificial stunted through a combination of chemical additions that ensure their physical and mental capacity won't make them want for anything more then their menial jobs in society). Through Bernard's job as a psychiatrist, Bernard undermines his own conditioning through his understanding of the principles of "sleep-teaching" that all children receive from a young age. Bernard confides in his only friend, Helmholtz Watson, a like minded alpha plus who working as a lecturer and writer for the college of emotional engineering, desires to write about something with meaning and feeling. Bernard pines over Lenina Crowne, a beta-level fellow employee of the central London hatchery and conditioning centre. Unlike Bernard, Lenina fits in perfectly with the rest of society, unselfishly sharing her love amongst several of her male colleagues and is considered charming and "pneumatic" by her peers.

Bernard eventually builds up the courage to invite Lenina on a week long trip to a "reservation" in New Mexico, where, sealed off from the rest of the world by electric fences, people still live the "old life", marrying, conceiving and birthing children, living in family units with knowledge of religion, passion, disease, old age and death. While there, they come across Linda and her eighteen year old son John. Linda originally came from the outside world, but becoming accidentally pregnant and then lost inside the reservation has been living there ever since. John's father happens to be the director of Bernard and Lenina's hatchery, and Bernard brings John and Linda back with him to London in a scheme to disgrace his boss, thus circumventing his transfer to Iceland, which had previously been threatened by the director on the grounds of Bernard's anti-social behaviour. John has been raised on pain and suffering, honour and virtue, god and self-sacrifice, (and the complete works of William Shakespeare) and at once finds the "brave new world" both intriguing and repulsive. John has fallen in love with Lenina and sets about to court her in the traditional manner. But Lenina likes John too and thus throws herself at him in the socially-accepted and characteristic manner of society, horrifying John. He slaps her, denounces her as a strumpet and reciting shakespearean chastity-whore speeches, flees from her presence. Meanwhile John's mother Linda has become sick from her excessive consumption of soma (coupled with her poor state of health). John rushes to be at her bed as she passes away at the park lane hospital for the dying, but when he exhibits signs of grief in front of a group of children brought into the hospital to be conditioned with positive experiences associated to death, John is forced to leave. In a fit of rage he makes a public spectacle by interrupting a group of workers from receiving their daily ration of soma and is arrested along with Bernard and Helmholtz who have rushed to his aid. Bernard and Helmholtz are labelled as socially-undesirables and exiled to an island of like-minded individuals, away from the rest of society. But John is not permitted to go with them or return to the reservation, on the grounds that he is an "nice experiment", and is promptly returned to mainstream society, where he seeks out the life of a hermit. John is hounded and tormented by curious sight-seers after he is witnessed undergoing self-flagellation and after being forced into a ritualistic orgy of sex and soma, hangs himself in despair.

"Brave New World" is considered one of the two great dystopian science fiction novels of the twentieth century, alongside Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell. It's an impressive novel for it's thoughtful (and somewhat accurate) prophesy of the future state of the world, particularly considering it was written in 1931. The book contains a fantastic blend of characters, particularly John and, the most unlikeable, Bernard. I guess I would have appreciated a bit more depth to Lenina's character; I just didn't really understand why she liked Bernard and John so much. There was such a rich use of visuals and smells in the writing, from the scent taps and sprays to the the rich, vulgar smells of the reservation (interestingly Huxley was partially blind; I wonder what effect this had on his perception of smell in his writing). John's passionate application of Shakespeare to his dialogue was fun but I wonder if one was raised as he was, could they really appreciate the meaning of everything he read without reading of knowing anything but Shakespeare (of course neglecting his mother's conditioning centre manual) ... he must have had some pretty good study guides to accompany the texts!

As for criticism of the novel, its a bit too suggestive that any future society that uses free-love, conditioning or developmental manipulation (i.e. eugenics) will be inherently horrible and insane. The way in which these elements of the brave new world are presented to the reader is deliberately negative: consider the nasty, violent conditioning techniques used to train babies to hate nature that leaves the reader with the impression that in fact they could result in long-lasting, sub-conscious psychological trauma (undermining the logic of the technique in the first place). Consider the use of Soma: not really such a perfect drug, it just leaves it's consumers in a happy stupor, a short-term solution to their problems (?? provides a interesting criticism <insert link> of the novel in this regard). Although, of course treating the book as a work of fiction (rather than prophesy) Huxley does a good job of creating horror from the insanity of the world state; particularly in Linda's death scene with the use of the surreal army of twins and their attitudes towards death, which adds a nice dramatic touch.

Its interesting to think that Huxley didn't take the analogy of the factory line further to consider that mechanical and robotic automation could have such a big effect on the lives of those in the the brave new world. The presence of mechanical automation kind of removes that requirement for a system of sub-class humans (i.e. gammas, deltas and epsilons), taking the edge off the requirements to make this sort of society feasible (consider Le Guin's technological anarchy in "The Dispossessed").

Overall, a really fantastic read, it's easy to see why this is considered a classic, being careful not to consider it too "prophetic".

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter with the San Francisco police department whose job it is to track-down and "retire" fugitive androids amidst a post-world war terminus/three, radiation-ridden and largely de-populated Earth. The radiation left over from last world war has killed off the vast majority of the Earth's animal population and destroyed the biosphere, forcing large parts of the Earth's population to emigrate to colonies on the moon and Mars. Those who are left behind, or have chosen to stay face the constant risk of physical and mental degradation from the radiation. Androids were taken with the colonists, but the occasional android turns on it's masters, fleeing to Earth which is where Rick comes in. Rick is called in to follow up on a case of eight recently reported fugitive "andys", all new advanced nexus-6 models, two of which his predecessor Dave Holden retired before being caught off guard and lasered by the third. Before setting off after the andys, Rick is sent to Seattle to visit the Rosen corporation, manufacturer of the nexus-6, to test whether the department's standard test for detecting androids, the Voigt-Komp test, is still effective. Androids are developed using biological components that make them physically identical to real humans, except by means of a detailed laboratory analysis of bone marrow. The Voigt-Komp test measures empathic response to a series of scenarios read aloud by the examiner; androids are not thought to be capable of real empathy and so usually fail the test. Empathy is an important distinction for real humans, who participate regularly in a shared empathic experience using an "empathy box", all part of a mystical religion "Mercerism", in which followers are pelted with rocks while ascend a simulated hill with a vision of the religion's founder Wilber Mercer. Ownership and the sacred/social prestige status of animals is also an important part of Mercerism; to own a real animal is a statement of one's humanity and those who can't afford one, purchase a fake, electronic version of their favourite pet.

In Seattle, Rick meets a company android, Rachael Rosen, originally posing as the daughter of Eldon Rosen, the company's founder, in an elaborate rouse intended to discredit the Voigt-Komp test by making Rick think that he had incorrectly classified a real human as an android. Rick sees through the attempt and the company later offers Rachael's assistance in tracking down the remaining six fugitive androids. After retiring the first android on his list (the one that lasered Dave Holden), Rick attempts to apprehend the second on the list, a Miss Luba Loft, posing as an opera singer and is caught off guard and arrested by a police officer called in by Luba after she denies being an android and accuses Rick of being a stalker. The officer denies any knowledge of Rick or his department and takes him off to a seemingly duplicate police station on the other side of town. There Rick meets another bounty hunter Resch and eventually uncovers (with the help of Resch) that the entire police station is an android run operation (where Rick manages to knock off the third android on his list, posing as Resch's superior and leaving Resch in doubt as to whether in fact he is an android too with falsely implanted memories of being a real human). After returning to retire Luba, with the help of Resch, it turns out he is a real human after all, and Rick is forced to question the moral and philosophical position of his job as a bounty hunter.

Developing feelings of empathy towards androids, Rick engages in a sexual encounter with Rachael Rosen and resolves to quit his profession after finishing off his final three targets. The remaining androids are holed up deep in an abandoned apartment block, solely inhabited by J.R. Isidore, a "special" who has succumbed to the radioactive dust, and has a reduced mental capacity. Rick tracks down and retires the remaining androids and suffering somewhat from his philosophical and existentialist dilemma, drives off into the uninhabited wastelands, where he undergoes a mystical experience as Wilber Mercer, climbing a weed-infested hill-top.

In "electric sheep", Phillip K. Dick confronts the reader with the question: what does it mean to be human? We are provided with a self-paradoxical example of Rick, the empathic-bounty hunter; in order to retire androids he must suppress his empathy towards them, becoming android-like himself. If empathy is a defining characteristic of humanity, then we are forced to question the authenticity of empathy: it remains ambiguous if the new nexus-6 model can actually pass the Voigt-Komp test, Mercerism is exposed as a fake and consider the Penfold Mood Organ, where humans can so easily re-program their emotional behaviour, irrespective of the state of the world around them. Like in his other novels, Dick also asks the question what is real? I found the section of the book where Rick attempts to arrest Luba really great in this regard. When he is arrested his identity comes into question: is he an android with falsely implanted memories? Then we are lead to believe that Resch is certainly an android: the background adds up and he exhibits the same android-like lack of empathy that allows him to be so good at his profession; but then suddenly it turns out he is definitely human. I really like the way Dick shakes the foundations of what the reader believes is real one minute and then not the next ... or is it? Theres so much that I also didn't quite understand the underlying significance of (I feel like there is a lot of complex themes at play): the significance of the apparitions of Wilber Mercer, Rick's mystical experience at the end of the novel, finding the toad. I feel like I'll need to come back to this one again.

There is so much to love about this book; the cult of animal ownership and Rick's constant reference to the Sidney's catalogue of animal prices, the Penfold mood organ (I love the opening chapter, so entertaining), the obnoxious Buster Friendly. So far, I've really enjoyed the two other Phillip K. Dick novels I've read, he think he is such a great writer. A really cleverly constructed story. Definitely recommended.

"The Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham

Bill Mason wakes up in hospital on the day he is due to have the bandages removed that he has worn over his eyes for the last seven days. But the nurse doesn't respond to his calls and the hospital ward is silent. Eventually Bill makes the decision to remove the bandages himself; luckily his vision has returned after his accident seven days ago, but he discovers that just about everyone else in the world has gone blind. It all began the previous night when the world was witness to a spectacular, never seen before display of lights, thought to be a vibrant meteor shower; anyone who went outside to watch the display is now blind. Bill walks around central London trying to make sense of the situation when he meets Josella Playton, who escaped blindness after sleeping-off a party two nights ago. The pair meet up with a group of sighted individuals that have holed-up in the University building and are planning to gather supplies and head out into the countryside before things turn too nasty in the cities. The night before they are due to leave Bill and Josella commit to a sort of marriage to one another in their new community but are separated when they are kidnapped, along with others in the group by Coker, a sighted man who has been trying to round up assistance for a large number of blind followers, ever hopeful that what ever disaster has befallen London and England has spared some other country in the world (Coker speculates the United States) and that they only need to keep as many people alive as long as possible before help inevitably arrives. After days of being chained to and forced to support his gang of blind followers, members of the group start to fall victim to an unknown disease (thought to be similar to typhoid, but not exactly the same). After almost all of the group perish, Bill escapes and finding an abandoned truck loaded with supplies, sets off into the countryside to find the university group and hopefully Josella.

Whats all this got to do with "Triffids" you ask? Well, Triffids are a strange kind of plant that was discovered by the world about twenty years before the current events. Triffids grow to about two and a half meters tall, can lift themselves up and walk (albeit slowly) and possess a stinging tendril which they can lash out at their prey to a distance over four meters and can kill a full sized human in a single blow. Bill Mason works with Triffids for a living and is all too familiar with their dangerous behaviour (his original eye injury was attributed to a Triffid sting). With most of the world's population blind, Bill predicts Triffids will become a big problem and his prediction is correct; the Triffids run amok in the cities and countryside alike, making an easy meal out of the blind wandering the streets.

Eventually Bill finds Josella at a country house she told him about during the night at the university building and for the next few years they setup a life amongst the house's other residents, having a child. During a visit to the coast one year, Bill speculates that the meteor shower was probably a cold-war era orbiting weapons system that malfunctioned and that the disease that killed off so many in the days following the blindness was probably also attributed to a satellite weapon. During the trip home, a helicopter arrives at the country house bringing news of a colony that has been setup on the Isle of Wight by some of the original university group and Bill, Josella and the rest of the household and invited to move there. Deciding to move after the next summer, the group narrowly avoid being recruited into another new world order led by a sighted man Bill associates with indiscriminate killing during the days following the meteor shower in London, and escape to the Isle of Wight to live out the rest of their days.

"The Day of the Triffids" is a fantastic read, a genuinely creepy and convincing horror story built out of a such a strange sounding premise (killer plants take over the planet after everyone goes blind from a meteor shower). The author takes this creative scenario and by using an engaging set of characters and plot, analyses the ethics in a survival situation and the changed moral values of the post-apocalyptic world. The novel has been defined as a "cosy catastrophe" where the few sighted characters retreat into the countryside for a relatively comfortable existence while the world collapses around them, and I found this same feeling transferred to the reader, making it quite a cosy read.

I'm looking forward to reading more Wyndham; "Triffids" was a really enjoyable, an easy read, an sf classic. Definitely recommended.

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is set in the year 2045; the world has become an ugly place with widespread war, famine and general poverty. The world's oil supply has ended and the climate is wrecked. Like most people in the world, the protagonist of the story, Wade Watts spends hours on end plugged into the "OASIS", a virtual, massively-multiplayer simulation world where your avatar can live and play on hundreds of custom-built worlds while forgetting about the problems of the real world. Five years previously, the eccentric billionaire creator of OASIS, James Haliday, passed away leaving his entire fortune and controlling stake in Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS), the company responsible for maintaining the OASIS, to any user who could find his secret "easter egg" within the game's environment. To find the egg, users must find a series of keys, each unlocking a series of riddles and challenges revolving around the music, movies, videogames and Haliday's obsession with the 1980's, the decade in which he grew up. Wade is a "gunter" (slang for egg-hunter) who has dedicated most of his life to learning every obscure pop-culture reference, mastering every videogame and learning every line of dialogue in hundreds of movies from Haliday's childhood. By chance, Wade decodes the first riddle of the competition and is the first user to find the copper key, one of three keys required to find Haliday's easter egg. Wade is an instant online celebrity and is closely followed by other top gunters, Atr3mis, Aech, Shoto and Daito who also find the key. Seeking to win the prize for themselves, the mega-corporation Innovative Online Industries (IOI), a competitor to GSS, recruits thousands of users to find the egg first (avatars referred to as "sixers"), legally-signing over the egg to the company if found in exchange for a salary. Wade finds himself playing a dangerous game in both the virtual and real world after IOI agents hack the details of his home address and bomb his aunt's shanty-like home in the "stacks", hoping to kill him off as a competitor (Wade is safely tucked away in his secret hideout at the time). Teaming up with the other high-level gunters, Wade progressively unlocks each of the keys in a series of challenges that see Wade battle it out against an un-dead king in the video game Joust, recite the dialogue to "WarGames" and "Monte Python and the Holy Grail" and play a perfect game of Pacman (amongst others). After a giant showdown against an army of sixers attempting to block off the final key, Wade gains possession of the egg and wins the competition.

Ready Player One was a really fun read. I was a young child in the eighties so I really enjoyed the nostalgia. I liked the way in which each of the challenges and puzzles unfolded. I liked the interplay between life in the OASIS and life in the real world. I liked the cyberpunk aspects; the sinister corporation playing dirty only to be outsmarted at each turn by the underdog protagonist. I think the bit I really enjoyed the most was in the descriptions of Wade's life in the "stacks" (ad-hoc apartment blocks constructed by dumping caravans and trailer-homes on top of one another) and the contrast to his online escape in the OASIS from his hideout.

Overall I wouldn't say this was a great book, mainly because I don't think it will appeal to everyone. Personally I found all the eighties videogame, TV and movie nostalgia really entertaining. However I did feel at times like it was nostaliga for nostalgia's sake with big info-dumps about pop-culture obscurity that didn't really move the plot along or have a particular significance to the story. That said, the story does a good job of employing the excitement of the "hunt" as something that probably has more universal appeal and made this book a very easy and enjoyable read. I wouldn't rate it in the top of my list, but a very enjoyable read none the less.

"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" by Jules Verne

Told from the perspective of Professor M. Pierre Aronnax, the novel begins with an account of a huge "sea monster" which has been recently sighted at several locations around the globe and has left the scientific world bewildered as to it's origin or exact nature. Believing the monster to be giant cetacean (i.e. whale, dolphin) and wishing to rid the world of this nuisance, Professor Aronnax embarks on the Abraham Lincoln, with his trusty servant Conseil, on a mission to destroy the monster. Onboard the Abraham Lincoln, the pair meet Ned Land, a Canadian harpooner, keen to test his hunting skills. During an encounter with the monster, Aronnax, Conseil and Ned fall overboard; the `monster' in fact turns out to be a giant and fantastical submarine, the `Nautilus', constructed and commanded by Captain Nemo, a dark and mysterious figure who has rejected the terrestrial world. After rescuing the three men and taking them aboard the Nautilus, Captain Nemo informs the three that they are prisoners and can never leave the vessel, in order to ensure the secret identity of his submarine and crew, however are free to roam onboard and will be given quarters and food during the Nautilus's ongoing journey. The novel follows the Nautilus's voyage of twenty thousand leagues through the world's oceans, discovering shipwrecked treasures, visiting the lost city of Atlantis, the south pole and battles with giant whales and octopi. After Captain Nemo destroys a hostile vessel, linked to his dark and troubled past within a unspecified oppressive nation, he spirals into an increasing bout of depression. When the Nautilus ventures into the `maelstrom', a giant whirlpool off the Norwegian coast, the three men use the opportunity to escape the Nautilus and return to civilisation after months of adventure.

This was a really enjoyable read; Verne obviously had a keen imagination and his depictions of the Nautilus's exploits and fantastic underwater world in which the story takes place is vivid and exciting. Through his work, Verne predicted inventions such as the submarine and underwater diving-suit before their time. The novel is like a travel-journal; Aronnax provides us with rich descriptions of the underwater life he encounters. Underlying the journey, Verne builds the tension in the story as we gradually learn more about Nemo's dark past and through Ned Land's growing resentment over his imprisonment and plans for escape (while he's not trying to harpoon and eat every single animal he encounters). With so many different species described during Aronnax's journal, I wish someone would make an annotated/illustrated, online version of the book, where for each species described, you can click on the word and it automatically brings up a picture (i.e. straight from a google/wikipedia search?).

A classic (both in and out of the sf genre) that everyone with a sense of adventure or a love of the ocean should read.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Genly Ai, an envoy of the league of worlds known as the Ekumen is sent to the planet Gethen (otherwise known as Winter due to it's intense glacial-coverage and generally cold, snowy climate) on a peaceful mission to persuade Gethen to become a member of the league. The Gethenians have a strange sexual physiology; for each 26-day lunar cycle they spend 24 days in "Somer", an androgynous state followed by 2 days in "Kemmer", in which they transform into either a male or female, depending on hormones and their interactions with an interested sexual partner. There is no gender differences on Gethen; the resulting society knows nothing of sexual exploitation or war (although there is still murder and small-scale family and political feuds). As an outsider, Genly struggles to relate to Gethenians. Their ambiguous sexuality leads Genly to find them untrustworthy. The strange art of "shifgrethor", an elaborate system of social prestige used within the nation of Karhide (in which Genly Ai has been based for the last two years, seeking an audience with the king), stifles nearly every conversation with the locals. After Ai gains an audience, and is not well received, his main advocate in Karhide, Estraven, a political leader, is charged as a traitor by the king and exiled, under pain of death, into the neighbouring authoritarian police-state of Orgoreyn. Finding apathy for his mission in Karhide, Genly Ai travels to Orgoreyn hoping for better luck, but is embroiled in political feuds and eventually sold out and shipped off to a "Voluntary Farm" on the far side of Orgoreyn, a kind of Siberian concentration camp. Learning of his fate, Estraven sets off to rescue Genly, and posing as a prison guard helps Genly escape into the cold, north-western wilderness of Orgoreyn. In an effort to return Genly to the safety of Karhide, without being detected in Orgoreyn, the two men set off on an desperate 81 day journey across the northern polar glacier. During the journey the two reach an understanding of each other and develop a strong friendship and a kind of love. After reaching Karhide, Estraven is betrayed by an old friend and tragically shot while attempting to flee back into Orgoreyn. Following Estraven's death, the king admits another audience with Genly Ai after which further diplomats of the Ekumen are invited to land on Gethen. At the end of the novel, Genly visits Estraven's family and son in a rural provence of Karhide seeking solace.

In an interview with Le Guin, she stated that the initial concept for the novel was a society with no war and that this eventually lead to the idea of an androgynous society. As in "The Dispossessed", Le Guin builds a complex world for the setting of the book complete with histories, politics, religion and a blend of ancient texts, hearth-stories, legends and myths that are told in-between the story chapters. For me, this type of world-building was great and made the story so engaging and immersive, and supported the development of the more complex themes in the novel such as fidelity/betrayal, the nature of cross-cultural understanding/friendship, hardship and the journey of inner discovery.

I was really blown away by this one; I enjoyed "The Dispossessed" immensely, and really hoped this book would be as good, and I wasn't disappointed. I'm considering adding more of Le Guin's novels to the list (such as "The Word for World is Forest" and "The Lathe of Heaven").