The Left Hand of Darkness Is a Sci-Fi Classic

Ursula K. Le Guin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness is about a planet where the genetically-engineered inhabitants randomly become male or female for a few days each month. Science fiction professor Lisa Yaszek says that the book is one of the genre's most important explorations of gender. "This stuff was all in the air, so I think that Le Guin is definitely thinking about it at the right time," Yaszek says in Episode 464 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "No one had really put it together into a sustained novel--well, I think some people had, but they hadn't been published yet. She was definitely the first to the punch. So this is the first person to pick up some things that were beginning to happen in some of the edgier, more avant-garde science fiction."