#genly

[quietflorilegium]

“A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.”

Genly Ai, Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Left Hand of Darkness"

[witchw0lf]

Some sketches of Estraven from The Left Hand of Darkness!

[mendellyill]

Restarted left hand of darkness last night and I forgot how much estraven loves genly and how much genly just does not get it

[kailysander]

The Left Hand of Darkness

[mondo994]

"We were both silent for a little, and then he looked at me with a direct, gentle gaze. His face in the reddish light was as soft, as vulnerable, as remote as the face of a woman who looks at you out of her thoughts and does not speak.

And I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with the fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was.

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

[art-of-pluton]

"Like the end and the way"

I think about The Left Hand of Darkness literally every day since I first read it in july

[agoddamneddelight]

the outer space guys are rotating in my brain !!! 🪐 🌎🚀

[alabasterpickles]

This’ll be followed by many sketches I will post together because BOY have I been busy

I got every shrine and was graced with Kass’s presence in Rito Village where he (adorably) plays music with his girls! So naturally, I had to draw it

[queereads-bracket]

SEMIFINALS: Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a 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.

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

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

Imperial Radch series (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Provenance, Translation State, and other stories) by Ann Leckie

Endorsement from submitter: "Breq/Justice of Toren is a ship AI and doesn't have a gender. The Radchaai language only has one pronoun for people, so (almost) everyone in the empire is she/her, to the point that they're infamous for failing to correctly guess which pronoun to use with outsiders."

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

Science fiction, space opera, far future, series, adult

[ringneckedpheasant]

[strangers in a strange land, wanderers in a vast and unknowable universe]

[asparklethatisblue]

Eyelashes frozen shut, thawed with a kiss.

A while back @aurpiment made a comment about Genly and Estraven based on The Kiss, as a concept. And? Fellas, I had to

[quietflorilegium]

“It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.”

Genly Ai, Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Left Hand of Darkness"

[hermitmoss]

Illustrations by David Lupton from the Folio Society edition of The Left Hand of Darkness.

[latelylately]

the fortelling

[eveningalchemist]

Sometimes when I see 'ai' here I get excited because I think it is my silly always chilly guy, Genly Ai from the 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness, but no, it is generative AI, my enemy in the least fun way possible.

[mondo994]

chapter I: "A Parade in Erhenrang"