The Left Hand of Darkness is an amazing book. It took me to a cold world and it showed me that warmth and friendship and the belief in Mankind can exist in the most desolate of places. Le Guin does not underestimate her reader, and that is how I measure an author. She does not tell you what you need not know, she does not shower you with intricate explanations of the mythology and terminology. Le Guin wants her reader to think and to recreate the Truth which is "a matter of the imagination". 
 Her characters are glorious in their humanity. Le Guin is subtle, and she treads lightly, and she does it beautifully and gracefully. She captures all the ambiguities of light and shadow, of love and hate, of life and death.