This is the first and only book of Le Guin that I have read. And I just couldn't grasp what was all the hype about this book. It could be because I was expecting a "typical" science-fiction book. Or maybe I was not mature enough when I read it. Maybe I should give it another shot now that I am older :).
I'm with you. I read it a year ago and found a lot of it dull as dishwater. And the ending very predictable. It was ok. I, like you, just don't understand the hype.
Yeah I've always found this one out of place when listed among other big classic sci fi books. It's tonally very different, slowly paced, focused on different concerns than is typical for the books it is usually grouped with. It's a great book in its own right but not a great introduction to her for people coming from or looking for sci fi.
Interesting. I've made it a point to try to make my way through the canonical sci fi greats over the years, and I'd put Left Hand of Darkness near the top. It's kind of because of that tonal difference: there's something about the way it's written (sort of anthropological / travelogue style) that makes me feel truly immersed in the culture and world being described, in a trance-like way, even though the book itself doesn't have particularly exciting events in it.
It may be that it hit me at a particular time in my life: I read it in my early teens and the way gender was expressed in the novel, the sort of tidal shift between masculine and feminine based on circumstance, really spoke to me at a time I was figuring all that out in my own psyche. I wonder if a lot of the gender exploration in the book may seem more trite and typical now.
I mean I think it's an incredible book, in exactly the ways most "great" sci fi is weak. But I've come across enough people bouncing off of it to put some thought into why and this is my most charitable take on why so many sci fi fans don't love it.
I think you'll find the pacing much improved.