The After Thought

After reading the ending to the The Left Hand of Darkness, I feel somewhat bummed out.  Estraven and Genly Ai go through this amazing journey and then Estraven dies!  It was hard to hear because Genly Ai and Estraven had really grown to like, even love each other.  I thought it was really cool that Genly Ai taught Estraven and to mindspeak and he heard Estraven's brother, Arek.  I wonder why that happened?  The encounter with the black tenticle creature caught me off guard because at first your not sure if it would cause harm or not.  But, it was a nice feeling that after all they went through to make it to Karhide, they didnt get eaten by a big ugly black creature. After that encounter, Genly Ai and Estraven were welcomed into the couple villages not knowing who they were.  It was nice they offered them clothes, food, and a place to stay.  But only because the village people had no clue who they were at first.    I enjoyed in the book when they referenced the yin yang as the left hand of darkness.  It was a neat way of thinking about the title of the book and what Genly Ai meant by saying it.  "Light, dark.  Fear, courage.  Cold, warmth.  Female, male.  It is yourself, both and one, a shadow on snow".  That is an awesome way of explaining in their terms the yin yang.  I felt that Genly Ai telling the story to Estraven's son from his brother was an interesting twist that I wasnt expecting.  Overall good book, except for several confusing parts.  Im looking forward to reading Graceling.