Komatsu: "Japan Sinks" (1973)

Japanese sf writer Sakyo Komatsu (小松 左京) published his most famous novel, Japan Sinks (日本沈没), in 1973 (although he had begun writing it in 1964). This disaster epic focuses on the valiant exploits of a small group of scientists and government officials as the Japanese archipelago endures severe earthquakes and other increasingly frequent tectonic events which eventually lead to the total break up and submergence of Japan beneath the Pacific Ocean. In contrast to the usual disaster story, Japan Sinks describes the archipelago's dissolution over a period of about two excruciating years. In 1976, this novel was published in an English translation by Michael Gallagher. Several film and TV adaptations have also been made.

Although Komatsu's narrative does examine the mindsets of many different classes of society, the main plot follows a submarine pilot named Toshio Onodera and a geophysicist named Tadokoro. The story begins with Onodera taking Tadokoro to the Japan Trench in his submarine to investigate an island which has suddenly sunk below the waves. In the ensuing months, Tadokoro gathers additional evidence pointing towards the inevitable break up of Japan. Eventually, with volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occurring more and more frequently, the Japanese government is forced to take heed of his predictions and make plans to evacuate as many Japanese citizens as possible to other countries. The final chapters describe the valiant efforts of various international air and sea rescue forces who struggle to save as many people as possible as the archipelago breaks up and sinks. The novel is structured as 30 chapters and an "Epilogue", with the 30 chapters grouped into six sections.

Synopsis

ONE: The Japan Trench

1. A man named Toshio Onodera runs into an old friend named Rokuro Goh at a Tokyo train station. Goh complains that some unexpected disturbances have caused major setbacks in his construction project, the Super Express line. Onodera tells Goh that he is going to be investigating an island which has recently mysteriously disappeared.    
2. Onodera arrives at the ship Hokuto, which will carry the submarine Wadatsumi to the former island site, where Onodera will pilot his employer's sub. He greets the geophysicist Tadokoro who asks about the depth limit of Onodera's sub.
3. While heading south, the Hokuto comes across a small volcano erupting in the middle of the ocean. They also experience a small tidal wave shock caused by an undersea earthquake in the nearby Ogasawara (Japan) Trench.
4. The Wadatsumi is moved to a new ship, the Daito Maru. There, Onodera attends a meeting in which eyewitness accounts are given from survivors of the sinking island. They report that the ocean floor in that region had sunk almost 600 feet in two and a half days.
   
5. When the Daito Maru reaches the former site of the now-sunken island, Onodera takes Tadokoro and another scientist named Yukinaga down to the ocean floor in the Wadatsumi where they discover unusual ripple marks and volcanic rock projections on the ocean floor.
6. The next day, the explorers visit the Ogasawara Trench and descend to a depth of 24,000 feet. There they detect massive ruts in the ocean bed, leading to a turbulent underground mud current. This causes Tadokoro to become agitated. 
   

TWO: Tokyo

1. Back on shore, Onodera's boss Yoshimura takes him to a bar where he advises him to get married, as that will help his chances at getting a promotion. Onodera later meets a hostess named Mako who intrigues him. 
2. Yoshimura brings Onodera to a private party at a beach side villa where he meets a passionate woman named Reiko Abe. However, their lovemaking is interrupted when a volcano erupts on Mount Amagi and a tidal wave approaches the shoreline.
3. After Mount Asama also erupts, the Japanese Cabinet decides to schedule a panel of earthquake experts. Onodera visits Tadokoro, who seems very upset about something. Yukinaga soon arrives and tells Onodera that Tadokoro has been withholding information about the strange markings they had seen in the Japan Trench from his foreign sponsors.
4. At the earthquake panel, Tadokoro theorizes that Japan might sink, although his colleagues think him mad. Later, Tadokoro is brought before an old (but apparently well-respected and wealthy) man named Watari who asks him about the strange migratory behavior of swallows this year. Tadokoro tells him that he is working on the answer to that question. Soon, at Watari's prompting, the Cabinet begins financing Tadokoro's research. While Onodera vacations in Kyoto, a massive earthquake strikes, causing 4000 casualties.
   

 THREE: The Government

1. In the following months, Tadokoro establishes a new research center in Harajuku to work on "Plan D", a research effort designed to confirm his fears about the possible sinking of Japan. He believes this could occur in anywhere from 2 to 50 years, but without additional funding he cannot be more precise. 
2. Months later, Tadokoro urges his small team to make faster progress. Because the Wadatsumi is unavailable, he secretly purchases a foreign-built submarine for his research in the Japan Trench, taking pains to avoid drawing press attention to his efforts.
3. The night before Onodera is to start dives using the new foreign sub, he goes to a bar and fears for Tokyo's future. By coincidence, he runs into Mako.
4. As the months pass, the Plan-D team continues mapping the Japan Trench. Tadokoro learns that, due to mantle convection, a drastic tectonic event will soon occur, sinking Japan in a relatively quick, apocalyptic event. As he explains this to his staff while out to sea, a massive earthquake hits near Tokyo.
   

FOUR: The Home Islands

1. In Tokyo, two members of Plan D, Yamazaki and Yasugawa, are caught in their collapsing headquarters during the quake. Yamazaki somehow survives and notes that fires are burning throughout the city. He wonders if the Cabinet will survive this disaster.
2. Onodera and Tadokoro return to Tokyo and in the morning and learn that the earthquake, fires and tidal waves have already killed 2 million people.
3. The members of Plan D soon calculate that Japan will very likely be destroyed in two years. They inform Watari, who remarks that he has noticed a change in the flora and fauna surrounding his mountain retreat. He tells Onodera to obtain the services of a scholar named Fukuhara in Kyoto.

FIVE: The Sinking Country

1. In a meeting at the Prime Minister's residence, party members consider protecting the PM from falout in case Plan D's predictions turn out to be false. The PM, however, fears for the worse and wonders if he is up to the challenge.
2. As winter arrives, protests begin breaking out and the press begin to suspect a cover up. Onodera runs into his old employer Yuki, who chastises him for abandoning his old company to join Plan D. Onodera decides to have Yuki join Plan D.
3. More eruptions occur along the Fuji volcanic belt. A mysterious foreign sub begins shadowing Plan D's base ship. Japanese representatives begin approaching other countries in the hope of quietly relocating large numbers of Japanese to other continents.
4. Watari consults Fukuhara and the other scholars he has had brought to his compound. They provide him with possible outcomes for the future of the Japanese people after Japan sinks. Most plans involve relocation, but one suggests they do nothing and merely succumb to their annihilation. Watari heads for Tokyo with the plans.
5. In Osaka, Onodera's brother tells that, because the region has been sinking 1 inch every day, his job opportunities have been shrinking, and he is debating moving to Canada. Onodera encourages the idea, but regretfully withholds the truth about Japan's oncoming fate.
6. In February, about a year and a half after Onodera's first sub dive with Tadokoro, Plan D's simulations suddenly indicate that Japan will break into two pieces and then sink within ten months. The Prime Minister tries to maintain order amongst his party leaders amidst internal panic. International financial institutions begin to suspect the truth and start cashing in Japanese bonds. Rumors of Japan's destruction begin to reach the Japanese public. Onodera reunites with Reiko Abe in a passionate interlude and they impulsively become engaged. 
7. An American scientific group shocks the world when it reports that a major tectonic event will strike Japan within a year. This forces the Japanese government to quickly announce the truth to their citizens. Onodera makes plans to go to Switzerland with Reiko, but Reiko becomes caught in the destruction when Mount Fuji erupts. The Japanese archipelago slowly begins splitting along a north-south crack.
8. Stunned into silence by the Prime Minister's announcement of Japan's impending dissolution, the people of Japan at first simply try to get back to their homes. The Pacific coast begins sinking at the rate of 9 feet per day. Nonetheless, most citizens try to remain calm and put their trust in the government.
9. The members of the UN begin debating approaches and criteria for distributing refugees from Japan amongst their countries.
10. Various national governments offer to help, but they also make plans to take advantage of the power vacuum in the Pacific. Other countries fear the influx of Japanese refugees.
    

SIX: Japan Sinks

1. On April 30th, a massively-unprecedented earthquake strikes the Osaka-Kyoto region. By this time, a rate of half a million Japanese a day are being evacuated from the archipelago. Nonetheless, time runs out as Japan begins breaking up into various pieces.
2. As parts of Osaka go underwater, civil unrest grows in Japan. Yukinaga and his colleagues at Plan D continue to record the break up of the archipelago.
3. Having joined dangerous rescue operations since the loss of Reiko, one day Onodera descends from a helicopter to a mountain top to try and rescue some climbers. One of them turns out to be Mako. While trying to form an escape plan, the volcanoes around them erupt.

EPILOGUE: The Death of the Dragon

• As Japan continues to break up, a ""Japanese Miracle" occurs in which 65 million are evacuated over 4 months. By July, only the Hokkaido airport remains in operation. Tadokoro remains with Watari in Japan until the end. By September, the archipelago has all but disappeared. Yukinaga and the remainder of his team sail to Hawaii in their research vessel. Onodera wakes up to find Mako near him and hazily recalls being rescued by a helicopter. As they continue in a train towards an unknown destination, Mako tells him a story about the birth of her grandmother's people on Hachijo Island. She also tells him that she can no longer see Japan outside the window.
  

Boulle's "Planet of the Apes" (1963)

Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes is better known to English readers as Planet of the Apes (translated from the French by Xan Fielding), and was adapted into a film in 1968 (it was also published in the UK as Monkey Planet). The original novel differs dramatically from the 1968 film in the back half of the narrative, and the personality of the main character is somewhat less nihilistic than the film's protagonist (Taylor). 

The novel is divided into three main acts:

1. A prologue describes the discovery of the following account: In 2500, three men journey to the star Betelgeuse and land on one of its planets. There, they discover humans who are no more intelligent than animals. However, a race of civilized apes captures one of them (a man named Mérou) and brings him back to their city for examination. Mérou tries to convince the apes that he is an intelligent being.
2. After befriending a female chimp scientist named Zira, Mérou successfully proves his intelligence to the apes and becomes a celebrated figure in ape society.
   
3. Based on relics found in an archaeological dig, the apes begin to suspect that civilized man preceded the apes on their planet. When Mérou and his mate Nova give birth to an unusually precocious baby, they begin to fear him and the possibility of mankind returning to its earlier dominance. With the help of his Zira and her fiance Cornélius, Mérou and his family escape back into space and return to Earth. There, they discover that Earth has also been taken over by its apes, just as had occurred on Soror. In a postlude, the readers of Mérou's account are revealed to be apes themselves.

   

   Éditions Julliard 1963

Chapter Synopses

1. PART ONE: While vacationing in a solar sail-driven pleasure craft, two wealthy interstellar tourists come across a message in a bottle floating in the void. They begin to read its contents.
   
2. The narrator, Ulysse Mérou, explains that he and his family are now seeking a new planet to settle on, but that the following account will hopefully act as a warning to whoever discovers it: In the year 2500, a journalist named Mérou, a professor named Antelle, Antelle's assistant Levain, and a monkey named Hector depart on a starship expedition to Betelguese. Due to time-dilation effects, 350 years pass on Earth during the same period as their 2-year long trip (which travels at a near light-speed velocity).   
3. The crew discover an Earth-like planet orbiting Betelgeuse, which they name Soror ("sister" in French). They decide to land on the planet in a planetary launch. While looking for a suitable landing spot, they spot small villages and roads dotting the surface.
4. The launch lands without incident and discovers that the planet has an Earth-like atmosphere. While Hector scampers away into a forest, the explorers discover humanoid footprints near a waterfall.
5. While swimming in the lake, a beautiful girl appears, although she never smiles and only makes incoherent animal-like noises. When Hector appears, she (dubbed "Nova" by the travelers) strangles the chimp to death and then flees.
6. The next day, Antelle's party encounter more human savages, all of whom seem no more intelligent than animals. When the visitors display articles of clothing, the savages flee in terror.
7. The savages soon return in large numbers and tear apart the visitors' clothing, after which they proceed to destroy Antelles' landing craft. Mérou and his friends are then led to a small "camp", where they are forced to create simple shelters out of branches. Nova befriends Mérou, however.
8. The camp is roused into flight when tribal drums, shouting and gunshots are heard. Mérou sees something shocking approaching them.
9. The human savages are rounded up with nets and guns by gorillas wearing sports-hunting gear. Levain is shot, and Mérou is eventually captured in a net.
10. Merou is put into a cage and brought to an ape village where photographs are taken of the gorilla hunters and their victims. Mérou begins to laugh hysterically at the absurdity of the anthropomorphized apes, but the other human savages in his cage immediately force him to stop. However, Mérou is happy to see Nova in his own group.
11. Mérou tries to come to grips with his situation, and theorizes that the men of this planet must have somehow been able to civilize the apes of this world.
12. Mérou is brought into a small town and realizes that the apes are indeed the civilized race here. After he is put into a research compound cage, he tries to introduce himself (in French) to two ape attendants. After their initial shock at the sight of a talking human, they begin to laugh at him.
13. Mérou is visited by a chimpanzee who he eventually learns is named Zira. Although he tries to convince her that he is intelligent, she cannot understand his language and ends up just giving him a lump of sugar.
14. The following day, the apes begin teaching the human captives tricks through conditioning. When Mérou tries to prove that he is a "fast learner", the apes become confused.
15. An elderly orangutan named Zaïus is brought in to observe Mérou's unusual antics. Despite Mérou's best efforts, Zaïus refuses to acknowledge the possibility of the human's intelligence.
16. Nova is put into Mérou's cage, presumably so that the apes can study human mating rituals.
17. Mérou refuses to engage in a sexual display for the apes' study, but when Nova is then paired with another human he becomes enraged. Eventually he acquiesces to the humiliation.
    
18. PART TWO: After a month passes, Mérou finally breaks through to Zira by drawing geometrical figures on a piece of paper, as well as a star map. However, she motions for Mérou to keep this a secret when Zaïus arrives.
19. In two months, Zira learns the basics of French, and Mérou the apes' language. She explains to Mérou that the ape world has three classes: chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas. The chimps theorize that man and ape may have had a common evolutionary link far in the past.
20. One day, Zira brings Mérou out of the compound on a leash and into her car. They drive around the city and eventually reach a park.
21. There, Zira introduces Mérou to her fiance Cornélius, another chimp scientist. She tells Mérou  that Zaïus wants to subject him to brain surgery. However, she has a plan which will hopefully turn public opinion against Zaïus' intentions.
22. Mérou learns that the gorilla race serve as the lawmakers and laborers, the orangutans serve as a conservative political force, and the chimpanzees are the researchers. The apes do research on humans to try to solve the mystery of their origins.
23. Mérou describes the ape civilization to be in a state technologically-similar to that of mid-20th century Earth. He visits a zoo where he spots Professor Antelle, but Antelle seems unresponsive, as his mind has degenerated to that of his cage-mates.
24. During a massive public gathering held in an amphitheater, Mérou is presented as a "bright human" by Zaïus, but nothing more. However, Mérou takes this opportunity to launch into a presentation of his own.
25. Mérou gives a speech (in ape language) describing his journey from Earth to Soror. After the crowd erupts in excitement, he faints.
26. In the ensuing days, simian society begins treating Mérou like a celebrity. However, when he goes to visit Professor Antelle, his old friend continues to act like an incoherent savage.
    
27. PART THREE: Now treated as an equal, Mérou begins working with Zira and Cornélius in their human research compound. One day, Cornélius invites Mérou on a trip to the outlands to inspect some unusual archaeological findings.
28. On the way to the dig (which dates from older than 10,000 years), Cornélius explains to Mérou that he wants to know why the ape civilization had suddenly appeared on Soror 10,000 years ago, and since then has not made any real progress in technology. He wonders if the apes of ancient days might have simply absorbed their science from an "external entity".
    
29. When Cornélius uncovers a clothed human doll which mechanically speaks the word "papa", he becomes very disturbed and evasive. He decides to send Mérou back to the ape city.
30. On the flight back, Mérou wonders if it might be possible that man had preceded the apes, until one day the apes had mutated enough that they were able to begin speaking and learning the ways of man. He remembers visiting an ape stock exchange with very similar attributes to that of a human one on Earth.
31. While recovering from a fever, Mérou begins to think of himself as humanity's "savior" on this planet, destined to help man regain what it had somehow lost 10,000 years ago. Back at the research compound, he learns that Nova is pregnant.
32. Cornélius returns from the dig and informs Mérou that human skeletons have been found, cementing his belief that humans preceded apes on the planet. Mérou believes that his child (from Nova) will be able to speak and thus usher in a return of intelligent mankind to Soror. Cornélius warns him that the ruling council would be disturbed to hear such thoughts.
33. One day, Mérou visits another part of the research compound. He is horrified by the brain surgery experiments done on captive humans (which he knows are done to apes on his own planet).
34. In another room, Cornélius reveals some secret experiments in which he has been able to use electroshock and chemical therapy to prompt a male Soror human to actually speak. Next, he presents Mérou with a similarly-treated woman who is able to recite "race memories" in the voices of individuals in the past. The voices she recites describe how the once-enslaved apes had suddenly gained intelligence and then proceeded to drive humanity back into the stone-age.
35. Nova gives birth. As rumors of Cornélius's radical theories begin to circulate, the apes begin to have fearful misgivings about Mérou. At the same time, Mérou believes that his son will someday usher in the return of civilized man to Soror.
36. A month later, Mérou is informed that his sequestered son has begun to speak, a development which terrifies the apes. Cornélius tells Mérou that Zaïus and his orangutan party plan to imprison his son and then lobotomize Mérou and Nova. However, Cornélius and Zira have come up with a plan to secretly send Mérou and his family into space on a satellite test where he can rendezvous with his abandoned starship, still orbiting Soror. Although grateful, he feels sad to be leaving Zira and to be abandoning his fellow humans on Soror.
37. Mérou, Nova and their young sun (named Sirius) successfully regain the Earth starship and leave Soror. After a year and a half (350 years by Earth time) they land on Earth. However, Mérou is stunned when he is greeted by an inspector who turns out to be a gorilla. The same fate which befell Soror has also happened to Earth during his absence.
    
38. After the two interplanetary tourists have finished reading Mérou's account, they dismiss it as a fabrication and continue on their joyride. The narrative then reveals them to be chimpanzees.

    

    Bizarre Mystery Magazine November 1965

Planet of the Apes Wiki Entry
https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/Artwork_based_on_%27La_Plan%C3%A8te_des_singes%27
Planet of the Apes (BBC Adaptation)
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Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" (1969)

Ace 1969, Diane Dillon and Leo Dillon

Gender Studies

Ursula K. Le Guin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness explores a planet whose inhabitants (descended from mankind) take on a defined gender only once a month. In other words, the people of Gethen live their lives as neutered, androgynous humans for 26 days at a time, with each cycle separated by a brief day-long period where the attributes of male or female gender surface (allowing procreation to take place). In the novel, the implications of this mostly "non-binary" society are explored as a male diplomat from an interstellar human confederation called the Ekumen visits Gethen in the hopes of setting up diplomatic trade relations with the planet's ruling governments. 

Walker & Co. 1969, Jack Gaughan

In order to portray how this clash of gender cultures unfolds, The Left Hand of Darkness speaks from the viewpoints of both the Ekumen envoy, Genly Ai, and Estraven, a Gethen politician. In the first part of the novel the differences between Ai and Estraven lead to gross misunderstandings and distrust. However, as their relationship deepens, they begin to learn to trust one another. Eventually, they begin to love each other - not as sexual partners, but as two members of humanity searching for peaceful relations between their respective peoples. Le Guin also intersperses the dual POV narrative with folk tales, legends, biographical flashbacks and Ekumen scientific reports which serve to deepen additional aspects of Gethen culture (and inform scenes which follow).

Politics: Karhide and Orgoreyn

Although the book's main aim is to portray Ai and Estraven's developing understanding of each other, in the background lies a conflict between two adjacent Gethen nations, Karhide and Orgoreyn. Although the people of Karhide are at a lower technological level then the Orgata and prefer to speak in very ambiguous terms, they are generally a kind people. Orgoreyn on the other hand has a more unified structure and thus can provide more luxuries for its citizens. However, it is also crippled by a council of scheming politicians and has no qualms about putting dissidents into harsh labor camps.

Ace Books 1974, Alex Ebel

Narrative Synopsis:

After spending two years among the people of Karhide, the Ekumen diplomat Genly Ai is finally about to have an audience with its ruler, King Argaven. However, Genly Ai's main supporter, the Karhide prime minister Estraven, suddenly has misgivings about the meeting. Estraven is soon exiled by the King on a bizarre pretext, and Ai's proposal for an interstellar alliance is dismissed as a hoax by Argaven. 

Ai eventually decides to visit Orgoreyn to try forging diplomatic relations with their government, but is caught up in an internal struggle roiling its own political parties, and ends up being sent to a harsh labor camp. Estraven then proceeds to rescue Ai from the labor camp and, in order to evade Orgoreyn law enforcement, takes Ai back to Karhide by way of a long journey through harsh winter conditions. Once in Karhide, Ai uses Estraven's advice to play Karhide's nationalistic fervor against Orgoreyn's, and the first steps towards bringing Gethen into the Ekumen begin. 

Orbit 2009, Tim White

Chapter Synopses:

1. A Parade in Erhenrang: A political envoy named Genly Ai seeks to establish diplomatic trade relations between the "ambisexual" (androgynous) people of Gethen and his own people, the Ekumen (an interstellar confederation developed from humanity). The day before his audience with the nation of Karhide's King Argaven, Ai attends a royal ceremony in Erhenrang, capital of Karhide. Later, Ai has dinner with Argaven's chief advisor Estraven, whom he cannot relate to (and thus distrusts) due to Estraven's genderless nature. Worse, although Estraven has been working for months towards getting Ai an audience with the King, he suddenly announces that he is withdrawing his support, believing that the idea of Karhide joing an interstellar confederation will be too damaging to the paranoid King's own sense of self-worth. Estraven also hints that it might be better for Ai to approach the people of Orgoreyn instead. Upon hearing all this, Ai feels betrayed by the politician and in his confusion misunderstands the meaning of Estraven's hints.
2. The Place Inside the Blizzard: A folk tale: When two brothers are prevented from continuing as kemmerings (mates), one of them, Hode, commits suicide. The other, Getheren, curses the people of his Domain (village). They chase him into the cold north. There, he encounters a ghost version of his dead brother in a blizzard. The white Hode asks Getheren to remain there with him, but Getheren rejects this offer and eventually creates a new identity in the south. When he eventually dies of old age, he lifts the curse on his old Domain.
   
3. The Mad King: Just before his audience with King Argaven, Ai learns that Estraven has been accused of treason and exiled (essentially for his support for joining the Ekumen). During the audience, Argaven expresses skepticism of Ai's propositions and dismisses any serious consideration of aligning with the Ekumen. He also hints that Ai should leave the city. His mission seemingly a failure, Ai decides to journey to an eastern Fastness (religious retreat) to investigate Gethen's seemingly-precognitive Foretellers.

   

   Panther 1973, Colin Hay

4. The Nineteenth Day: A legend: At Thangering Fastness, Lord Berosty asks a Weaver to Foretell the day of his death. The Weaver says Berosty will die on the 19th, but doesn't indicate the month or year. His kemmering, Herbor, asks the Weavers how long Berosty will live. He is only informed that Berosty will outlive Herbor. Later, Berosty kills Herbor for his stupid question and then in remorse hangs himself on the 19th of the month.
5. The Domestication of Hunch: Ai journeys east with a caravan of landships (transport trucks) and eventually reaches Otherhord. There, he meets with Foretellers who predict that in 5 years' time Gethen will have joined the Ekumen. Ai also befriends a Foreteller named Faxe who tries to explain to Ai the value of uncertainty.
6. One Way Into Orgoreyn: When news of Estraven's exile spreads, he is given three days to leave Karhide. The King's cousin Tibe (and Estraven's political foe) sends assassins after Estraven. Estraven barely makes his way to the territory of Orgoreyn by stealing a rowboat. After a period of laying low, he arranges to meet two Orgoreyn diplomats who he is friends with (Yegey and Obsle, both of whom are in a liberal-minded minority party). He tells them that, under Tibe's influence, Karhide is becoming more and more nationalistic, and will soon be able to wage war against Orgoreyn. He also tells them that the Envoy from Ekumen should be taken seriously. 
7. The Question of Sex: An Ekumen Investigator delivers a report describing the sexual habits and androgynous nature of the humanoids of Gethen. She theorizes that their gender-neutrality (22 days out of each 26-day month) may be a factor in their avoidance of wars. She also wonders if harsh conditions for survival on Gethen may also be a deterrent.

   

   Science Fiction Book Club 2004, Bob Eggleton

8. Another Way Into Orgoreyn: When King Argaven becomes pregnant, his hawk-like cousin Tibe becomes Regent. With his new position, Tibe encourages a more nationalistic fervor amongst the people of Karhide, demonizing the Orgata (people of Orgoreyn) for a border conflict at the Sinoth Valley in the north. Ai decides to travel to Orgoreyn in order to approach the leadership there with his mission. When he tries to cross south of the contested territory, he is caught up in a raid. However, once he is identified as the Envoy, the Orgata allow him free passage and Ai quickly reaches Mishnory, the Orgoreyn capital, where he finds the atmosphere much more civilized than in Karhide. At a dinner party held by city politicians (amongst them Yegey and Obsle), he runs into Estraven, and suspects that he owes his warm welcome to the exiled Karhide prime minister.   
9. Estraven the Traitor: Historical background: After a generational romance, a man named Estraven makes peace between his Domain (Estre) and that of its rival Domain, Stok. Due to the compromises made for this alliance, Estraven is called Estraven the Traitor, yet he is still regarded as a respected figure amongst his people.
10. Conversations In Mishnory: Estraven visits Ai, who finds Estraven's presence politically embarrasing and turns him away. Later at another political function, Ai learns that there are many different forces in Orgoreyn vying for power, including the Sarf (the Orgoreyn secret police). However, he makes an impression on them when he tells them that an Ekumen ship is in their star system awaiting his signal to land.

    

    Futura 1981, Tim White

11. Soliloquies in Mishnory: As weeks pass the Orgata council increasingly treats Ai's claims as a hoax and disappointingly no announcements are made to the public concerning his mission (or even his arrival). Estraven advises Ai to have his Ekumen starship land in Orgoreyn in order to encourage the Orgata's cooperation, but Ai refuses such a step without more assurances of success (and safety for his ship).
12. On Time And Darkness: According to Gethen beliefs, the deity/religious figure Meshe has an awareness of all time and space.
13. Down On the Farm: A day after the meeting with Estraven, Ai is interrogated by the Sarf and then taken on a harsh journey to a prison labor camp named Pulefen Farm in the northwest. At the camp, Ai is treated only as another Gethen inmate (but with strange sexual affectations) and given debilitating drugs.
14. The Escape: When Estraven learns that the Orgoreyn politicians have given up Ai to the Sarf (to save their own skins), he immediately embarks on a secret mission to infiltrate Pulefen Farm to rescue the Ekumen Envoy. After deceiving the Pulefen guards, he whisks a drugged Ai away to a hidden cache of supplies hidden earlier in the forest. There, he explains to Ai that he has always believed in Ai's cause, despite Ai's reluctance to trust him.

    

    The Folio Society 2018, David Lupton

15. To the Ice: Ai and Estraven decide to return to Karhide. In order to avoid the Orgata Inspectors (who will arrest them) they decide to go north to the Gobrin ice glacier and then cross eastwards from there. As they approach the ice shelf, Ai works towards suppressing his sense of male pride in the face of Estraven's pragmatism. As his understanding of Gethen gender-fluid society grows, he begins to better understand Estraven's actions and motivations.
    
16. Between Drumner and Dremegole: Ai and Estraven find a passage to the Fire Hills through two active volcanoes. When Estraven goes into kemmer (he takes on a female gender), he asks Ai how the women of his race are different from himself. Ai finds it a difficult question to answer with any certainty.
17. An Orgota Creation Myth: An ancient Orgota myth: One of the first men created by the Gethen ice gods kills all but one of his brothers, who manages to escape. When the murderer goes into kemmer, the survivor returns and they end up becoming the progenitors of mankind. However a darkness lives on in their descendants.

    

    Orbit 2009, Paul Young

18. On the Ice: As the journey across the ice continues, Ai teaches Estraven how to communicate telepathically. The experience leaves Estraven shaken. Later, Estraven tells Ai that if they make it back to Karhide, Argaven will use Ai's mistreatment in Orgoreyn as a way to elevate Karhide's reputation and disgrace Orgoreyn's, at which point Ai should bring down the Ekumen starship immediately (to take advantage of the King's political maneuver). 
19. Homecoming: Ai and Estraven finally reach a small northerly Domain in Karhide. While Ai sends a signal to his Ekumen starship, Estraven's identity is revealed by a traitorous friend and he is forced to flee back to Orgoreyn. Ai accompanies him to the border. Unfortunately, when Estraven races towards the border guards ignoring their orders to halt, he is shot dead.
20. A Fool's Errand: Ai is briefly imprisoned for being caught with an "exile". However, once news of Ai's signal to his Ekumen starship reaches King Argaven, Ai is brought back to Ehrenrang. Tibe is dismissed and the ruling council at Orgoreyn is replaced due to their mistreatment and subsequent cover up of the fate of the Envoy. After the Ekumen ship lands, Ekumen diplomats disperse on the planet to make overtures to the various nations of Gethen. Ai visits Estraven's father and offers to tell him of his son's last great journey.

    

    Harper & Row 1980, Dan Sneberger

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-left-hand-of-darkness

Universal Classic Monster Films (1931-1948)

Universal Pictures turned out many classic "monster" stories in the 1930s and 1940s. Below are posters and capsule plot synopses of the ones which I think most prominently feature science fiction and/or fantasy elements.

Dracula
Frankenstein
Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Mummy
The Invisible Man
The Black Cat
Bride of Frankenstein
Werewolf of London
The Raven
The Invisible Ray
Dracula's Daughter
Son of Frankenstein
The Invisible Man Returns
The Mummy's Hand
Man Made Monster
The Wolf Man
The Ghost of Frankenstein
Invisible Agent
The Mummy's Tomb
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Son Of Dracula
The Invisible Man's Revenge
The Mummy's Ghost
House of Frankenstein
The Mummy's Curse
House of Dracula
Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein 

1931 Dracula
With the help of newly-enslaved Englishman named Renfield, a Transylvanian vampire named Count Dracula moves into a rundown abbey in England. After insinuating himself into high society, he begins preying on some of his new female acquaintances. Soon, a woman named Lucy is turned into a vampiress, and her friend Mina is apparently targeted as Dracula's next victim. Mina' father summonses an expert scientist named Van Helsing who quickly deduces that their new friend Count Dracula is a vampire. Following Renfield's tracks, Van Helsing and Mina's fiance track down the Count to his secret lair in the abbey, where Van Helsing stakes Dracula while the vampire slumbers in his coffin. With the death of Dracula, Mina's transformation into a vampire is averted.

1931 Frankenstein
A scientist named Frankenstein uses electricity to give life to a creature assembled from the remains of various body parts. Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to the scientist), the brain he has been provided with comes from the corpse of a murderer. In any case, the creature's resulting speech and intelligence are impaired, and its horrible appearance causes everyone who encounters it to recoil in fear - it soon ends up murdering several people, either deliberately or by accident. Eventually, it is trapped in a burning windmill by a mob of angry townspeople and disappears in the flames.

1932 Murders in the Rue Morgue
In 1845 in Paris, a mad scientist named Dr. Mirakle has his ape companion Erik kidnap a woman named Camille, intending to alter Camille's blood chemistry (through blood transfusion) in order to create a "missing link" between man and apes. However, Erik ends up killing Mirakle in an attempt to protect Camille from the doctor's injections. Camille's fiance, Pierre Dupin, eventually tracks the ape down and shoots him during a chase on the Paris rooftops. 

1932 The Mummy
In 1921, a mummy (the remains of an Egyptian priest named Imhotep) comes back to life when an unwitting archaeologist reads aloud the Scroll of Thoth. Later, posing as a museum curator named Ardith Bey, Imhotep tries to murder and then mystically-revive a woman named Helen Grosvenor whom he believes to be a reincarnation of his long-dead lover, the Princess Anck-su-namun. When Helen prays to a statue of Isis, lightning destroys the Scroll of Thoth, causing Imhotep to crumble to into dust.  

1933 The Invisible Man
After a scientist named Jack Griffin turns himself invisible with a serum involving the madness-inducing drug monocane, he sequesters himself in a village inn while searching for a cure. As his madness progresses, he eventually goes on a killing spree. The police eventually detect his presence by locating his footprints after a snowfall, and Griffin is killed in a hail of gunfire. 

1934 The Black Cat
A Hungarian named Werdegast arrives at a castle named Fort Marmorus, where he intends to take vengeance on an architect named Poelzig who had betrayed him during the war. A Satanist, Poelzig plans to sacrifice a visiting female tourist in a Satanic ritual. After Werdegast learns that Poelzig has slain Werdegast's daughter (and Poelzig's latest spouse), Werdegast traps Poelzig and begins skinning his nemesis. After allowing the remaining guests to leave the castle, Werdegast blows up the fortress with himself inside.

1935 Bride of Frankenstein
Despite the flames of the burning windmill, the Frankenstein creature survives and resumes its killing spree. A scientist named Pretorius decides to build a mate for the creature with Frankenstein's help. When the newly-reanimated "Bride" sees the creature, she recoils in horror. The creature spares Frankenstein and his wife, but blows up the lab with himself, the Bride and Pretorius still in it.

1935 Werewolf of London
In Tibet, a botanist named Glendon is bitten by a werewolf and is infected. Later, back in London, a mysterious doctor named Yogami tells Glendon that the werewolf transformation can be held off by the Mariphasa blossom. When Glendon realizes that Yogami is the werewolf who had infected him in Tibet, he kills Yogami in a fight over some of the blossoms. Later, Glendon stalks his own wife, but is killed by the police before it is too late.

1935 The Raven
A criminal named Bateman asks a doctor named Vollin to make his face handsome, believing that such a change will remove his psychological penchant for crime. Instead, Vollin disfigures Bateman, and will only make him handsome if he obeys Vollin's orders. During a dinner party, Vollin tries to kill his guests (actually enemies) with Poe-themed torture devices, but Bateman saves them. Angered, Vollin shoots Bateman, but before dying Bateman traps Vollin in one of his own death traps.

1936 The Invisible Ray
A scientist named Rukh contracts radiation poisoning from a meteorite in Africa. His colleague, Dr. Benet, comes up with a drug which will keep him alive if injected regularly - unfortunately the drug also affects the mind. Eventually, Rukh begins killing people with his radioactive "death-touch". When his mother realizes what her son has become, she destroys Rukh's supply of drugs, causing Rukh to soon self-destruct in a ball of flame.

1936 Dracula's Daughter
Dracula's daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska, arrives in London to dispose of her father's body. After this is done she tries to curb her vampirism but fails, and is forced to escape back to Transylvania. When her London lover Garth (a student of Dr. Van Helsing) follows her back to Castle Dracula, she urges him to become her vampire lover. However, before she can bite him, she is killed with a wooden arrow shot by her jealous servant Sandor. Sandor is subsequently killed by a policeman.  

1939 Son of Frankenstein
Frankenstein's son Wolf moves into his father's old castle. He soon meets Ygor, an escaped hunchback criminal who leads Wolf to the Frankenstein creature, who lies in a coma. Intrigued, Wolf revives the creature. However, Ygor begins using it to kill his accusers. After Wolf shoots Ygor, the creature goes berserk until Wolf pushes it into a pit of burning sulphur.

1940 The Invisible Man Returns
When Sir Radcliffe's brother is murdered, Radcliffe himself is arrested for the crime. He escapes prison after Frank Griffin (Jack Griffin's brother) makes him invisible. Racing against time (before the drug drives him mad), Radcliffe discovers the true murderer is his cousin Cobb. Radcliffe causes Cobb to fall from an elevated mining cart, but before he dies Cobb confesses. Radcliffe's visibility is restored when he is given an emergency blood transfusion after being accidentally shot by police.

1940 The Mummy's Hand
A mummy named Kharis is unearthed by an archaeological expedition. However, a priest of Karnak named Andoheb uses tana fluid to revive Kharis, and has it kill one of the explorers. When Kharis later brings back a girl named Marta (the wife of an explorer named Steve) to Andoheb's shrine, Andoheb decides to make Marta his immortal bride with the tana solution. Steve arrives just in time and kills Andoheb with a gunshot. He then destroys the angry mummy with a blazing urn before it can consume more tana fluid.

1941 Man Made Monster
A mad scientist named Rigas makes carnival performer “Dynamo” Dan McCormick into an electrically-charged slave. After Dan commits murder under Rigas' orders, he is sentenced to the electric chair. However, when the switch is thrown, Dan's strength is recharged and he escapes. After killing Rigas, Dan eventually gets caught on a barbed-wire fence and dies when his life-force is drained away.

1941 The Wolf Man
A man named Lawrence Talbot returns to his family home in Europe. While visiting a Roma camp, he is bitten by a werewolf. When he tries to explain his plight to his father, Sir John, the older man doesn't believe him. Later, while hunting for a dangerous wolf with a group of hunters (blamed for Talbot's murders), Sir John encounters his son in werewolf form. He kills the werewolf and is stunned to find it is actually his son.

1942 The Ghost of Frankenstein
After Castle Frankenstein is destroyed by villagers, Ygor sneaks away with the weakened Frankenstein monster to Vasaria to track down Frankenstein's other son, Ludwig. Ygor tricks Ludwig into implanting Ygor's brain into the monster's body. However, due to a mismatch in blood type, the Ygor-creature goes blind, and in a rage destroys the lab. Ultimately, Ludwig and the creature are both sonsumed in the flames.

1942 Invisible Agent
Frank Griffin (grandson of Jack Griffin) is recruited by the military to act as an invisible agent in Germany. There, Griffin befriends a British spy named Maria Sorenson, and works to obtain secret information. Although he nearly falls into a trap set by the S.S., he manages to learn that the Nazis are about to launch a bomb raid on New York. Commandeering a bomber, he destroys the planes before they leave the ground and returns to America with Maria.

1942 The Mummy's Tomb
Andoheb recruits a new disciple, Mehemet Bey, and has him bring Kharis to Mapleton, U.S. in order to have him kill Steve and the other explorers who had defiled Kharis' tomb. Kharis accomplishes this, and then decides to carry off the fiance of Steve's son John. Bey is soon killed by the police in a shootout. Kharis is eventually trapped in a burning house, while John rescues his fiance.

1943 Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
When grave-robbers disturb Larry Talbot's tomb, exposure to moonlight revive the werewolf. After finding himself killing again, Talbot seeks out Malevy, the mother of the Roma werewolf who had bitten him in the first place. Malevy brings Talbot to Vasaria where they hope to ask for Frankenstein's help. Although Ludwig is dead, Talbot revives the Frankenstein creature. Talbot's ambitious doctor friend arrives and promises to use the lab equipment to destroy both Talbot and the Frankenstein monster - however at the last moment, he changes his mind and empowers the monster instead. The werewolf and the Frankenstein monster then engage in furious battle, but both are eventually swept away in a flood when a fearful villager blows up a nearby dam.

1943 Son Of Dracula
A European Count named Alucard (Dracula's son) arrives in the American Deep South. He secretly marries the daughter of a plantation owner, but she is then accidentally shot by Kay's long-time lover Stanley (with a bullet meant for the Count). Kay reawakens as a vampire and visits Stanley in prison, telling him that she intends to make him a vampire as well so that they can be together forever. Stanley escapes prison and kills Alucard by exposing him to sunlight. He then sets fire to Kay's coffin while she slumbers.   

1944 The Invisible Man's Revenge
An unhinged man named Rob Griffin encounters a scientist named Drury, who tries out an invisibility serum on his new friend. When Griffin falls in love with a girl named Julie (the daughter of his rivals the Herricks), he realizes that he must become visible again. In order to accomplish this, he drains Dr. Drury's blood into his own body. However, this treatment soon needs to be repeated, and so he tries to drain the blood from Julie's fiance, Mark. However, Drury's dog arrives and kills Griffin despite his invisibility.

1944 The Mummy's Ghost
Andoheb orders a second acolyte, Yousef Bey, to go to America to try to reunite Kharis with his lost love, Princess Ananka. Meanwhile, in Mapleton, a professor is killed by a roaming Kharis when he tries brewing some tana leaves. Bey soon arrives and brings Kharis to the mummy of Princess Ananka, but his lost lover's mummy crumbles. Bey reasons that her spirit has flown to a new host body, which turns out to be that of an Egyptian student named Amina. Bey and Kharis kidnap Amina, but when Bey decides to take her for himself, Kharis kills him. Kharis then takes the rapidly-aging Amina to the swamp and brings her down with him into the depths.

1944 House of Frankenstein
After a mad scientist named Niemann and his hunchback ally Daniel escape from prison, they soon come across the skeleton of Dracula. After Niemann removes the stake from Dracula's chest, the vampire revives. Niemann has his new ally kill one of his old enemies, but in the ensuing chase the vampire is killed by sunlight. Undeterred, Niemann and Daniel then go to Vasaria where they thaw out Talbot and the Frankenstein monster. Niemann at first promises to help Talbot end his life, but soon becomes obsessed with kidnapping and torturing his old enemies. Also feeling betrayed by his ally (who had promised to fix his hunched back), Daniel attacks Niemann, but is killed by the monster. Meanwhile, Talbot is killed by a silver bullet fired from a young female admirer. When the villagers eventually descend on Niemann's lab, Niemann and the Frankenstein monster are driven into a bog of quicksand.

1944 The Mummy's Curse
Twenty-five years after his last appearance, Kharis is uncovered from a Louisiana swamp. While two Egyptian cultists tends to Kharis, Ananka also soon revives from the drained marsh bed. With her memories in fragments, Ananka joins an archaeological team in the area. Kharis goes on a rampage, killing some locals. Ananka is eventually captured and brought to the cultists' monastery, where she is given tana fluid. The two cultists then get into a fight where one is killed by the other. Kharis kills the remaining cultist in anger and in the process causes the entire monastery to cave in. The archaeologists eventually dig out an old mummy which they identify as Ananka's remains.

1945 House of Dracula
Count Dracula asks a Vasarian scientist named Edleman to cure him of vampirism. Talbot soon arrives and asks to be cured as well. While searching for Talbot after one of his transformations, Edleman discovers a sea cave holding the remains of the Frankenstein monster (as well as Niemann). He brings the monster back to his lab in order to examine it later. However, Dracula has a change of heart about his cure when he falls in love with Edleman's assistant, and reverses a blood transfusion to infect Edleman with his own blood. Edleman then kills Dracula by putting his coffin in sunlight. Later, he successfully performs an operation on Talbot to cure him of lycanthropy, but also undergoes a Hyde-like transformation of his own. Talbot is eventually forced to shoot Edleman, but not before Edleman revives the Frankenstein monster. When the monster goes on a rampage, Talbot sets the lab on fire, destroying everything within.

1948 Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein 
Two baggage clerks (Chick and Wilbur) deliver some crates purportedly containing the bodies of the Frankenstein monster and Dracula to a horror sideshow. Before the owner arrives, Dracula and the monster depart to rendezvous with a doctor named Sandra Mornay at her castle. Mornay intends to place Wilbur's brain in the monster's body so that Dracula can use it as a semi-intelligent slave. Talbot also arrives in America and warns Chick and Wilbur of the danger presented by Dracula. When Sandra decides to postpone the operation, Dracula turns her into his vampire slave. After Dracula kidnaps Wilbur back to Mornay's castle, Chick mounts a rescue with Talbot. During the struggle, Talbot turns into a werewolf and drags Dracula over a cliff into the sea. After the Frankenstein monster kills Mornay, it is set on fire with gasoline as Chick and Wilbur row away from Mornay's castle.