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teabrewer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Sexism, Misogyny, and Classism
Moderate: Xenophobia, Suicide, and Gun violence
Minor: War, Incest, Homophobia, Miscarriage, and Transphobia
acemummerz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Torture, Deportation, Death, Gun violence, and Physical abuse
Minor: Violence, Torture, Child death, Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, War, Suicide, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Incest
brassmonkey's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Incest
Moderate: Grief and Violence
Minor: Homophobia and Misogyny
itsnicholaslashay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Grief
_david_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The book successfully presents multiple perspectives, with the main character questioning his own ideas and cultural norms after engaging with Winter's people. What stands out is how Winter and its countries aren't portrayed as utopias nor lesser places than earth. They're not good or bad, just different, with their own moral grey areas. Even the two countries that are shown in the book have big cultural differences. Eventhough gender is a significant theme and the first thing you'll likely learn when looking up the book, the core focus revolves around learning to respect and collaborate with another culture. The way gender is represented in the book is in a world that shows the what-if scenario of a society where gender (or sexuality) has no impact on people's role in it.
The only aspect I wish were different is that 'neutral' pronouns and other terms are male to the reader. Perhaps it highlights the flaws of the main character and his default way of thinking. But I still found it odd.
Graphic: Deportation, Police brutality, Confinement, Grief, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Incest, Suicide, and Animal death
Minor: Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Cursing, Incest, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Sexism
arcturus_b's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, War, Grief, Police brutality, and Misogyny
bookishperseus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I did keep reading it because there was a small interest as to what would happen, even though this book is following what could be considered a 'usual every day life'.
Towards the end, I found the final 3 or 4 chapters actually quite interesting. Not something I'd read again, but glad I finished it!
Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and Violence
Minor: Misogyny, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Violence, Body shaming, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Child death, War, Chronic illness, Deportation, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Rape, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Xenophobia, and Confinement
scifi_rat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Prose: 4.7★
Pace: 4.5★
Concept/Execution: 5★/5★
Characters: 5★
Worldbuilding: 5★
Ending: 4.5★
Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Torture, Xenophobia, and Sexism
Minor: Violence, War, Blood, Miscarriage, and Suicide
jodar's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This SF novel is about the first contact by a single envoy (the MC) to an icy planet (Winter) inhabited by a human species unique in their sequential hermaphroditism. The envoy comes from a benign, intergalactic ‘cooperative’ consisting of scores of planets who over thousands of years have made contact across a human diaspora from long ago.
Le Guin here focuses, as is typical, on social, personal and political themes. Notably here, the MC strikes cultural misunderstandings in both directions, often without realising till later on that a misunderstanding has occurred. The envoy gradually learns, with the help of a key ally in Winter and after considerable physical suffering, how to approach the cultures of Winter effectively. We also read events from the perspective of the MC’s ally.
Originally written in 1969, the novel has elements of the cold war, with ideological differences between states, one of which is essentially communist and has secret police and brutal prisons reminiscent of the Soviet Union. Le Guin also, as often, brings in eastern thought, such as yin and yang, deep meditation and theology-free religious life. Though to me there are also shades of the Judeo-Christian story of prophets coming to a people from ‘another place’, there the spiritual realm, here the intergalactic cooperative. These political, religious and interpersonal/sexuality threads are teased out in an interweaving, complex way, which is one of Le Guin’s fortes. Nothing didactic, but a lot to mull over by the reader.
I read this first in November 1985 and I hugely enjoyed this challenging, but wonderful novel again.
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Death, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Miscarriage
pomegranatepanacea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Grief and Sexual content
Minor: Incest and Pregnancy
Minor content warnings are mentioned in passing in the novel.