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waxwwing'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? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Incest, and Violence
alsira98's review
4.5
Graphic: Death and Gun violence
Moderate: Incest, Violence, and Xenophobia
arborapollonis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Death, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Miscarriage
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
amaya_jam's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Trafficking, Vomit, and Slavery
Minor: Child death and Pregnancy
pearrots'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
4.25
Moderate: Death, Gore, and Drug abuse
Minor: Incest, Suicide, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, War, and Sexism
scifi_rat's review
- 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
ka_cam's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Misogyny
Moderate: Pregnancy
seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Homophobia
Minor: Incest and Pregnancy
jodar'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
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