A review by darkenergy
Planet of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin

4.0

I don't know which other editions come with the introduction, but if you can get a hold of what she has to say about the ways in which her approach to writing have and haven't changed as people ask her why she "always" writes about men, it's worth having that context I think. LeGuin points out that Rolery more than anyone else embodies the Taoist attitude of "action through stillness" - contrasted with the wasteful excesses of violence. Although at the same time, she acknowledges that she wrote this before seeing the societal inherent biases that Third Wave feminism exposed.

At any rate, I wouldn't call it her absolute best, but as with 'The Word for World is Forest', there's something refreshing about the story progression, and the potential allegory of alien contact and contrast for our own globalist-nationalist conflict is as relevant as ever.