I have mixed feelings about the book. Like a lot of speculative fiction writers of the 60s and 70s, Le Guin freely invented words and names for her alien civilization. I've always found a large invented vocabulary a little distracting. It's a problem I've always had with certain classics of the genre.
It's beautifully written, though, and the main character manages the opposite of Louis Wu (from Niven's "Ringworld") - he becomes more and more interesting as the novel progresses.
Here's a beautiful passage from the book. The main character has been taken by the local secret police, along with a couple of dozen others.
"There was kindness. I and certain others, an old man and one with a bad cough, were recognized as being least resistant to the cold, and each night we were at the center of the group, the entity of twenty-five, where it was warmest. We did not struggle for the warm place, we simply were in it each night. It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give."
I have GOT to make a poster of this. Also, I wonder if the big emotional speech from "V for Vendetta," the movie*, was intentionally swiped from the above passage.
Anyway, I'll be posting more when I'm done, I'm sure.
* I really don't remember if any version of that scene even exists in the comic. Been a very long time since I read it.
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