this seemed like two different books. the first half (genly arriving) and the second half (estraven and genly on their epic adventure). I didn't care for the first half and found it hard to keep track in the interview style chapters. who's talking? what year/month/day are we in? which country? the second half, monotonous as it was, was- at least - straightforward. overall, this book was okay. the scope seemed so much bigger than this novel, you could tell you were missing pieces of a series... it didn't stand alone very well. but it did kinda entice me into other elements of the universe...what happens with genly's signal? i wouldn't really recommend this to most readers, it's a niche. but having read it, it was okay. I can appreciate the efforts leguin went to, to make us feel as a stranger in a strange land would. I didn't like that the preface/intro said something like 'by the way this is just, like, our opinions, man, so take it with a grain of salt because it's just peoples' observations.' k. kinda discounts the whole story. I also hoped the foreign planets and people would be more remarkable (ice plateaus, androgynous humanoids) but I suppose if genly has to survive among them, he can't stick out so bad or be physically unable to live in their elements. still. kinda took a few shortcuts there.