I picked this book with no real expectation. It’s from Ursula K. Le Guin, so it looked like a very safe bet.

What is it about ?

Anyone with a passing knowledge of Star Trek will recognise the story has one of a First Contact. An Envoy is sent, alone, on a planet newly classified as advanced enough to join the United Federation of Planets Ekumen and tries to convince the local government to do so. Of course, it doesn’t go according to plan and he ends up being banished, jailed and hiking through more than a thousand kilometers of ice.

Oh, and beyond this first contact story line, the main topic is gender.

Final word

It was a pleasant read. I had a hard time getting into pace given the number of local words used way before being defined but once this put aside, the story was fine. Far from being my favorite, but I’ll happily get back to it in a few years.