What a treat, this timeless classic - a sole alien envoy on a foreign planet, interstellar politics and diplomacy, survival in hostile environments both literal and figurative. What intrigued me most about this book is the gender structure of the planet we find ourselves on: The locals are ambisexual; they are genderless most of the time and for a few days of each month, they temporarily assume male or female characteristics, and only then engage in any kind of sexual behavior including procreation.

So I expected a wild ride through the sociology and politology of this planet that is different and similar to our Earth at the same time. What I got was an interesting book, certainly, but much slower-paced than I had anticipated, with much less discovery of the gender relations than I hoped. Lots of the interesting things happen "between the lines" of dialog between our protagonists, the alien envoy and his local contact/friend/counterpart. This was a bit too subtle for my mood at the time of reading, and I kept wanting more.

Another thing that bugged me was the consistent use of "he" as a pronoun for the usually genderless people of this planet - this threw me off every time it came up, and sort of ruined the whole premise for me. Fortunately this very fact is discussed in the prefaces of my edition of the book and I understand the reasoning behind it - nevertheless, decades after the book came out, I am of a different opinion.

Read this book for its qualities as a maybe not-so-timeless classic - you won't regret it.