It's a story. More fantasy than science-fiction. I had a time piecing together what the events in the first part of the book actually meant with regards to the story. I had to read someone else's synopsis to then realize, "oh! That's what happened!" I'm glad I'm starting here with Le Guin. Her works can only get better, I assume.

I plan on reading more of the Hainish to at least get to the book I'd purchased first, The Left Hand of Darkness.