This was a much more meh read in the series for me. It’s very talk-y and anthropological to the detriment of character. Some of the weakest character and plot in this one. I’d also say the ideas are less subtle, it’s more didactic.

However, Le Guin is still a lovely writer on a sentence level. And I will say that, as a librarian, when Sutty visits the book cave, I was so happy