Having really liked Lathe of Heaven (it would make s great play) I was really looking forward to this book. It comes very highly recommended on the Internet but it just fell flat for me. Imagining a world without genders was an interesting thought experiment that didn't get explored with the depth that I would have liked. Much more time was spent on the struggle to survive the planets harsh winter. I suppose that was the point; the universe is hard to survive for all humans.