Fills in some spackling around the Hainish Cycle
4 stars
These stories didn't stick with me as much as LeGuin's more famous works, but I wish I'd read them earlier (also the order suggested by the author) as they seem to set a world-building foundation for the Hainish Cycle (not a term the author likes to use, as she considers them more loosely connected), and as they are written earlier they both set a mood and it's just interesting to see how an author's style develops.