The Left Hand of Darkness

Tales of Earthsea mystified and delighted me when I was in primary school, but I didn't think I'd find The Left Hand of Darkness equally engaging at 31.

The politics, relationship/s, gender commentary, and pacing were all chef's kiss, and the interspersed folk tales/legends were lovely little treats.

I'm giving Le Guin the benefit of the doubt with regards to the narrator's frequent anthropologically-flavoured misogynistic remarks. Genly Ai is a representative of a (our) patriarchal culture; it's precisely these biases that the ambisexual Gethians provide a foil for (in spite of the persistent use of male pronouns).