I liked it very much.

It is a very old Sci-Fi novel, published in 1969, and some things may be obsolete, but the relationship between the protagonist and the idea of a human-like civilisation trying to connect markets in the galaxy, is not foreign. The Ekumen, founded by the Hainish people.

The progragonist is a black man from the earth how has travelled years to get to Winter, or Gethen for the locals, a hostile planet where the inhabitants are asexual, all alike. Every year or so the get into kemmer, a month where masculine of femenine attributes are acquired, seemingly randomly, and they have a drive to sex. When they are not in kemmer they are in somer.

“The king is pregnant” is a shocking phrase. Anyone can be pregnant and anyone can bear children. Children are brought up by the group.

It is considered the first feminist novel.