In all my years as a feminist scifi fan I had some how never read any of Le Guins work. This short story collection was my first - which is an admittedly odd place to start. It was primarily dictated by what was available at the library. Many of the stories were more about culture than space travel but then that’s always been the draw of really good science fiction. I was startled by how often she has a significant focus on sex and sexual acts, but again, that’s a key part of culture.

The the final story, Paradises Lost, is almost a quarter of the whole book and was my favorite. It’s the most space focused, but really I loved it as a fascinating exploration of generational space travel.

The other story that most stuck with me was Solitude. Not so much in its plot, but in her exploration of the idea that our understanding of other cultures is so deeply narrowed by our own personal histories and understanding. That the practices of other species can’t always be made analogous to our own just to make them easier to understand - we may be entirely unable to conceptualize them.