There are some really wonderful, mind-cracking stories in here. LeGuin's anthropological and sociological insight on fine display. ( )

A satisfying mix of stories, some disturbing, some thought provoking, some funny, and some I did not understand and will have to read again. ( )

This collection of short stories was assembled a few years after the author's "The Wind's Twelve Quarters", which I remember as being uniformly wonderful, although it's been many years since I've read it. Here there was some unevenness, I won't say of quality, but at least in how much I enjoyed each piece.

Nearly every story has a definite Science Fiction or Fantasy bent, which isn't really surprising. What did surprise me was that two of my three favorites ("Gwilan's Harp", and "Two Delays on the Northern Line") aren't SF at all, although their settings contain definite SF elements. My other favorite was the title story, which I found beautiful, sad, and unexpected.

Several themes occur multiple times throughout the collection. Several stories are built on the notion of animals having a good deal of intelligence, perhaps equal to (although different from) that of humans. This is tied up with an exploration of the difficulty of inter-species communication. Other stories examine transformations, by turns macabre and moving. Still more consider the relativity of perception, adaptation to environment, and evolution.

I suppose my biggest criticism of the stories as a group is that some of the "science" on which some stories are based is so wildly implausible as to be distracting (examples would probably constitute spoilers, so I'll refrain). I found it necessary to really embrace my suspension of disbelief in order to find enjoyment in those pieces. Still, Le Guin is a wonderful writer, and I'd certainly recommend the collection overall to anyone who's enjoyed her other works.
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I didn't love all the stories in this collection equally, but damn. Ursula K. LeGuin is a genuis. ( )

Global politics
sisters doing for themselves
men with the wrong smell. ( )