"The word for the World is Forest" by Ursula Le Guin

The next book in the Hainish cycle happens chronologically after 'The Dispossessed' and before all other books. The League of All Worlds has just been formed and the ansible is just starting to get produced. Earth has its own set of colonies where they are pretty heavy handed in exploitation of resources and subjugating or destroying the native races. The same thing happens on New Tahiti, and ocean planet, with mild weather and large islands completely covered in thick forests, something that is worth more than gold to the Terrans as Earth seems to have been completely stripped of any trees or other major vegetation. The Terrans show next to no respect for the natives on New Tahiti, which are 1m tall, covered in green fur and with big black eyes. The emissaries from Hain and Tau Ceti make it very clear that the natives come from the same Hainish stock as any other race in the known universe, and for some reason have evolved further from the base than most of other races on planets seeded by the ancient Hainish. This does not prevent the Terrans from treating them like animals, using them as slave labor, torturing them, killing them for sport, and raping their women which ends in their death. Davison, who is one of the terran officers on New Tahiti is especially brutal and unscurpulous, calling the natives 'Creechees' and propagating 'tough hand' approach for them. He is the stereotypical animal-like soldier that does not want or cannot understand anything beyond brute force, animal pleasure and power play, and reproduction instincts. Le Guin overdid his character somewhat as he is so one-sided, he seems like a caricature, and not a real person.

There is the leader of the colony, the Colonel, who is not as bad as Davison, but overlooks most of his misbehaving in the name of providing the maximum amount of exports to Earth. Here is Raj Lyubov as well, apparently a Russian-Indian (all the races have merged in the Earth's future, and everyone is of brownish color, whites have dissapeared) who is the HILFer, researchign the local people, learns their language and customs and discovers that they are very advanced race in terms of social order with top role of 'Lucid Dreaming' where some trained individuals can dream at will, merging the Dream World and the Real World, both of which have the same reality for the locals.

After some heinous atrocities, mostly lead by Davison, the natives rebel, and although murder and war was unknown to them before, they adopt these concepts from the Terran colonist and use them against them, destroying several camps until all of the human colonies are reduced to rubble and the remaining humans (no females were spared as for the Terrans not to reproduce) are gathered in one place waiting for the ship to come pick them up. When the League learns of all the atrocities committed, proclaims New Tahiti a quarantine zone and forbids any colonization or exploitation of the planet. The ship comes and picks up the remaining humans and the Hainish envoy asks the leader of the local rebellion would they forget the concepts of war and murder after every non-local has left the planet. Sam, as he is called by Terrans when he was their slave, says that they will try to go back to live as they did before the Terrans arrived, but they will never forget murder and war, and it might reoccur.

Le Guin shows her anthropological background in this story, and draws inspiration on many native cultures on our own planet that were destroyed when more advanced civilization, which considers the natives savages and their culture primitive and unworthy, have moved in to exploit resources and bring 'civilization' to the locals. Because of self-righteous individuals who take upon themselves to judge the value of other people and civilization by their own rules and ignorance, unmeasurable harm has been brought upon weaker natives through countless centuries. It is a valuable lesson shown in the book, but it becomes too didactic at times and the character are too cartoonish, so from story-telling perspective is not as enjoyable as some of her other books.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin

This is chronologically the fourth book in the Hainish cycle and happens after the Shing are defeated (somehow) and the Ekumen of 83 worlds is formed. The book details the adventures, problems and successes of Genry Ai, a 'mobile' of the Ekumen, and an envoy to Gethen, to try persuade the governments to join the Ekumen. The gethenians are hermaphrodites which are sexually inactive for most of the lunar month, while only being activated for a few days each month, which period they call Kemmer, and when through hormonal negotiations of willing partners, one becomes female while the other male. Every person on Gethen has a womb and menstrual cycle, is able to both father children and bear them to birth.

Genly is amazed by the social consequences of not having sexes. One is that war is virtually unknown, which Genly thinks is because war comes out of male sexual frustration. Genly is black male from earth, as in the future the white race has disappeared, and the black and yellow races have merged into a brown-black one. He is considered a 'pervert' on Gethen because they cannot understand how can one be sexually capable all the time and still be normal. The Gethenians consider all the other planets and races perverts and don't want much to do with them, if they believe they exist at all. The situation is further complicated by the two main nations on Gethen, Karhaid and Orgoreyn, one being a kingdom and the other a communist-like oligarchy, are bitter enemies and both want the other to take the risk first to make contact with the alien federation. Both countries are on a technological level of approximately late 20 century Earth, but have arrived to that level not through industrial revolution, but through a very slow evolutionary path, as nobody hurries for anything on Gethen.

Genly becomes persona non grata after his main friend Estrevan, the prime minister of Karhaid, is exiled because of political power play, and goes to Orgoreyn, where at first he's accepted with great honors, just to be thrown in a labor camp in the north to die of exhaustion afterward. Estrevan, who escaped to Orgoreyn too, helps him escape and they hike over the huge northern glacier area to go back to Karhaid and form a very strong personal bond. Estrevan is killed when they arrive in Karhaid, but Genly is received by the king and Karhaid enters the Ekumen, which was the goal of Genly's mission.

The book is obviously feminist fiction and tries very hard to dissect the different ways women are subjugated in our own society, by exploring the different traits that Gethenians developed. This detracts from the enjoyment of the book, since at times seems too didactic, but provides for the very in-depth analysis of the Gethenian society and interpersonal relationships, and artifacts like 'shiftgrethor' which can be translated as personal prestige or personal shadow. The possibility and meaningfullnes of divination is also explored in the religion of karhaid and their rituals. Love between sexes, whether same, different or non-existent, is explored at depth and the reader is gently introduced to the concept that sexes are irrelevant for love, but only the human beings matter.

One very annoying and very unrealistic thing on which Le Guin obstinately insists, is that the Ekumen, or any very advanced civilization, will send its envoy(s) alone and completely unprotected, on the mercy of the primitive and sometimes very different occupants of the new planet. This is obviously an inheritance from Le Guin's father who was an antropoligist and vocal for protection of the less-developed peoples around the world whose societies are destroyed when the white men (usually) came and introduced their own society and technology. This she calls 'cultural embargo', however it is preposterous to think any self-respecting star-spanning culture would throw some of its own people (highly trained and intelligent) into the jaws of the lions with no protection, to be imprisoned, tortured, even murdered. That would be extremely unethical for the star society itself towards its own people (i.e. it would require some kind of benevolent kamikaze indoctrination), and although the natives definitely should be protected and introduced gradually to the new society, the first envoys will always be sent with enough power and protection to absolutely guarantee their life and well being - at the minimum.

On the whole, extremely well written book, emotional, intelligent and interesting read.