This is the most recent of LeGuin's novels in the Hainish Cycle (I think), and it seems the most closely tied to our recent history here on earth. It involves a Terran, from the near future, working as an Ekumen observer on a planet, Aka, that was first visited by outsiders only 70-something years earlier. Aka has advanced rapidly since then, but it has recently radically restructured it's social and political systems into a rigid, consumption-based society -- or it's trying to, anyway.

Sutty, the observer, sees many parallels with recent violent fundamentalist movements back home, and is sensitive to many of the issues on this new world that she unexpectedly gets to explore. Spending time away form the political centers, she gets to know the locals and their unique way of describing, and inscribing, their world.

Written in Le Guin's clear yet dream-like style, this story involves the subtleties of language and culture, hiking in mountains, censorship and libraries -- all things that drew me right in. I love how this book seems to fit so seamlessly into the universe she's described, and the character of Sutty is one of my favorite so far in the Hainish Cycle.