LeGuin uses this collection of short stories about a fictional alien slave society, and its process of revolution and liberation, to carefully and compassionately draw the contours of an opressive society, the multitudinous lines on which opression is drawn, how it is physical, mental, social, how it infects your love, your body, your very being, and also the beauty and joy and struggle of trying to free yourself and your society. A tough and challenging books, with sexual assualt, death, torture, but a hopeful and compassionate picture of people and their struggles in the face of the evil of each other.