At the beginning I made the mistake, to read this book as a story of power struggles, like I would read Game of Thrones. Things are different here, I believe "A Left Hand of Darkness" tries to strike a delicate balance between two goals : unfolding the narrative of the story and describing very completely, through various aspects, the world of Winter.

What I find particularly enjoyable is that, as you get to know better how it all functions, the goals and strategies of the characters become logic when they wouldn't necessarily have seemed so at the beginning. However the balance IS delicate, and even though I read it fairly quickly, I could feel some stretches in the story.

Overall, this is a story far more developped than the first three stories of the Hainish Cycle, and very enjoyable if you're not expecting a tense political thriller.