You should give The Left Hand of Darkness a[nother] try. One of my favorite aspects of the book is that, as the story progresses, the layers of seperation between the narrator and the native people are stripped away; how he gradually drops his air of detatched "science" and begins to see them as fully persons.
There is a fair bit about the Gethens sex/gender, and it's quite political/sociological (all of which drew me in) but there's a beautiful humanistic story that blossoms as the narrative transitions thru its many different stages.
You should give The Left Hand of Darkness a[nother] try.
Lol, literally the one I was thinking of, still have the old paperback copy from before I was teenager somewhere.
I've been trying to get thru Roger Penrose lately, and if I ever make it thru The Road to Reality, Im sure Le Guin is going to feel like a Marvel movie in comparison.