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I am in furious agreement with the opinions of others. I found the first section quite tedious, but I loved the latter half of the book. Things really picked up for me when Genly was arrested, and I thought the building of the relationship, the growth of understanding between the Genly and Therem/Estraven, their empathy and love, was wonderful.
Interestingly, I read this book many years ago, and it was the relationship that I remembered about it, and caused me to rate it very highly. I had completely forgotten all the tedious world-building stuff of the first half. So my apologies to Catlady if you are still reading - I said it didn't have that stuff in it because I genuinely didn't remember it at all. Now I'm unsure whether it is something that Le Guin dropped in later books, or if it is there and I have forgotten it. I must have a look when I have time.
To finish this post on a positive note, another thing I loved was the references to Taoism. Indeed, it led me to get my copy of the Tao Te Ching off the bookshelf and I am currently rereading it.
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