about 21 days. Then, on schedule (but not simultaneously) they develop one or the other of their sexual states. They have no choice, nor pre- dictability, as to whether it is to be male or female this month. However, if two are closely attached to one another, the second one tends to develop the opposite role from his partner, for the five days of sexual phase. If there is no pregnancy, all revert to neuter for another 22 days, but if the female has conceived, she is stuck in the female role for about 15 months. (I should regard that as a serious risk, but contra- ceptives are available, and no one seems to mind, the first few times anyway). Geneologists have a BIG job on this planet! Fortunately, monogamous marriage is the norm on Gethen.

The story is told alternately by the Envoy (the only ordinary human on the planet) and a Prime Minister who sacrifices his career to further acceptance of the Envoy's offered trade agreement. The planet is essentially in a state of late 19th century civilization, but has become static due to internal conflicts and traditions tend to block any change. Much of the action results from the natives' varied reactions to the tradition-breaking proposition from the Envoy, and his natural enough difficulty in accepting the fact that he is not dealing with men, nor women, but something in between.

The "in between" is very well done, indeed, and almost defies descrip- tion in a short review. The Prime Minister, the mad King who orders him exiled, the rather totalitarian officials in the country in which they both seek refuge, and all others he encounters, show the same semi- feminine preference for indirect action, intrigue and mystification. On the other hand, they can be, unpredictably, quite manly in the best sense of that equivocal word. The Envoy does not really get the emo- tional picture, despite his intellectual knowledge of the situation, until he and the Prime Minister are making a dangerous return to the first country across the polar icecap. It takes over a month, and for a few days the "man" to whom he has entrusted his life turns into a very attractive female. They resist the temptation to turn the friendship that has grown between them into something more— and less but the Envoy has felt, at last, something of the forces that motivate these strange people. If only he had been a TV, it would have been much easier or would it? I think so; in the Envoy's words: "I had been afraid to give my trust to a man who was also a woman." That is probably the basic attitude of the "straight" people towards us. On the other hand, it might take a bisexual to understand the Gethens, and that is outside my department.

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