Shevek is great -- maybe one of Le Guin's best characters, ever, and one of my favourites, along with George Orr. But TD is spoiled for me because the female characters seem all wrong -- Takver is spirited but just disappears into pregnancy and family, Vea is a 'body profiteer,' and let's not even get started on Rulag the Cold Mommy Bitch. There's the brilliant and overlooked female physicist Shevek studies under, but she's minor and I think she dies. The book is so well-written and well-structured and Shevek's story is so engaging I can enjoy it while reading it, but it leaves a bad aftertaste in my brain, sort of.