Rocco
Read this as part of a college class. I absolutely loved the layered storytelling, which I felt is a strength of sci fi storytelling when dealing with social issues/commentary.
Read this as part of a college class with Bloodchild by Octavia Butler. Both of these stories are quite remarkable. This one in particular really challenges and makes you consider real world society in comparison to what we see in the story.
I long expected one of the Earthsea books to be my first Le Guin read (they've been on my want to read list for a long time), but I am glad this one was it in the end.
-Potential spoiler for those who haven't read?-
First I've had a chance to read this novel and I somehow have managed to avoid hearing about what this story is about. Part of me expected the dinosaurs to fill up the entire plot line after they reached the plateau, I didn't expect this to story to swerve into a telling of a battle of an indigenous people and anthropoid ape-men.
This story is definitely a product of its time, with instances of racism and sexism towards various characters. On a positive note, there's quite a bit of science related to botany and zoology that I ended up going to Wikipedia to read up on as I read this story.
Overall, this story reminds me of several others where the adventure is the main focus and not the action (though this is obviously present) and I can appreciate stories like that.