Mixed reaction to this one - the world building, especially the alien culture, but also the recognizable-yet-different human culture were brilliant, and kept me sustained. However, the interaction between the two - especially the moral/economic discussions and parallelisms - failed to engage me.
But I'd rather have flawed genius than flawless competence, especially in hugo candidates, and this certainly falls under the first category (of course, it's in the running against Exhalation, which has equal or greater genius, but, in my opinion, significantly smaller flaws. But it's head and shoulders over the other three stories).