On the planet Borthan, it is not merely a breach of etiquette to use the pronouns “I” and “me,” but a violation of the Covenant formed by the colonists from Earth who first settled the planet. Further, opening one’s self to vent or share your troubles is only allowed with your assigned bond brother or bond sister or in a private session with a “drainer” (a priest). The Covenant forbids anything resembling self-indulgence or self-aggrandizement. 

Nobleman Kinnall Darival abides by these regulations with the strictest discipline—until an Earthman named Schweiz arrives on Borthan and questions these cultural mores. Kinnall is all too happy to answer, until Schweiz presents him with a drug exported from the jungle continent of Sumara Borthan. Reluctantly, Kinnall takes the drug along with Schweiz and finds himself transformed by the experience and willing to cast off the stifling rules of the Covenant that has kept Borthans socially isolated from one another. 

Kinnall adopts an evangelical mission to spread the drug as far and wide as possible and to usher in a new era of liberation, but he finds himself fighting an uphill battle that puts his life in jeopardy across the entire planet. 

A Time of Changes won the Nebula Award in 1971 and was nominated for the Hugo and Locus awards in 1972. The story is masterfully told from the first person POV of the protagonist Kinnall Darival. Most of the first six chapters are an info dump of introducing the character (the second son of the king of his country) a few adventures and memories from his youth, and the geography of his planet. Once past that, the story moves at a solid pace. Robert Silverberg, one of my favorite writers of his time, does a brilliant job of building this alien world and its culture while also delving into Derival’s interior and exterior struggles against the customs of his society, successfully making him a sympathetic hero.