I've only read "The Left Hand of Darkness". It's a very well written book, but it didn't emphasize enough technology/science/engineering for me to consider it even soft science fiction. I guess she's doing the work of expanding the scope of what technology could be used in science fiction. I'm not sure that's super useful, since by her definition, almost every work of fiction will involve technology.
Now I want to write a science fiction story where the core technology is never written about explicitly and can only be inferred from its effect on the characters :P
It takes place on another planet, and isn't alien biology "science" speculation, enough?
Besides, it's not even her best work.
Looking forward to reading your story! You might consider Ted Chiang.
I kind of disagree, but also, I guess, who cares if it’s sci fi or not? Is it a good story that matches your tastes? Then great. The bookstores lump all the “speculative fiction” stuff together, anyway, and I don’t usually look for my next book by genre.
I think you have a misapprehension of the genre here; science fiction isn't 'fiction with lots of science in it'; it's fiction that deals with potential future possibilities [1], and--deeper than that--fiction which uses those possibilities to explore explore current society/ideas.
There's no requirement to centrally feature technology, and it would be a weaker genre if there was.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction