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The Lathe of Heaven

AUTHOR: Ursula K. Le Guin
ISBN: 0060512741
SHORT DESCRIPTION: George Orr is a man who discovers he has the peculiar ability to dream things into being -- for better or for worse. In desperation, he consults a psychotherapist who promises to help him -- but who, it soon becomes clear, has his own plans for...

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	Le Guin Ursula K

Editorial Review

The Lathe of Heaven
- Book Review, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Amazon.com
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of science fiction's greatest writers. She is also an acclaimed author of powerful and perceptive nonfiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. She has received many honors, including six Nebula and five Hugo Awards, the National Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Newbery, the Pilgrim, the Tiptree, and citations by the American Library Association. She has written over a dozen highly regarded novels and story collections. Her SF masterworks are The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), The Dispossessed (1974), and The Lathe of Heaven (1971).

George Orr has dreams that come true--dreams that change reality. He dreams that the aunt who is sexually harassing him is killed in a car crash, and wakes to find that she died in a wreck six weeks ago, in another part of the country. But a far darker dream drives George into the care of a psychotherapist--a dream researcher who doesn't share George's ambivalence about altering reality.

The Lathe of Heaven is set in the sort of worlds that one would associate with Philip K. Dick, but Ms. Le Guin's treatment of the material, her plot and characterization and concerns, are more akin to the humanistic, ethically engaged, psychologically nuanced fiction of Theodore Sturgeon. The Lathe of Heaven is an insightful and chilling examination of total power, of war and injustice and other age-old problems, of changing the world, of playing God. --Cynthia Ward

"Le Guin neatly and eerily conveys the bad-dream civilization which is George's everyday world."

From AudioFile
This book illustrates why Le Guin has become one of the most distinctive voices in American science fiction. The premise here is that some poor slob discovers that whatever he dreams becomes reality when he awakes. He's seized upon by a megalomaniacal shrink who uses him to make the world a better place. Only things keep going wrong. Susan Omallie does a mediocre job with this material. Towards the end, one occasionally hears vocal fatigue in the form of dry mouth. There's a line or two that somebody forgot to edit out. Still, the material is strong enough to carry her through all nine sides. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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Book Review

The Lathe of Heaven
- Book Reviews, by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Lathe of Heaven

ANNOTATION

Vibrantly repackaged in a stunning new format, this classic science fiction novel offers "a rare and powerful synthesis of poetry and science, reason and emotion" (The New York Times). In the year 2002, George Orr discovers his dreams can--and do--change the world. 176 pp. Targeted ads.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

George Orr is a man who discovers he has the peculiar ability to dream things into being -- for better or for worse. In desperation, he consults a psychotherapist who promises to help him -- but who, it soon becomes clear, has his own plans for George and his dreams.

The Lathe of Heaven is a dark vision and a warning -- a fable of power uncontrolled and uncontrollable. It is a truly prescient and startling view of humanity, and the consequences of playing God.

FROM THE CRITICS

Theodore Sturgeon

A very good book...A writer's writer, Ursula Le Guin brings reality itself to the proving ground.

Newsweek

Gracefully developed...Extremely inventive...What science fiction is supposed to do.

National Review

Profound...Beautifully wrought...Her percetions of such matters as geopolitics, race, socialized medicine, and the patient/shrink relationship are razor sharp and more than a little cutting.

Washington Post Book World

Le Guin neatly and eerily conveys the bad-dream civilization which is George's everyday world.

New York Times

A rare and powerful synthesis of poetry and science, reason and emotion. Read all 7 "From The Critics" >

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