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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781416556961 ISBN: 1416556966 Label: Scribner Manufacturer: Scribner Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 192 Publication Date: April 15, 2008 Publisher: Scribner Studio: Scribner Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: 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 Product Description: In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes. The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity's self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Not a book to be read before bedtimeA coworker recommended I read some of Le Guin's work, and with how many books I recommend, I feel generally compelled to read recommendations. This novel started out following my normal fiction interests-dystopias. It seemed like this was going to be a good psychiatrist dystopia, which was great because aside from 12 Monkeys, I don't think I've ever seen or read a psychiatric dystopia. Haber was an interesting character, a typical researcher who convinces himself that what he's doing ... Read More Rating: - Sci-fi with a humanistic purposeA someone who claims to not be a fan of sci-fi, Le Guin manages to keep me in the fold. Having read Walking Away from Omelas in grad school and more recently The New Atlantis, I was intrigued by Le Guin's approach to writing. She infuses sci-fi with a strong literary syle and an interest in ethics and humanism. The result in The Lathe of Heaven is a book that offers a sci-fi, dystopian theme as well as an intelligent comment on the human condition. Fans of the genre, as well as others, will be entertained ... Read More Rating:  - Accessible, wide-ranging, and opens the doors to many new topics and genres. Very highly recommendedGeorge Orr has the ability to dream things into being, changing reality smoothly and seamlessly into what he creates in his dreams. Scared by this power, he takes drugs to stop his dreams and soon ends up in mandatory sessions with a dream-specialist therapist who promises to help him--yet reveals that he has his own plans for George and his effective dreams. Unlike George, who did not want to change reality, the psychiatrist Haber has no qualms changing reality to serve what he views as the greatest good. ... Read More Rating:  - Superlative conception; inadequate execution...Like its protagonist (Dr. Haber), this novel ultimately fails due to the paucity of imaginative means that are brought to bear in pursuit of its conceptually magnificent ends. And, unfortunately, in art, as one of the characters puts it: "All we have is means." In any case, a very charming meditation on the nature of reality and the mind's place in it - announced by the jellyfish/ocean allegory in the opening paragraphs - disintegrates, like Dr. Haber's attempts at remaking the World, into an incoherent and ... Read More Rating: - Introducing: Heather LeLacheYou can read all the other reviews to learn why this is a great and enduring SF classic. I'm among the novel's many passionate fans, both for LeGuin's introduction of a powerful concept, her engrossing plot development, and her brilliantly right-sized characterization. Others have abundantly commented on the conflict between George Orr and Dr. Haber, and they are generally on target. So I'll confine my remarks to the novel's third principal character, so disregarded that only one or two reviewers ... Read More 
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