- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; Reprint edition (Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060512741
- ISBN-13: 978-0060512743
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.2 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,288,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
First published in 1971, Ursula Le Guin's SF novel The Lathe of Heaven combines a sheaf of future possibilities--including an early evocation of global warming--with a parable about wishes that has the terrible clarity of a fairytale.
The uncomfortably gifted George Orr is desperately drugging himself to avoid sleep, because he knows his dreams can change the world. Psychiatrist Dr Haber begins with good intentions of curing Orr, but when he finds he can shape Orr's "effective dreams" and force his own wishes into reality, the lure of power is too much. Though Haber believes he wants only to do good, he's also quick to upgrade himself from obscurity in a windowless office to Director of the prestigious Oregon Oneirological Institute.
During his flawed attempts to create an earthly paradise, we see that each sweeping change makes matters worse. Let's fix over-population: suddenly there's a new past in which humanity was almost destroyed by plague, billions of people are written out of existence, and Haber drinks a toast--"to a better world". Let's fix war: the hapless Orr's dreaming mind can only imagine and create a new threat that unites Earth against outside foes. Let's fix racism: the result is even more painful. As Orr broods:
The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.
In this mad round of poisoned wishes, it becomes necessary to stop. But power-crazed Haber refuses to stop....
Beautifully written, jolting in its moral force, The Lathe of Heaven is one of Le Guin's finest SF excursions. --David Langford --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"A very good book...A writer's writer, Ursula Le Guin brings reality itself to the proving ground."--Theodore Sturgeon"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."--"National Review""Le Guin neatly and eerily conveys the bad-dream civilization which is George's everyday world."--"Washington Post Book World""A brilliant novel about the future."--"Pensacola News""Gracefully developed...Extremely inventive...What science fiction is supposed to do."--"Newsweek""A rare and powerful synthesis of poetry and science, reason and emotion."--"The New York Times"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss. Read the first page
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Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is just amazing. It illustrates abstract concepts vividly, and paints wildly changing pictures of a world with remarkable ease and fluidity. The Lathe of Heaven deals with eastern philosophical concepts of acceptance and self-knowledge. In fact, the title is taken from the Tao Te Ching, and short excerpts from this ancient and provoking work serve to introduce us to the concepts of each chapter. The Lathe of Heaven takes you on a journey with George Orr as he struggles to come to terms with his potential.
Initially, George is simply getting by in the world, struggling to live day by day, despite tremendously powerful dreams which occassionally cause his world to change in uncontrollable ways. Afraid he may cause more harm with these dreams, he seeks out the help of a psychiatrist. Dr. Haber has other ideas, however -- meaning well, although misguided, he attempts to control this power in order to shape reality to his own liking. Things progressively begin to worsen, until the world begins to collapse around them. All the while, George remains the same -- he, who appears weak and controllable at the outset through his accepting personality, is the only one who can cope as reality begins to crumble. What seemed to others a weakness is precisely what gives him strength.
All in all, a beautiful work of science fiction.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a fascinating and relentlessly brilliant SF novel which is completely different from Ursula K. LeGuin's other works. Set in the near future on earth, it's the story of a man whose dreams change reality.
The 'if' world scenarios are a favourite of Science Fiction writiers. Some other classics are Philip K. Dick's 'The Man in the High Castle' and 'the Zap Gun', the Asimov and Arthur C Clarke short stories of people going back to the past and changing the future, and more recently Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. In film there's 'Twelve Monkeys' and for TV there's the much underrated early Dr Who classic 'Inferno'.
The Lathe of Heaven, however, is a completely different take and a very original and compelling solution. In this story, the man's dreams are bizarrely transmitted into new realities. This is just a disturbing personal experience, until he falls into the hands of an unscrupulous psychotherapist.
The ensuing catalogue of disastrous choices — similar to genie-wish stories — opens the door for LeGuin to explore philosophical themes with much greater depth and precision than her Ekumen scenarios do. For example, a dream aspiring to end race hatred results in everyone having the same grey skin colour.
I enjoyed this book immensely. Even if you aren't a fan of LeGuin, the Lathe of Heaven should be a cracking good read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another reviewer suggested this one to me from an enthusiastic mention about Le Guin's writing in one of the Vine Fora (thankyou Diziet)
However...............it may be because as an abstract genre, I'm not particularly drawn to SF - though there are certainly very fine writers working in the genre whose work I do enjoy - Le Guin is one. When alien life forms enter the arena (as they do in The Lathe of Heaven) I find myself losing interest - though the idea of differently evolved societies intrigues me enormously, I struggle with the inevitable descriptions of how another intelligent life form might look, and find it hard to suspend my disbelief.
Which is precisely why two of her other major novels The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness works, for me, quite brilliantly in a way this one doesn't quite.
The Dispossessed posits two adjacent planets (both peopled by homo sapiens), one of whom has been used to 'house' rebellious thinkers - anarchist syndicalists. Here, on a barren planet has grown up a collectivist society. The neighbouring planet has evolved like consumer capitalism gone wild. The individual desire is all. What happens when such oppositions in society and ethics meet - Le Guin is much more interesting in exploring what each type of society has gained, and lost, through its ethical stances, than in just looking at conflict and aggression.
The Left Hand of Darkness is even more intriguing. How would we have evolved if we were a species who 'came into season' for brief periods, but for the rest of the time were androgynes - its a brilliant way to look at gender, sexual politics, and how being a highly, almost permanently sexual ape has shaped our culture.
ooh............and if you are wanting some sort of idea about The Lathe Of Heaven - it explores personal ethics, the seduction of arrogant power, and what happens if it is possible to create the reality of dreams which arise from the unconscious (sleeping) mind
However...............it may be because as an abstract genre, I'm not particularly drawn to SF - though there are certainly very fine writers working in the genre whose work I do enjoy - Le Guin is one. When alien life forms enter the arena (as they do in The Lathe of Heaven) I find myself losing interest - though the idea of differently evolved societies intrigues me enormously, I struggle with the inevitable descriptions of how another intelligent life form might look, and find it hard to suspend my disbelief.
Which is precisely why two of her other major novels The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness works, for me, quite brilliantly in a way this one doesn't quite.
The Dispossessed posits two adjacent planets (both peopled by homo sapiens), one of whom has been used to 'house' rebellious thinkers - anarchist syndicalists. Here, on a barren planet has grown up a collectivist society. The neighbouring planet has evolved like consumer capitalism gone wild. The individual desire is all. What happens when such oppositions in society and ethics meet - Le Guin is much more interesting in exploring what each type of society has gained, and lost, through its ethical stances, than in just looking at conflict and aggression.
The Left Hand of Darkness is even more intriguing. How would we have evolved if we were a species who 'came into season' for brief periods, but for the rest of the time were androgynes - its a brilliant way to look at gender, sexual politics, and how being a highly, almost permanently sexual ape has shaped our culture.
ooh............and if you are wanting some sort of idea about The Lathe Of Heaven - it explores personal ethics, the seduction of arrogant power, and what happens if it is possible to create the reality of dreams which arise from the unconscious (sleeping) mind
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mind Boggling!
I had forgotten how much fun it is to read a book and come out with wave after wave of analysis until I read the Lathe of Heaven. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Miss N. Doshi
A very good read
This is a story about a man - George Orr - whose dreams can change reality, and the psychiatrist who sets out to cure him but, having realised he can control George's dreams... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Steve D
Sensitive and thought-provoking
This is an absolutely beautiful and moving novel, a genuine literary classic, in which Ursula K LeGuin explores the relationship between personal identity and external structure. Read more
Published 15 months ago by David Austin
A well written dystopian tale although the idea is rather incredible
This story tells of an individual who is able to alter the world through dreaming. The psychological stress involved leads him to try to prevent this by the use of drugs which... Read more
Published 17 months ago by John M
Next best thing to PKD's inner space sci fi
This book really made me think of The Cosmic Puppets (Gollancz S.F.) and Time Out Of Joint (S.F. Masterworks) while reading it and I think comparison is apt. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Lark
The best novel that Philip K Dick never wrote
Dick himself had nothing but praise for Le Guin's tribute to his best work of the 60s, in which she takes familiar Dick elements - alternative worlds, drug-induced paranoia,... Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2009 by Bill
Good Read
Not a bad effort from Le Guin but not her best. This won a hugo or a nebula (I forget) which was probably fair for the time of publication. Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by L. Bentley
Prescient
An amazingly prescient novel, given that is was written in 1971. The subject matter is contemporary, the characters are finely drawn and the story is unsettling, but ultimately... Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2009 by Glaucon
Very Good
George Orr has a gift/curse. When he sleeps, his dreams change reality.
This is the central theme of the book. Read more
This is the central theme of the book. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2008 by TheMightyAlgernon
Beware megalomaniacal psychiatrists....
The Lathe of Heaven introduces us to one of the most genuinely understated heroes in science fiction. George Orr is a man whose dreams alter reality. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2006 by A. Morley
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